[Bloquez l'empire!] Report on People's Commission Public Hearings

[mfoster at web.ca]

Three days of democracy
Report on People's Commission Public Hearings
21-23 April 2006, Montreal

** PHOTO ESSAY: gallery.cmaq.net/peoplescommission **

** Commissioners' report of findings and recommendations
is due on 6 June. **

For three days, the People's Commission on Immigration Security Measures
held Public Hearings at a community centre in Montreal's St-Henri
neighbourhood. The first popular commission of inquiry to take place in
Quebec, it was set up to look into the injustices and abuses inflicted on
immigrants in the name of national security, and to offer recommendations
for change and action.

Under immigration 'security' measures, non-citizens are denied their rights
to a fair trial, to protection from arbitrary detention and to protection
from torture. Security certificates and similar policies raise serious
questions about how the principles of equality, liberty, presumption of
innocence and security of the person are practised in Canada. They increase
the power of government officials over individuals and raise important
questions about the future direction of our society.

The nine Commissioners, all anchored in communities who have
felt the impact of racist 'security' measures (bios of the Commissioners:
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx/commissionners.php), took turns questioning the
thirty witnesses who appeared before the Commission during the Hearings.

The Hearings took place during an escalation in a land defense at Six
Nations (http://sisis.nativeweb.org/actionalert/index.html). With news of
potential military intervention, one of the Commissioners, Kahentineta Horn,
a Mohawk elder, Kahnawake, was unable to participate fully in the Hearings.
However, the situation only
served to highlight the context of colonialism which frames Canadian
immigration policy.

The witnesses, coming from Hull, Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Sherbrooke, as
well as Montreal, brought a wealth of experience and expertise to
the hearings. The Hearings opened with Alex Neve, Secretary-General of
Amnesty International Canada, Anglophone section, who detailed Amnesty's
position that Canada is in violation of key international laws in its
security certificate policy and practice. The same block of witnesses
included Sophie Lamarche Harkat, who has been campaigning for three and a
half years for the release of her husband, security certificate detainee
Mohamed Harkat; and Victor Regalado, a journalist detained under a
security certificate in 1982, after fleeing his native El Salvador for his
political beliefs. Regalado, who was cleared of all suspicions and received
his citizenship after 22 years, spoke about how the suspected presence of
constant, unseen surveillance turns us into our own prison guards, causing
us to screen what we say and how we act.

Over the next few days, Commissioners heard from Latifa Charkaoui, who has
been forced by court order to become an agent of state surveillance of her
own son, having to accompany
him every time he leaves his home, while herself under surveillance; Dieter
Misgeld, whose wife, an accepted refugee who fled political repression in
Colombia, faces deportation to Colombia on secret evidence; Warren Allmand,
the former Solicitor-General of Canada, who testified how it was normal
practice for the Solicitor-General to approve intelligence agency requests
without reviewing the case, and who argued that criminal law provides a
better framework than immigration law for security cases; Suleyman Goven, a
refugee from Turkish Kurdistan, who has lived in legal limbo without status
for over a decade, and is finally suing CSIS for their serious abuses in his
case; Arash A., a refugee from Iran, who spent 10 months in 'ordinary'
immigration detention while struggling for his status; Johanne Doyon, the
lawyer who is bringing a full challenge to the constitutionality of the
security certificate to the Supreme Court in June; Sherene Razack and Gary
Kinsman, who provided important historical analyses of racism and of the use
of national security talk in Canada; from Ahmad Jaballah, son of security
certificate detainee Mahmoud Jaballah, who testified that he had lost his
childhood, having, from the age of 11, to cope with CSIS interviews, court
hearings and public attention, on top of having to take on much of his
father's responsibility in the family; and from many others (full programme:
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx/audiences_en.php).

After each testimony, the witnesses were questioned by the Commissioners as
well as by members of the public. This was followed by an open period for
those assembled to share their own experiences and commentaries.

Full audio recordings of the Hearings will be made available online via
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx shortly.

The Commissioners' report of findings and recommendations is due on 6 June,
one week before the Supreme Court hears a constitutional challenge to
security certificates. The report will be launched in Ottawa, to
bring it to the attention of Members of Parliament and others who are making
government decisions on these issues. The launch will take place during a
Caravan from Toronto to Ottawa for the Supreme Court hearings, which will
establish a "Camp Hope" in Ottawa at the Supreme Court building for the
three days of hearings on security certificates. (To find out how you can
get involved or contribute: www.homesnotbombs.ca or, for Montreal-based
actions around the Supreme Court hearings: www.adilinfo.org.)

A popular version of the People's Commission report, in the form of a
booklet with audio and video component, will be put together over the summer
months, to be ready for use in September.

------------------------------------
www.peoplescommission.ath.cx
abolissons at gmail.com
tel 1 514 859 9023
fax 514 848 7584

People's Commission c/o QPIRG Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve W., ste. 204
Montreal QC H3G 1N1

The People's Commission is a project of the Coalition for Justice for Adil
Charkaoui (www.adilinfo.org), QPIRG-Concordia, and Solidarity Across Borders
(www.solidarityacrossborders.org).

The People's Commission has been endorsed or sponsored by: l'Association
pour la défense des droits sociaux (ADDS), Black Coalition of Québec,
CAIR-CAN, Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, Canadian Arab Federation
(CAF), Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), Canadian Union of Postal Workers
(CUPW), Centre justice et foi, Comité chrétien pour les droits humains en
Amérique latine (CCDHAL), Au Contre-Temps B&B, Comité des sans-emploi
Montréal-Centre, CKUT 90.3 FM, Communauté Catholique Congolaise de Montréal,
Concordia Student Union (CSU), Council of Canadians, Downtown Legal Services
(DLS) Toronto, Fédération autonome du collégial (FAC), Immigrant Workers'
Centre (IWC), Institute in Management and Community Development (at the
Centre for Continuing Education at Concordia University), Inter Pares,
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), Jesuit Refugee
Service, The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee, KAIROS: Canadian
Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, Ligue des droits et libertés, Moog Audio,
Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM), No One Is Illegal -Montreal, No One Is
Illegal -Vancouver, No One Is Illegal -Toronto, Nova Scotia Public
Interest Research Group (NSPIRG), Ontario Coalition against Poverty
(OCAP), Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC), People's Potato,
Soeurs Auxiliatrices, South Asian Women's Community Centre (SAWCC), Table
de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et
immigrantes (TCRI), Toronto Action for Social Change (TASC), United Muslim
Students Association (UMSA).