[tadamon-l] [Canada] Update on Hunger Strikes at Guantanamo North.

[Tadamon!]

Update on Hunger Strikes at Guantanamo North, Canada.

Situation Critical while 'Public Safety'
Minister Lost in the Twilight Zone.

"I saw large chocolate sauce." -- Stockwell Day, sounding like a B-movie 
actor in a 1950s sci-fi dud, Radio interview about the hunger strike, 
CINW, Montreal, Feb. 1


Links to developments in this email:

1. Reality Check: A Six-Point Guide to Countering the Lies and Deceptions 
of Stockwell "Chocolate Sauce" Day with respect to the hunger strike,
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/daylies.htm

2. Amnesty International writes to Day,
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/amnestytoday.htm

3. Letter from Chinese Canadian Redress Alliance,
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/chineseredress.htm

4. NDP MP Bill Siksay Questions Stockwell Day in the House of Commons,
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/siksay.htm

5. Rotating Solidarity Fast Gets Underway,
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/supportfast.htm

6. Senator Hugh Segal Calls on Government to Negotiate:
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/printable.asp?paper=www.thewhig.com&contentID=393136&annewspapername=The+Kingston+Whig%2DStandard

The Secret Trial Security Certificate detainees - held without charge or 
fair trial for up to six and a half years under threat of deportation to 
torture - are in their third month of a hunger strike at Canada's 
Guantanamo North. Today is day 75 of the hungerstrike for Mahjoub, and day 
64 for Hassan Almrei and Mahmoud Jaballah. The three are demanding minor 
improvements in prison conditions, including medical care and the 
appointment of the Correctional Investigator, an independent ombudsperson, 
to investigate complaints.


* Stockwell Day Prefers Spin:

Despite a mounting public outcry [see letters referred to above], the 
government continues to expose the men to the risk of death by denying 
them daily medical monitoring during the hungerstrike. Rather than 
intervening urgently to find a solution, Day and Harper prefer to 
propagate misinformation and spin campaigns [see response to six false 
claims by Harper and Day at: http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/daylies.htm].


* Victory at House Committee:

Thanks in part to the pressure exerted by people across Canada, a 
resolution was passed Tuesday, February 6 by the Standing Committee on 
Citizenship and Immigration calling on the federal government to respond 
to the crisis by appointing the Office of the Correctional Investigator, a 
federal prison ombudsperson, to assume control over Guantanamo North. All 
Tories on the committee shamefully voted against the motion. The same 
motion will go before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and 
Emergency Preparedness on Thursday. It is crucial that calls go to those 
committee members calling on them to support the resolution [see below].


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Act Now: the Situation is Critical
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In the next days we are calling for:

1. Public Actions:

There will be numerous actions Wednesday, February 7 protesting the 
callous and cruel manner in which Stockwell Day is refusing to negotiate a 
solution. While on the one hand he says (falsely) he cannot intervene 
because the matter is before the courts, on the other he has invaded the 
men's privacy by looking into a fridge and trying to make it sound like 
the trampling of their rights is okay because he saw "large chocolate 
sauce" in that fridge.

Ongoing actions, however, are needed. Actions could take the form of 
delegations to present letters to officials, pickets, or theatrical media 
actions [orange jumpsuits and chocolate sauce: chocolate sauce in 
Guantanamo! or Let Them Eat Chocolate Sauce!] at relevant government 
offices.

Actions should highlight the following demands:

a) Begin providing regular medical monitoring of these three men IN THE 
LIVING UNIT, immediately and without conditions.

b) Immediately appoint the federal Correctional Investigator to negotiate 
a solution to the hungerstrike.

c) After the hungerstrike, act without delay to address the underlying 
reasons for the hunger strikes: indefinite detention, denial of a fair 
trial, and deportation to torture.


2. Calls & Faxes to "Public Safety" Minister Stockwell Day, demanding:

a)  Begin providing regular medical monitoring of these three men IN THE 
LIVING UNIT immediately and without conditions.

b)  Immediately appoint the federal Correctional Investigator to negotiate 
a solution to the hungerstrike.

c)  After the hungerstrike, act without delay to address the underlying 
reasons for the hunger strikes: indefinite detention, denial of a fair 
trial and deportation to torture.

* Write or call to:

The Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: 613 952 2240 and Fax: (613) 995.1154
day.s at parl.gc.ca, communications at psepc.gc.ca

* Send a copy of your letter and reports of your actions by email to the 
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, tasc at web.ca.


3. Calls to members of the Public Safety Standing Committee, urging them 
to support the resolution to appoint the federal Correctional Investigator 
to negotiate a solution to the hungerstrike. ** Focus, in priority, on 
Liberals and Bloc before the Conservatives -- the NDP member is on side.

Public Safety Committee Members

Name, Party, Constituency, Phone Number
Gary Breitkreuz C, Yorkton-Melville, Sask., 613-992-4394
Gordon BrownC, Leeds-Grenville, Ontario, 613-992-8756
Pat Davidson, C, Edmonton Centre, 613-957-2649
Dave MacKenzie, C, Oxford, Ontario, 613-995-4432
Rick Norlock, C, Northumberland-Quinte, Ontario, 613-992-8585
Sue Barnes, L, London West, Ontario, 613-996-6674
Raymond Chan, L, Richmond, B.C., 613-995-2021
Roy Cullen, L, Etobicoke North, Ontario, 613-995-4702
Irwin Cotler, L, Mount Royal, P.Q., 613-995-0121
Serge Menard, BQ, Marc-Aurele-Fortin, 613-992-2617
Maria Mourani, BQ, Ahuntsic, 613-992-0983
Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor-Tecumseh, Ontario, 613-947-3445

Breitkreuz.G at parl.gc.ca ; comartin.J at parl.gc.ca ; Cullen.R at parl.gc.ca ; 
Barnes.S at parl.gc.ca ; Brown.G at parl.gc.ca ; Chan.R at parl.gc.ca ; 
Cotler.I at parl.gc.ca ;  MacKenzie.D at parl.gc.ca ; Menard.S at parl.gc.ca ; 
Mourani.M at parl.gc.ca ; Norlock.R at parl.gc.ca;  Davidp at parl.gc.ca

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