[van-announce] Monday, Jan. 11: Free Omar Khadr Vigil & Forum

[Derrick O'Keefe]

Please circulate widely.
 

Amnesty International Canada – Vancouver office

JUSTICE FOR OMAR KHADR
Vigil and Public Forum
Monday, January 11, 2010


By refusing to seek the repatriation of its
national, Omar Khadr, from US custody in Guantanamo Bay, the Canadian
government is betraying human rights principles and perpetuating
injustice, while also failing to offer a remedy for its own
participation in the violation of human rights. 



On Monday, January 11 the public is invited to
learn more about this case and why a broad range of civil liberties,
human rights, social justice and legal organizations across Canada
demand the repatriation of Omar Khadr. 

The evening will begin with a
brief vigil at Victory Park (West Pender and Hamilton) beginning at
5:45 pm, followed by a walk to SFU Harbour Centre, where a free public
forum will get underway at 6:30 pm in the Segal Centre room.



The forum will feature three guest speakers who
have addressed national and international security issues through their
activism, legal work, and writing. Lawyer Carmen Cheung from the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association, lawyer/activist Gail Davidson from Lawyers
Rights Watch Canada, and writer/activist Derrick O’Keefe with the
Canadian Peace Alliance and Stopwar.ca will all explain why Omar Khadr
should be brought back to Canada. Amnesty International fieldworker
Alexandra Catchpole will moderate the forum, which will include time
for questions and discussion.



The vigil and forum has been organized by
Amnesty International – January 11 is the anniversary of the opening of
the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.


Background

Omar Khadr has spent more than seven years, a
third of his life, in US military detention and has been subjected to
detention conditions and interrogation techniques that have violated
the international prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment. He has also been denied his right to be free from
arbitrary detention and, if charged, to be tried in full accordance
with international fair trial standards. He was denied access to any
legal counsel for the first two and a half years of his detention, the
period when he was still a child.



Event listing

Candlelight vigil and free public forum to call
for justice for Omar Khadr. Vigil at 5:45 pm at Victory Park (West
Pender at Hamilton), forum with guest speakers from the BCCLA, Lawyers
Rights Watch, and Stopwar.ca at 6:30 pm at SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West
Pender Street (Segal Room). Presented by Amnesty International on
Monday, January 11, everyone welcome. Info contact dwright at amnesty.ca.


Speaker bios:


Carmen K. Cheung is Counsel at the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association, where she focuses on issues relating to
national security.  Until recently, she was an associate in the
litigation department at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
in New York, where her pro bono practice included challenges to the
Bush administration's various fronts on the 'war on terror' in the
federal appellate courts and the Supreme Court of the United States;
representation of victims of sexual violence and torture; an
intervention in the New York appellate courts in support of equity in
state educational funding; and litigation defending a living wage
ordinance in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  For her work on behalf of victims
of sexual violence, she was honoured by New York's Sanctuary for
Families Center for Battered Women's Legal Services for excellence in
pro bono advocacy. Carmen is currently a member of West Coast LEAF's
Law and Policy Committee and CBABC's Constitutional/Civil Liberties
Section Executive. 



Gail Davidson is a lawyer and a peace
and human rights activist whose work is directed towards efforts to
give substance to the ideals of the universality of human rights
contained in international and national law.  She writes and speaks on
international human rights and humanitarian law issues and her work has
been published and broadcast on mainstream, alternate and online media. 



Gail is the founder and Executive Director of
Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) and the co-founder of Lawyers
Against the War (LAW).  She received the University of British
Columbia, Alma Mater Society Great Trekker Award for her human rights
work in 2004. 


LRWC is a committee of Canadian
lawyers who promote human rights and the rule of law internationally by
protecting advocacy rights and human rights defenders in danger because
of their advocacy and by engaging in research and education relating to
these issues. LRWC is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the
Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In 2004 LRWC
received the Renate Shearer Memorial Award for “the exceptional work
they do in promoting international standards aimed at protecting the
rights and the safety of human rights defenders world wide.”
    
            

LAW is a Vancouver-based
international committee of jurists and others who oppose war, promote
adherence to international humanitarian law and oppose impunity for
violators.  





Derrick O'Keefe is a Vancouver-based
writer and social justice activist. Derrick is the co-chair of the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the country's largest network of anti-war
groups, and a coordinating member of the Vancouver StopWar.ca
Coalition. He is the co-writer of Afghan MP Malalai Joya's political
memoir, A Woman Among Warlords: The Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice, and the author of the forthcoming book Michael Ignatieff: The Lesser Evil? (Verso, 2010). Derrick served as rabble.ca's editor from 2007 to 2009. 


Submitted by:
Don Wright
Amnesty International Canada - Vancouver office
430-319 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC  Canada  V6B 1T3

www.amnesty.ca / 604-294-5160






 		 	   		  
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