3 témoignages d'anciens résidents du Quebec : Tres édifiant, merci de lire avec attention !

chers ami(e)s, je tiens a partager avec vous des récits (négatifs) que j'ai trouvé sur internet de personnes qui ont déjà vécu au quebec, certes c'est pas très rose et ca inquiète bien-sure, mais je tiens qd même a les partager:

1er:Le Québec - la plus mauvaise expérience de ma vie!:

J'ai voyagé à travers le monde, travaillé dans le Pacifique avec des Indigènes, eu des problèmes de santé toujours résolus et des relations humaines extraordinaires.

J'ai travaillé en Ontario et au Québec.
La première expérience en Ontario, Toronto, très difficile avec mon anglais low-level, je travaillais à Canadian Tire, des Européens m'ont engagé pour monter les vélos. Mon expérience étant l'aéronautique, l'électronique et l'informatique avec mes diplômes de France = un grand zéro au Canada...

Je suis donc allé à Ottawa plus francophone et là j'ai trouvé un job de prof de Français langue seconde. Un Québécois aimant la France et directeur du bureau des langues m'a embauché par l'entremise d'une école de langue dont la patronne était française. Cinq ans de bons jobs, une vie sereine...

J'ai dû retourner en France pour des raisons de famille très grave. J'ai quitté donc le Canada en 1999 avec déjà une mauvaise opinion de la médecine québécoise comparativement à l'Ontario et je sais de quoi je parle...

Je suis revenu au Canada en juin 2005 avec femme et enfants. La catastrophe a commencé... parce que nous avions choisi Montréal.

Mon bébé malade. Dans des cliniques médicales, personne n'a voulu le prendre car nous n'avions pas encore la carte de santé, je me suis engueulé avec la secrétaire à qui j'aurais collé une claque (heureusement pour elle, il y avait la vitre...) J'ai porté plainte contre ces deux cliniques.

J'ai trouvé un français kiné dans une clinique privée qui a fait tout ce qu'il a pu et a bien traité mon fiston depuis...

Nous avions essayé les offices publiques mais de 1 à 5 mois et plus d'attente, inhumain pour un bébé... Pauvre Québec!

Au niveau job à Montréal, tout le monde m'a toujours dit OUI mais jamais, je dis bien jamais, on a tenu promesse, verbale ou écrite... la parole donnée ici, c’est de la merde.
Je me suis fait voler 20 000$.

J'ai connu des Français hautement diplômés, médecins, infirmières, sage-femme, des ingénieurs, tous ne travaillent pas où ont des jobs de merde et la plupart repartent en France.

J’ai retenu trois grands mensonges au Québec :
- C’est pas loin
- C’est pas cher
- Ça sera pas long

Ils se foutent de votre gueule. Un ami psy me dit que les Québécois détestent les conflits d’où l’obligation pour eux de ne jamais dire NON. Ils disent tous OUI, mais ne réalisent que très rarement leurs dires…

Il faut bien réfléchir avant de venir vivre au Québec. N'écoutez ni la Délégation du Québec à Paris, ni même un Québécois, c'est du vent.

Ils ont culturellement une positive-attitude extrémiste.

À propos des femmes, un conseil : ne fréquentez pas une Québécoise, encore moins pour s’y marier, et pire, avoir des enfants. Vous y laisserez votre santé, votre moral et plus encore toutes vos économies, c'est assuré.

Les routes, abominables! Pire que dans les îles du Pacifique.
La médecine, l'une de plus horrible de la planète (vous du vécu, demandez-moi)
Les gens toujours complexés quand vous dites que vous êtes Français.

Et je n'ai pas fini, je reviendrai compléter ce bilan...

2eme: La grande imposture de l'immigration au Québec:

Je souhaite échanger avec les membres du forum sur les opportunités d’emploi au Québec une fois qu’on a un diplôme Canadien en poche. D’après les différents témoignages c’est principalement à cause de leurs diplômes étrangers que les immigrants ont de la difficulté à se trouver un emploi à la hauteur de leurs qualifications.

Est-ce que certains d’entre vous ont pu décrocher un emploi respectable après l’obtention d’un diplôme canadien ?

Personnellement je suis revenu sur les bancs de l’Université et j’ai été franchement dégoûté par la médiocrité de l’enseignement universitaire au Québec. En plus de dépenser toutes mes économies je me suis endetté à gauche et à droite pour être en mesure de joindre les deux bouts.

C’est un enseignement bourratif où on force les étudiants à acheter et lire les stocks invendus des grandes libraires du Québec. Les professeurs ne sont jamais là pour vous encadrer. Il n’y a pratiquement pas d’échecs et la notation est très généreuse. Ayant fait des études en France, au Maroc et en Angleterre je suis maintenant convaincu que la politique d’immigration du Canada est l’une des plus grandes impostures du siècle. En fait ils ne reconnaissent pas les diplômes étrangers alors qu’ils sont convaincus de la médiocrité de leur système éducatif par rapport aux autres pays industrialisés.

Maintenant que j’ai un MBA en systèmes d’information (summa cum laude) et un certificat en informatique délivrés tous les deux par des universités québécoises, les perspectives d’emploi ne sont pas plus reluisantes. J’ai les diplômes certes mais on me reproche toujours de ne pas avoir d’expérience locale (aux chiottes mes cinq années d’expérience en France et au Maroc). Qu’est-ce qu’elle a de si particulier cette fameuse expérience canadienne ? Le froid ? Que ce soit à Kaboul ou à Chabigamou les ordinateurs et le corps humain fonctionnent toujours selon les mêmes principes. Pourtant on oppose toutes les formes de résistance aux médecins étrangers alors qu’il y a des dizaines de personnes qui crèvent sur les listes d’attentes tous les mois. En définitive, je pense qu’on a affaire à une société suicidaire. Une société qui est fière de son arrogance. Une société qui ne se reproduit pas assez pour perdurer. Une société où le PIB est l’un des plus importants au monde mais où en contrepartie le taux de suicide est aussi l’un des plus élevés au monde.

Cela dit, comment faire pour acquérir de l’expérience locale si personne ne veut vous offrir un emploi ou un stage qui soit en rapport avec votre domaine de spécialisation. Personnellement ça ne me dérange pas de recommencer au bas de l’échelle mais je ne vois pas comment je pourrais redevenir consultant si je me mets à livrer de la pizza ou à conduire un taxi. Je n’ai quand même pas misé autant d’argent dans leur système scolaire à la con pour qu’on me propose des emplois à 7 $/ l’heure.

Bref ce n’est ni un problème de diplômes ni un problème d’expérience. Il s’agit là de deux arguments fallacieux dont le but est de cacher les vraies motivations derrière la politique d’immigration du Québec. Arnaquer des jeunes désespérés en leur vendant des rêves, en les dépossédant de leurs économies et leur proposant des jobs à rabais lorsqu’ils n’ont plus le choix.


3eme: la mauvaise expérience quebecoise

Je reviens de Montreal d'ou j'ai vécu 7 mois, ville que je n'ai absoluement pas appréciée par son architecture, par ses nombreuses facades abimées, taguées, et surtout détruites. Je pensais être en banlieu, plutot qu'en centre ville.
L'hiver a été le plus horrible de ma vie, avec des -40 degrés et très peu d'infrastructures pour rester au chaud. La ville sous terraine m'a bien déçue, si petite !!! entre 2 station de métro.Et pour répondre aux commentaires elle est en effet grande par rapport à d'autres villes dans le monde, mais le plus décevant c'est surtout que les meilleurs magasins abordables à tous budgets sont en fait surtout sur de grandes rues qui necessitent des passages en extérieur. Les routes sont très abimées a cause des différences de températures, et les creuvésons en voiture en deviennent un calvaire.
Les prix sont plus élévés que l'euro, et lorsqu'on met le prix en euro il devient alors équivalent, en sachant que le salaire d'une personne sans diplome est très faible, et surtout qu'aucun diplome francais n'est reconnu...Je suis éducatrice spécialisée et mon diplome n'étant pa reconnu j'ai travaillé dans une patisserie en tant que commis, en touchant 8 dollars de l'heure, ce qui fait 5 euros ..., donc je ne comptais pas la dessus pour revenir riche en france en reconvertissant ce miséreux salaire. Je suis d'ailleur revenu fauchée lol.
Le manque de main d'oeuvre est impressionnant, il n'y a pas une boutique sans affiche de recherche d'employé. C'est simple en une journée de recherche j'avais 5 entreprises qui voulais me garder et me faire travailler le lendemain. On se demande vraiment pourquoi il ne reconnaisse pas les diplomes étrangers ???
Le système de santé est très cher et encore plus pour les immigrés, compter environ 75 dollars pour une visite chez le medecin, et 20 dollars pour un canadien. Mieux vaut ne pas tomber malade, malheureusement ça n'a pa été mon cas...
Quelques pubs sympas, mais les boites de nuit ferment a 3h du matin!!! trop trop tot !!!
J'ai visité des jolis parcs naturels, hormis les parkings parfois payant et la promenade également, il n'ya rien a dire c'est vraiment beau. Les écureuils aux pieds, la nature très verte, les grands lacs, de très beaux souvenirs.
En voyage d'une ou 2 semaines, le canada reste très agréable pour ses forets et sa végétation très belle, mais y vivre non merci !
Je conseillerai de faire une visite rapide de Montréal d'un jour ou 2, mais il faut surtout monter au nord, c'est bien plus beau, la ville de quebec est également beaucoup plus jolie.
Moi qui adorais la neige, et qui ne pouvais pas me passer d'une semaine de ski par an, je crois que je vais attendre quelques t'emps avant de retrouver la neige.
Peut etre parce que j'ai toujours vécu dans le sud, mais 9 mois d'hiver c'est trop pour moi...



Source : www.bonacte.com /
Sujet : mauvaises experiences au Quebec

Le Canada est difficile à cerner, selon Amnistie Internationale

Le nouveau dirigeant d'Amnistie internationale estime que les positions du Canada en matière de droits de la personne sont de plus en plus difficiles à prédire.

Salil Shetty rappelle que le Canada adopte maintenant des positions différentes dans des domaines - comme la torture et la peine de mort - où il était traditionnellement progressiste.


«En général, lorsqu'on parle avec la plupart des Canadiens, il y a un énorme fossé entre les gestes qu'ils estiment posés par le Canada et ce qu'il en est réellement en matière de politiques gouvernementales et d'actions concrètes», a affirmé M. Shetty, ajoutant qu'il était auparavant facile de prédire les prises de positions canadiennes, mais que tel n'était plus le cas.

«[Le Canada] est un pays du G8, une puissance mondiale importante et plusieurs experts en droits humains proviennent de ce pays; alors celui-ci a un rôle majeur à jouer dans le domaine.»

Le secrétaire général d'Amnistie internationale a ainsi évoqué, lors d'une entrevue lundi à Montréal, que le refus d'Ottawa de rapatrier Omar Khadr n'est qu'un exemple des changements dans les politiques canadiennes.

Dans ce cas, toutefois, le report de 30 jours du procès dû au malaise d'un avocat laisserait au gouvernement le temps d'intervenir, a affirmé Salil Shetty. Il ne pense pas moins que cette affaire est embrouillée: l'arrestation injustififée d'un enfant-soldat, un procès inéquitable et une détention illégale.

Le secrétaire-général d'Amnistie internationale a également mentionné le discours utilisé par Ottawa depuis l'arrivée récente de Tamouls à bord d'un navire cargo. Bien qu'il ait applaudi la décision gouvernementale de traiter séparément les 492 demandes de statut de réfugié, il considère que les déclarations d'Ottawa ont fait planer des soupçons de terrorisme sur tous.

M. Shetty poursuit en estimant que le refus du Canada de signer certaines déclarations des Nations unies, telle que la Déclaration des droits des peuples indigènes est un autre exemple du changement de ton canadien face aux droits humains.

Il a commencé son nouveau mandat chez Amnistie internationale le mois dernier



Source : La Presse 23-08-2010

Amnistie internationale: «le Canada nous inquiète»

«L'espace démocratique au Canada rétrécit de jour en jour. Le gouvernement rend de moins en moins de comptes à la population en matière de droits humains. Nous sommes inquiets.»


Celui qui parle n'est pas un député de l'opposition du gouvernement Harper, mais le nouveau grand patron d'Amnistie internationale, Salil Shetty. L'Indien, qui a été à la tête de la Campagne des Nations unies pour les objectifs du millénaire pendant sept ans avant de prendre les rênes de la grande organisation internationale de défense des droits humains, a ces jours-ci le gouvernement canadien dans sa ligne de mire.


«Le gouvernement a une haute intolérance pour la dissension. Récemment, ils ont pris des actions contre des organisations qui avaient des opinions divergentes, notamment en restreignant leur financement», dénonce M. Shetty. Au cours des derniers mois, Alternatives et Droits et démocratie, deux organisations situées à Montréal ont eu des démêlés avec le gouvernement après avoir exposé des points de vue sur la question palestinienne qui allaient à l'encontre des positions du gouvernement Harper.

«Aussi, il y a de moins en moins d'accès à l'information. C'est une combinaison de différents facteurs qui nous démontre que sur le front domestique, l'espace démocratique a rétréci», continue l'homme de 49 ans, joint à Londres par La Presse.

Selon Salil Shetty, le gouvernement canadien ne s'en sort pas beaucoup mieux au niveau international en refusant notamment de rapatrier Omar Khadr, le jeune Canadien dont le procès pour crimes de guerre se déroule présentement devant une commission militaire de Guantánamo Bay. «Si on compare les actions du gouvernement avec les antécédents du Canada en matière de droits de la personne, il n'y a pas de doute qu'il y a de plus en plus un écart entre les décisions du gouvernement et les valeurs de la population en général», conclut M. Shetty.

Réfugiés à protéger

Ces jours-ci, le secrétaire général d'Amnistie internationale s'inquiète particulièrement pour les quelque 490 demandeurs d'asile tamouls qui sont arrivés par bateau en Colombie-Britannique la semaine dernière.

«Au cours des derniers jours, nous avons vu qu'il y a un danger de stéréotyper les individus. Si vous êtes un Tamoul, vous êtes un terroriste», s'indigne-t-il, en référence à certains discours tenus par le ministre de la Sécurité publique, Vic Toews, qui soupçonne des passagers du MV Sun Sea d'être des «terroristes» liés à l'Armée de libération de l'Eelam tamoul (LTTE), un groupe séparatiste armé qui a combattu l'armée sri lankaise pendant un quart de siècle.

Selon le grand patron d'Amnistie, la fin de la guerre civile en 2009 au Sri Lanka n'a pas été suivie d'un rétablissement des droits de la population civile et il existe toujours de bonnes raisons pour que nombre de Sri Lankais cherchent la protection de pays étrangers.

«Oui, la guerre civile est terminée, mais nous savons qu'au moins 11 000 individus soupçonnés d'appartenir au LTTE ont été arrêtés et détenus sans accusation depuis 2009 et au moins 8000 d'entre eux sont toujours en détention. Nous avons reçu des rapports indiquant qu'il y a des suspects du LTTE détenus dans des prisons secrètes. Certains d'entre eux ont été torturés. Des membres de la minorité tamoule, mais aussi des musulmans, des journalistes et d'autres personnes qui ont des opinions différentes de celles du gouvernement sont dans une situation risquée», affirme M. Shetty.

Ce week-end, M. Shetty portera lui-même ses mises en garde au public canadien. Il prononcera un discours à Montréal lors du congrès de Civicus, qui rassemble des organisations de la société civile de partout dans le monde.

Retour aux premières amours

Ayant remplacé le mois dernier Irène Khan à la tête d'Amnistie, Salil Shetty était surtout connu pour ses antécédents en développement international. Avant de travailler pour l'ONU, il a dirigé ActionAid pendant cinq ans.

Malgré ce parcours professionnel, l'homme de 49 ans n'est pas un néophyte dans le domaine des droits de la personne. Né à Bangalore, dans le sud de l'Inde, il est le fils d'un militant qui se portait à la défense des basses castes et d'une mère féministe. «Pendant mes études, j'étais à la tête d'un syndicat étudiant alors que le pays était sous l'état d'urgence (pendant le règne d'Indira Gandhi). Nos droits avaient été suspendus», raconte-t-il.

Après une période de militantisme étudiant, il a étudié le développement, obtenant un diplôme de la London School of Economics. «C'est alors que j'ai commencé ma carrière dans le développement. Cependant, pour moi, la distinction entre les droits de l'homme et le développement n'est pas claire. La Déclaration des droits de la personne de l'ONU dit que les droits civils et politiques sont indivisibles des droits sociaux et économiques», note-t-il. Il donne en guise d'exemple la mortalité infantile. «C'est un problème majeur avec neuf millions d'enfants qui meurent avant leur cinquième anniversaire parce qu'ils sont nés dans des familles pauvres. Est-ce un problème de droits politiques ou économiques? C'est difficile à dire, mais une chose est certaine, ces enfants ont droit à la vie.»

Un de ses principaux mandats à la tête d'Amnistie sera d'élargir la présence de son organisation, qui a 2,8 millions de membres, sur la scène internationale. «Amnistie est dans 70 pays, mais nous devons faire plus. Il y a notamment plus à faire dans mon pays, l'Inde et dans plusieurs pays émergents où les droits humains sont toujours à risque.»

Menace Contre La Laicite

Depuis trois ou quatre années, il est devenu courant de lire et d’entendre des opinions qui prennent ouvertement parti contre le principe de laïcité au Québec.


Un nombre d’individus particulièrement actifs et féroces tentent de saper les fondements de la neutralité religieuse de l’État québécois en tentant d’y substituer le principe de l’activisme athée : ce sont les intégristes de la laïcité.

Les intégristes de la laïcité ne considèrent pas qu’un juif servant dans la police et portant une kippa ou qu’un hindou enturbanné sont des symboles plus que réussis d’intégration et la marque suprême du service envers leurs concitoyens.

Non, pour les intégristes laïcs, c’est du prosélytisme. Bien que ces gens soient prêts à donner leur vie pour leur pays, les intégristes laïcs nous racontent que ces concitoyens aux croyances différentes des leurs constituent une menace pour notre société.

Les intégristes laïcs préfèrent croire qu’une femme portant le hijab se servira de son poste dans un emploi dans l’administration publique pour «islamiser» le pays que de faire face à la réalité : une telle femme servira son pays et contribuera au bien-être économique de sa famille, un point c’est tout.

La solution des intégristes laïcs pour intégrer les croyants dans la société québécoise est de les exclure volontairement et systématiquement s’ils ne veulent pas abandonner des facettes de leur religion qu’ils considèrent fondamentales et qui ne causent aucun problème réel autre que de créer de la paranoïa chez nos intégristes laïcs.

Ainsi, les intégristes laïcs veulent modifier le principe de laïcité au Québec, et derrière leur agenda moral de protection de la société et de nos institutions se cache le projet de faire disparaître toute trace de christianisme, de judaïsme, d’islamisme, de bouddhisme ou d’hindouisme pour que règne l’athéisme.

Les intégristes laïcs ne sont pas satisfaits de la liberté de croire ou de ne pas croire. Ils veulent que l’État québécois devienne un instrument d’exclusion d’autrui au service de leur volonté d’annihiler toute trace de religion de notre société. «Que les croyants se cachent» est leur devise.

Ces gens intolérants et ignorants constituent le réel danger pour notre laïcité et pour le bon vivre ensemble, et non les juifs, les musulmans, les chrétiens ou les hindous qui veulent servir leur pays et continuer de vivre leur religion dans la paix.

À l’intolérance et au fanatisme des intégristes laïcs, il faut répondre par le droit et la raison.

Mexican Immigrant Rights Activist Denied Entry Into Canada

Elvira Arellano, a Mexican citizen and sanctuary-deportee whose situation galvanized immigrant rights activism across the US, was scheduled to arrive in Vancouver to speak at a public forum on Sanctuary and Migrant Justice on Sunday Feb. 10th and to join the US-based Marche Migrante on Tues Feb 12th at the border.


Elvira, however, was not allowed entry into Canada on Sat. Feb. 9th. No reasons were given for her refusal and it is believed she was held in detention prior to being deported back to Mexico. A member of No One Is Illegal – Vancouver was called by immigration authorities, expressing 'concern' that Elvira's visit was only for 3-4 days and asked if it was true that Elvira was here to speak at a rally/for political purposes.

Arellano took refuge in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago in 2006. Over the year, she become a spokesperson for the New Sanctuary Movement, as well as president of La Familia Latina Unida, and a symbol of resistance against the systemic violence, exploitation, and racism in the US immigration system. On August 19, 2007, having traveled to California on a speaking tour where she advocated the right of immigrant families to

stay united, the single mother was arrested by US authorities and deported to Mexico, without her son.

According to an August 2007 Globe and Mail report "Faced with a spike in refugee claims from Mexicans - the country is now the top source of asylum seekers in Canada - Canadian authorities have been refusing entry to increasing numbers of Mexican citizens attempting to visit the country as tourists. Those turned away complain of harsh, insensitive and even racist treatment from Canadian officials".

Since Mexican citizens are not required to get a visa to enter Canada, immigration officers at the airport and at the border are given the power to determine whether or not they are allowed in, costing visitors thousands of dollars, resulting in maltreatment, stress and fear.

Elvira's refusal and turn-back reveals the abritraty and restrictive nature of the immigration enforcement system deployed against racialized migrants, particularly in the post 911 climate and with the implementation of border agreements such as the Safe Third Country Agreement and Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreement.

Therefore, it is crucial that we continue to struggle against the pain, anxiety, and violence caused by this regime of border imperialism and continue to actively organize ourselves to support dignity and self-determination for migrants.

Source : No One Is Illegal Vancouver - 2008

Canadian Government Not Interested In Citizen Omar Khadr

"Harper’s position seems to be motivated by his rightwing views and the strong stench of Islamophobia that most of his supporters carry. He is pandering to their prejudices for which Khadr is an easy scapegoat."

The minority Conservative government of Canada appears determined to deny Omar Khadr his Charter Rights even in the face of several court rulings, the latest of which was handed down on April 23. Justice James O’Reilly of the Federal Court issued a clear ruling ordering Canada to seek Khadr’s repatriation from Guantanamo Bay where he has languished since October 2002. The judge found that the Canadian government was obliged under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms and under the international Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect Khadr from being unlawfully detained, from being abused by his captors, and from being locked up longer than necessary. Instead, as soon as the court ruling was announced, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in Parliament that his government would consider appealing the decision. The following day, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon went even further accusing Khadr of being responsible for the kind of roadside bombs that had killed a Canadian soldier a few days earlier.


The parliamentary exchange between Cannon and opposition Liberal Party foreign affairs critic Bob Rae was astonishing for the manner in which the foreign minister made allegations and went on to accuse Khadr of egregious wrongs. “As a matter of fact, last night [April 23] we were able to see television footage of Mr. Khadr’s alleged building and planting of explosive devices that are actually planted in Afghanistan,” Cannon said in parliament. “Those devices are the devices that basically have taken away the lives of young Canadian men and women.” This evoked a strong rebuke from Rae saying that Khadr was taken to Afghanistan at age 13 and he was seriously wounded at the time of his capture in July 2002 when he was 15. The allegations of bomb making are intended to inflame passions and tarnish Khadr’s image when these have not been proved in court. Video footage of Khadr assembling bombs was leaked to US television station CBS program “60 Minutes” in violation of court ruling. One of Khadr’s Canadian lawyers, Nate Whitling said: “There’s never been any allegation that Omar conspired to injure Canadians.” Whitling saw the leaked video footage as an attempt to prejudice his client on spurious grounds.

In parliament Cannon also repeated what has now become the government’s standard mantra that Khadr faces serious charges and that the US “judicial process” must take its course before the government would intervene. Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that the Guantanamo military tribunal process that former US president George Bush established “constituted a clear violation of fundamental human rights.” The US Supreme Court has similarly found the process unconstitutional and in June 2008, it ruled that detainees at Gunatanamo Bay were entitled to habeas corpus rights. In a 5-4 verdict, the US Supreme Court had ruled that detainees could challenge the reasons for their incarceration in US civil courts, something the George Bush regime and his neocon advisors had denied them. A day after his inauguration as president, Barack Obama said he would shut down the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, likened by many to the Russian gulag, within one year. He also ordered a review of all detainees’ cases.

Now 22, Canadian-born Omar Khadr was only 15 when captured in eastern Afghanistan in July 2002. He was badly wounded after being shot twice in the back by American soldiers but miraculously survived. He was first taken to Bagram airbase north of Kabul where his interrogation and torture began. Then in October 2002, he was flown to the notorious prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. He is the only Western citizen still held there. Under international law and the Law protecting the Rights of the Child to which both Canada and the US are signatories, Khadr should not have been sent to Guantanamo. As a child soldier, he should have been repatriated and rehabilitated in society. Both his US military appointed lawyers as well as Canadian lawyers have urged that Khadr as a child soldier at the time of his capture should be treated accordingly. This entitles him to special protection. His incarceration in Guantanamo is an affront to human dignity and decency.

He is not without supporters in Canada though even if their pleas have fallen on deaf government ears. A number of groups have come together to seek his repatriation. A group of dedicated students has taken up his cause; there is also a citizens’ committee established to seek his repatriation. He even has many supporters in the Canadian parliament including Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe as well as a number of other parliamentarians and senators. Last February, all three opposition leaders signed a joint letter to Obama and Harper on the eve of Obama’s visit to Canada on February 19 asking for Khadr’s release and repatriation. The Canadian parliament has passed a motion calling for his repatriation but Harper appears adamant that he would not intervene to secure his release. Opposition leader Ignatieff has gone so far as to say that Harper cannot “pick and choose which Canadians overseas to defend. You have to defend them all. That’s what a passport means.”

Recounting what Khadr has suffered—torture, sleep deprivation, and kept in prolonged stress positions—the Toronto Star said in its editorial on April 26: “Harper’s stonewall response has been to shrug off the order [of the Federal Court] and ponder an appeal. But Harper’s obtuse approach has left him isolated. Parliament has repudiated his stance. The White House has discredited it. And American and Canadian high courts have flayed it…

Is this what the Conservative party stands for? Reckless disregard for Charter rights, international law, Parliament and the courts?”

Harper’s position seems to be motivated by his rightwing views and the strong stench of Islamophobia that most of his supporters carry. He is pandering to their prejudices for which Khadr is an easy scapegoat. There are hints that the Obama administration’s review panel may rule within the next few weeks and seek a political solution to Khadr’s case rather than pursue a strictly legal one. If that should happen, Harper may find himself in the unenviable position of seeing Omar Khadr arriving at the Canadian border without a government plan to rehabilitate a badly abused and brutalized Canadian youth.

Source : Media Monitors Network / Tahir Mahmoud

Muslims Prisoners And Their Visitors Face Abuse In Canadian Prison System

"Politicians are not the only ones indulging in such blatant racism that, if directed against any other community--Blacks or Jews, for instance--would be immediately denounced. Intelligence agencies and the media take their cue from politicians. When the prime minister of a country indulges in such racist cant, it is hardly surprising that others go even further."


Exactly a year after 17 Muslims were arrested on terrorism-related charges in Toronto, the case is largely being ignored by the media for two main reasons. One is an official ban on reporting of court proceedings, the other is the fact that several individuals--all of them minors at the time--have had charges against them either reduced or dropped altogether because of lack of evidence. This is not something the Islamophobic Canadian media want their readers to know. To say that these Muslims are innocent until proven guilty and that some of the charges against them have been dropped would go against the negative image they have so carefully crafted of Muslims as “terrorists”.

While the courts move at a snail’s pace and nobody has been pronounced guilty of any crime so far, this has not prevented guards at the Maplehurst Correctional Facility near Brampton, Ontario, where the youths are held in solitary confinement, from displaying their brutal nature. The youths are charged under federal law but held in a provincial facility. This enables the authorities to deny responsibility for the detainees’ mistreatment. For instance, the prison authorities claim that the detainees’ solitary confinement is the result of a court order. Each is held in a small cell measuring 4x6 metres for 23.5 hours a day. The cell has a concrete bed with a filthy mattress and an equally filthy pillow without a cover. There is a side-table, a sink and a toilet. They are allowed just half an hour daily for fresh air, but even this privilege is denied if there is a particularly sadistic guard on duty.

On May 12 one of the accused, Steven Chand, was dragged out of the shower naked because the guard insisted his time was up while he still had soap on his hair and face. Slammed to the floor, the guard struck him repeatedly while uttering profanities, according to the wife of another detainee who phoned her. Chand was then dragged to his cell, thrown in and locked up, still naked. He sustained numerous injuries, and two days later when he appeared in court could not sit properly because of the pain. When his lawyer tried to raise the assault case with the judge, he was told the court was only hearing arguments about their confinement; if the defence lawyer wanted to raise another issue he must make a separate application. The hostile attitude of some judges has emboldened the guards, not famed for good behaviour anyway, to act even more brutally. Three days later another detainee, Asad Durrani, was beaten up. Alarmed by such behaviour, leaders of the Muslim community have asked for a meeting with Monte Kwinter, provincial minister for correctional services, but have not yet been given an appointment.

Some guards abuse detainees verbally using profane language against Allah and the Prophet of Islam, upon whom be peace. Others deprive them of sleep or threaten them with execution. One under-age youth released on bail last August has been so traumatised by his experiences in jail that he is suffering serious mental problems. He often wakes up in the middle of the night screaming; at other times he is either completely withdrawn or goes into a rage and fights his parents.

Guards even abuse family members--mothers, fathers or wives--of the detainees during the half hour per week visiting time they are allowed. It should be noted that visitors are separated by flexi-glass screen and they can only talk through a phone, thereby depriving them of privacy. In one instance, the elderly mother of one detainee was left locked in the room for 20 minutes even after her son had been taken back to his cell. She banged on the door, but the guards ignored her. The father of another detainee was locked inside the visiting room for more than half hour. Complaints by family members and defence lawyers to prison officials and the courts have not resulted in any improvement in the guards’ behaviour.

There appears to be a pattern to such abuse. While the courts have not convicted anyone so far, prison guards and crown attorneys seem to treat them as criminals. Even convicted criminals have certain basic rights; in case of the Muslim detainees, they appear to have no rights simply because they are Muslims. A crown attorney privately confided to a defence lawyer that if it were up to him, he would drop the charges, but that he was under “pressure” not to do so. What kind of pressure is not difficult to imagine.

Since September 2001, there has been extreme hatred toward Muslims; Islamophobia has become widespread and has gained respectability. Western governments, especially those that wish to ingratiate themselves with US president George Bush, go to extraordinary lengths to project an image of being tough on their Muslim citizens. Making wild allegations or even borrowing Bush’s racist language is considered especially useful. Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper of the rightwing Conservative Party has been particularly keen to be in Bush’s good books. The day after the 17 youths were arrested, Harper said while addressing military cadets in Ottawa: “Their alleged target was Canada. Canadian institutions. The Canadian economy. The Canadian people. As at other times in our history, we are a target because of who we are. And how we live. Our society, our diversity, and our values. Values such as freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Values that make Canada great. Values that Canadians cherish” (emphasis added). One can hear echoes of Bush’s nonsensical rhetoric--”they hate our freedoms”--that has been used to such deadly effect in the US. Because Muslims are a soft target, they are being demonized to score cheap political points. In his eagerness to appease Bush, Harper apparently forgot that the matter was before the courts and that he should not make allegations that would make a fair trial difficult.

Politicians are not the only ones indulging in such blatant racism that, if directed against any other community--Blacks or Jews, for instance--would be immediately denounced. Intelligence agencies and the media take their cue from politicians. When the prime minister of a country indulges in such racist cant, it is hardly surprising that others go even further.

After their arrest, the suspects were brought to court surrounded by tight security, with sharp-shooters dressed in black uniforms brandishing submachine guns on rooftops and helicopters circled overhead to whip up mass hysteria. Gun-toting police officers were also present inside the courtroom when they were brought in chains--leg irons and handcuffs--before the judge. For an entire week, crown attorneys made wild allegations so that the media could splash them on their front pages and on television to create the impression that these are hardened criminals. Thereafter, the court imposed a ban on all reporting. Rocco Galati, a leading defence lawyer, condemned this decision, saying: “For a week, a public trial of the accused was held in the parking lot outside the courthouse and now a gag order has been imposed.” He not only demanded an open trial but also insisted there should be complete access for the media to report on what is going on inside the courtroom. The crown attorneys would have none of this because it would expose the allegations as untenable and the game would be up.

Similar allegations were made by officials of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Luc Portelance, CSIS assistant director for operations, speaking at a press conference on June 3, 2006 said: “It’s important to note that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community or ethno-cultural group in Canada. Terrorism is a dangerous ideology and a global phenomenon. As yesterday’s arrests demonstrate, Canada is not immune from this ideology.” While this may have sounded like exonerating the larger Muslim community of any wrongdoing, there was no mistaking the fact that he said the arrested youths were involved in terrorist acts. The use of such loaded expressions as “terrorist ideology” is a complete giveaway.

An ideology is a set of beliefs or doctrines that “form the basis of a political, economic, or other system”, while terrorism is “the unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons”, according to the American Heritage Dictionary. It is immediately obvious to any reasonably informed person that the US and Israel, together with their Western allies, are the chief practitioners of terrorism in the world today. Terrorism as a tool is embedded in their ideology of violence and murder. Human life has little value for them; one only has to look at the situations in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan to confirm this. They have murdered or displaced millions of people without any concern for their plight.

A fundamental principle of law is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. It is the prosecution’s responsibility to prove beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused; the latter does not have to prove his innocence. In the case of the Toronto-17, this principle has been turned on its head. The government has provided only sketchy evidence against the individuals, dramatizing each aspect as if they were out to destroy the whole world if they had not been apprehended. Their star witness--the police informant and instigator, Mubin Shaikh--has admitted to the media that he misled these youth over a period of two years. He was promised a sum of $369,000--only part of which has been paid to him--to entrap young men who happened to be loose talkers.

While media statements by the prosecution’s chief witness have clearly embarrassed crown attorneys, the question is why these under-age youths were arrested in such a brutal manner when they had been under police surveillance for two years. More than 400 heavily armed police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) troopers stormed their homes and not only arrested the suspects but also brutalized their families, breaking down doors and holding everyone, including infants, at gunpoint. Several machine-gun-mounted trucks were also used in the raids. In one case, the elderly mother of one of the accused who was in sajda during maghrib salat was nearly choked when one police officer put his boot on her neck.

Media frenzy was then whipped up; racist writers were given complete freedom to spew anti-Muslim venom on the front pages of leading newspapers. Margret Wente and Christie Blatchford, two columnists for the Globe and Mail, usually regarded as a responsible newspaper, gave them front-page space to print their toxic brew of racist invective. In a column entitled “The biggest elephant in the room,” Blatchford called the arrested youth “brown-skinned” and wrote: “They have first names like Mohamed, middle names like Mohamed and last names like Mohamed.” She even mocked the police chief’s concern that the windows of a mosque were smashed immediately after the arrests: “Windows everywhere in Canada’s largest city are safe, especially windows in mosques. The war on windows will be won, whatever the cost.” This on the front page of Canada’s leading newspaper!

With Blatchford, and others like her, as the new face of the Canadian media, the prospects for Muslims in Canada for equality before the law and in society appear bleak indeed.

Source : Media Monitors Network / Tahir Mahmoud

Skilled Immigrants Demand Compensation

The Canadian government persists in giving away millions of dollars to bureaucrats, subcontractors, and “non-profit” agencies that have only done one thing right; being government-friendly beneficiaries of this lavish cronyism.


The government’s lack of leadership is solved by keeping its thick bureaucracy happy - just to lessen the public outcry. And of course, by being nice to their close friends who plunder the treasury, declare bankruptcy, or otherwise benefit from rich government contracts that pay well.

But in terms of immigration policy, taxation and the economy, who pays for this lack of vision? The ones who bring billions of dollars, not only in cash, but also in skills to Canada; independent/skilled immigrants. The government is directly responsible of this multibillion dollar fiasco, and so it has to be accountable for the de-skilling process and decapitalization that each foreign professional suffers as soon as he arrives here.

Just think about it for a second… Aren’t skilled/independent immigrants entitled to be retroactively compensated for this mismanagement? For example, if you (as a family doctor) had worked in your field of expertise, you would have made x amount of money every year, wouldn’t you? But because you were working as a taxi driver, caregiver, or something similar, your income was significatively lower. And for the "privilege" of working in a Brown Collar Ghetto, you get to pay taxes, GST, PST, health care premiums etc. Just like the well off Canadians do here in Canada; except they can afford it, you can't.

At the same time the rest of your hard earned money has been feeding the Canadian economy because you buy products and services in the Canadian market and that creates directly and indirectly jobs for Canadians. How many job counsellors, landlords, business owners, and political parties have benefited from immigrants? And what do we get in return?

Nothing.

We have to live in “bad” neighborhoods, not because we want to be in the midst of drug dealers, crowded, stinky, cockroach infested buildings, greasy spoon restaurants, liquor stores, pawn and pot shops, but because we can’t afford a house in a “good” neighborhood where many “Canadian professionals” live, where one can see trees, flowers, rivers instead.

Yes, we live in impoverished neighborhoods where we are condemned to remain silent, surrounded by marginalized Canadians with whom you can only talk about the weather because they never finished even basic schooling, or because they are on drugs, or simply for your own safety.

Maybe living in “good” neighborhoods doesn’t mean we are going to have interesting conversations with Canadian professionals, but at least we will have the chance to invite some educated people from other countries and guarantee them a minimum level of public safety.

Even the basics of food, and clothing are limited by our meager incomes. We have to buy our clothes in second hand stores or out of season, when they are on sale. We have to eat lots of industrialized food because the “organic” one is way more expensive. Look at who shops in fancy boutique grocery stores in trendy areas. Then look at who goes to the big box discount stores.

Many of the basic services are out of our reach: dentists, cars, car insurance, family vacations, cultural events, professional treatment by a family physician, good education for our kids.

Most of our kids go to schools where the grade 8 English teacher will be the Grade 9, 10, 11 English teacher. That same teacher will also teach Physical Education, give counseling, and if needed he teaches Social Studies too. Oh, don't forget how low the Canadian childcare services were rated by the OECD in 2004, nor how expensive postsecondary education is.

As you may see, we are paying way too much for the standard of living that this “strong” economy is giving us in return. And you know why? We, as foreign and visible minority professionals, along with our kids, have been marginalized from the mainstream society while this country shamelessly wastes our resources and compromises our kids’ future.

Therefore, if you think you deserve to be compensated for all the time you were unemployed or underemployed in Canada; we invite you to sign this letter by sending us a message with your name, surname, email address, profession, the province where you live in, and write "Professional Compensation" at the beginning of your message.

P.S. To all skilled immigrants who are about to leave this country, or those who have already left: You should be compensated too. Don't leave this country quietly and empty handed.

Sincerely,

Source : http://www.canadaimmigrants.com/

Canada's Rights Record Blasted During UN Review

Submissions to Geneva council include issues such as treatment of indigenous peoples, immigration

Canada could soon find itself "named and shamed" as a country that violates human rights in a United Nations review.


Close to 50 submissions blasting Canada – on everything from the state of indigenous peoples to problems with immigration policy – have been filed with the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council as part of a new review process for UN nations.

"To be criticized doesn't mean Canada has joined the worst of the worst (abusing nations)," said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, of Canada's review that begins Feb. 3. "But as a general rule, Canadians are proud this is a country that believes in human rights and do want our governments (federal, provincial and territorial) to do the right thing."

The Amnesty submission highlights several concerns. In a section on indigenous rights, it notes more children are in the care of the state now than during the century-plus period when they were forcibly removed from communities and sent to Indian residential schools.

"The Canadian record of upholding the rights of indigenous peoples is a real disgrace and a source of national shame," said Neve. "These are not political, economic or natural resource matters. These are issues of human rights."

He said Amnesty International expects Canada to be cited for falling short on human rights issues in a number of areas when the UN rights arm publishes its final report.

While only member states can ask questions or make recommendations during the Feb. 3 hearing, written submissions are taken into consideration for the report.

Canada currently sits on the 47-member council, a slot filled by rotation.

In its submission, the Assembly of First Nations criticizes Ottawa for refusing to endorse the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, as well as other problems.

"Canada's position blatantly rejects and undermines the international and domestic rights processes," it says, noting the indigenous population of Canada is "drastically over-represented in incarceration rates, disabilities, poor health indices, suicide and poverty."

The brief cites last year's apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on behalf of Canadians for Indian residential schools, which were aimed at assimilation. Churches ran the schools for about 150 years, an issue addressed by a class-action settlement, the creation of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the public apology.

But the submission suggests no progress has been made.

Grand Chief Ed John, from the First Nations Summit in B.C., said Canada has "a duty to uphold human rights at the highest level."

"The government is opposed to the declaration (on aboriginal rights) for purely ideological reasons," said John.

John criticized the federal government's labelling as consultations its meetings with non-governmental organizations – including with his group and others in B.C. last Friday – when the federal submission to the UN is dated Jan. 5.

"It was after the fact," said John.

The federal government lauds Canada's rights record in its lengthy brief, citing everything from the court system and universal health care to education.

Paul Joffe, an international human rights lawyer, said the power of the review comes with publicity or its "name and shame" aspect.

"What country wants to be put in a report as being against human rights?" asked Joffe. "This process is meant to encourage countries to improve their behaviour and uplift standards."

This new process means countries will be judged for the first time by their peers, rather than by UN agencies.

All 198 UN members are reviewed every four years.

"Canadians should be concerned because the government signs international agreements and doesn't abide by them," said John Lewis, human rights co-ordinator for the Toronto-based group, KAIROS.

"In particular, we've begun to fall down on economic, social and cultural rights. That is worrisome at any time, but particularly so during an economic downturn."

In its brief, KAIROS, an organization with ecumenical support, says a majority of migrant workers in Canada report they "continue to face unacceptable living and working conditions" and that "workplace safety standards are not properly monitored and enforced."

Source : Linda Diebel - National Affairs Writer - Jan 2009

Haitian Man Deported Despite UN Ruling

A Haitian-born man who was fighting deportation from Canada after serving a prison sentence for theft and assault was sent back to his native country this week.


This comes despite a UN ruling that said the expulsion would violate John Michael Dauphin's civil rights.

Dauphin, 22, was put on a private plane in Montreal and sent back to Haiti early on Monday, just hours before his immigration lawyer, Chantal Ianicello, was scheduled to argue for his release from detention, a request she said was supported by a UN Human Rights Committee ruling in Dauphin's favour.

"Immigration could have deported him at any time before today," Ianicello told CBC News. "They decided not to. They decided to wait for the [UN] decision and surprisingly, now that it is in his favour, they decided to remove him, without nobody knowing."

Dauphin's family did not know he was being sent away on Monday, and were planning a celebration after his immigration hearing, Ianicello said.

Now they are worried about his fate in Haiti, where they say he has no friends or relatives.

Dauphin was scheduled for deportation because of his criminal record. Under Canadian law, non-citizens can be returned to their home countries when they are sentenced to federal prison terms.

Attacked judge in 2005

Dauphin was sentenced to 33 months in jail after he attacked and robbed a Quebec court appeals judge in Old Montreal in 2005.

That's when he discovered his parents never obtained Canadian citizenship on his behalf, despite having moved to Montreal when he was two years old. Dauphin's brothers and sisters were all born in Canada and are citizens.

When Canada Border Services agents notified Dauphin he would be deported, he took his case to Geneva, Switzerland. A panel of the UN Human Rights Committee ruled it would be a breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to deport him to Haiti, because he has no family or friends there.

Ianicello said she was going to use that ruling to convince the immigration panel that Dauphin is better off in Montreal with his family, now that he has paid his debt to society. She admitted Monday she has little recourse to help her client come back to Canada.

Canada's Border Services Agency did not return calls for comment on the case.

Source : CBC News - June 2009

Almost 19,000 " Criminals " Deported From Canada In Last Decade, Many To Danger Zones

Canada has deported close to 19,000 foreign criminals and security threats from the country in the last decade and many of them are being booted to the most dangerous places on Earth.


Figures from the Canada Border Services Agency show that hundreds of deportees have been dispatched to places like Haiti, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That's despite a general prohibition on deportations to those countries, which are the five currently listed on Canada's Temporary Suspension of Removals list.

Criminals are not protected by any such amnesty and at least 555 people have been deported to listed countries since 1999, according to federal figures.

The list exists to ensure people are not deported to places where war or natural disaster could prove life-threatening, but the CBSA offers no apologies for making exceptions in these cases.

"Our position is clear, Canada will not be a safe haven to those who endanger the safety and security of Canadians," agency spokeswoman Patrizia Giolti said in an e-mail.

"During a temporary suspension of removals, CBSA continues to remove criminals, national security cases, war criminals and individuals who have committed crimes against humanity."

Figures show criminal and security removals represent only a small fraction - 16 per cent - of all deportations from Canada. Just over 115,000 people have been deported since 1999.

Stewart Istvanffy, a Montreal lawyer who has represented thousands of hopeful migrants during his 20-year career, said he's all for kicking heinous criminals out of the country.

But he believes some of these so-called thugs are facing unjust removal for minor drug or shoplifting offences.

He has seen a number of cases involving young local Haitians who wind up with minor criminal records after turning 18, and become targets for deportation.

"The police come to them and say they're gang members and often they're not, but they treat them all like public dangers," Istvanffy said.

"Somebody who came here when they were two years old and they've lived all their life here and they discover they're not Canadian when immigration tells them at age 20 that they want to deport them, I don't think they should be deported."

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, shares his concerns.

She recalls a case a few years ago involving a Congolese teenager who was nearly separated from his entire family and sent back to the Congo for shoplifting. The removal did not proceed, she said, although the incident raised many questions.

"We certainly have concerns about it being very broad in terms of any kind of criminality," she said.

Istvanffy cites the case of a Congolese man who spent 15 years in Canada before being slated for deportation. He says his troubles stemmed from a 10-year-old fraud conviction for cashing a false cheque - a crime committed during the man's early 20s for which he paid a small fine.

"This is a guy who has solid reasons for being in real danger of detention, torture and possible death and, because of being found guilty of one small criminal offence, the (Temporary Suspension of Removal) moratorium does not apply to him," Istvanffy said.

"That type of case, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, I've seen about a half-dozen like that."

Canada ushered in tougher legislation to make it easier to deport non-citizens after the infamous 1994 Just Desserts killing in Toronto.

The incident involved a young woman who was shot to death during a botched robbery at a cafe. The three men charged in the case were Jamaican citizens who had been living in Canada since they were children. Only one of them was eventually deported.

Istvanffy said Canada's attitude toward foreign criminals got even harsher when the Immigration Act was overhauled in June 2002.

He believes even non-citizens ought to benefit from the principle of proportionality - that the punishment ought to fit the crime - and that Immigration and Refugee Board officials aren't doing a good enough job finding that balance.

Source : The Canadian Press - 2009

Solidarity Across Borders

Fighting for Justice and Dignity for Refugees and Immigrants

Canada tends to take pride in its humanitarian tradition of providing protection to thousands of refugees who fear persecution, or who are at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment. Despite this popular image, however, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) are both highly flawed institutions, which often fail to protect those seeking asylum.


For example, members of Solidarity Across Borders (SAB), a Montreal-based coalition of self-organized refugees and their allies, recently received a call from Lilia Diaz. Telephoning in tears from Mexico, Diaz told us that she and her family are living clandestinely in the constant fear of being discovered and attacked, since their deportation from Canada this past summer back to the country they had fled.

They came to Canada in 2001 seeking refugee status, but found to their surprise that their refugee status was denied. When the order for their deportation was issued, the family chose to defy it. They opted instead to live underground without rights, without access to health care, services, or decent work, and with the constant anxiety of being discovered by Immigration authorities. Eventually they were discovered and returned to Mexico. Accused of denouncing police officers for rape and murder, Diaz and her family are now being hunted by the Mexican judiciary police. For Lilia Diaz and her family, the Canadian deportation order amounts to a death sentence.

The ordeal of Lilia Diaz and her family is the daily reality for up to 400,000 refugees living without status in Canada. This is because the Refugee Protection Act makes it more difficult to obtain status, while at the same time making detentions and deportations easier. In the political context since 9/11, where immigration policies are being harmonized with so-called “anti-terrorist” policies, the exclusionary, discriminatory and even racist nature of these laws is being exacerbated.

Two aspects of this new situation are worth highlighting. The first is the unprecedented powers that are now being granted to police and immigration authorities, which are leading to a greater tendency to criminalize non-status people and to increase the number of unfair detentions and deportations. The Security Certificate, for instance, allows for the arbitrary and indefinite detention of non-citizens based upon secret evidence. Those detained need not be charged and are without access to a fair trial under threat of deportation. Suspending all civil liberties and due process, the Security Certificate has been used to detain six men, five of whom are of Muslim or Arab origin. In this context, immigrant and refugee communities are the targets of policies that not only fail to protect those seeking asylum, but that offer evidence for the exclusionary criteria and systemic racism of Immigration Canada.

A second aspect is the new, so-called Safe Third Country Agreement. This agreement, which came into effect in December, 2004, prohibits any refugee from making a claim in Canada if they have entered by way of a safe third country, like the United States. This rule is likely to reduce the number of refugee claimants by up to 40 per cent.

Born out of the struggles of refugee communities in Montreal against such anti-immigration policies, the Solidarity Across Borders coalition has been organizing for justice and dignity for immigrants, migrants and refugees for over two years. Most notably, this past summer SAB organized the No One Is Illegal March on Ottawa, which took place from June 18 to 25. The march followed in the footsteps of the historic marches that preceded it, like the 1935 “On to Ottawa” Trek, where unemployed workers won the first unemployment insurance program in Canada; as well as the 1995 Bread and Roses march, where Quebec women marched against poverty. The No One Is Illegal March is part of a growing worldwide movement fighting for status for all.

The march was the inspiration of Shamim Akhtar, a Pakistani refugee who had been living in Canada for three years with her husband and four children. Deported in the summer of 2004, Shamim proposed the march at the first Solidarity Across Borders meeting as a means of challenging the unjust laws and institutions that oppress and victimize immigrants and refugees. The march was developed around the coalition’s four principle demands: 1) the regularization of all non-status persons; 2) an end to deportations; 3) an end to the detention of migrants, immigrants and refugees; and 4) the abolition of Security Certificates.

Regularization is the call for the recognition of the rights of people living without status in Canada. Relegated to the lowest ranks of the labour market as an underclass of exploited clandestine workers, people without status regularly end up cleaning offices and hotels and working in fast-food restaurants, factories, warehouses and sweatshops. While CIC has made statements about the possibility of a partial regularization program favouring immigrants working in particular industries, it continues to operate with a set of exclusionary distinctions that divide people into categories of “good” and “bad,” in which some are deserving of status and some are not. In the meantime, the current regime continues to perpetuate the precariousness of all those living without status here or facing genuine threats to their life following their deportation from Canada.

Solidarity Across Borders is calling for an end to deportations and an end to the detention of migrants, immigrants and refugees. It calls for an end to the double discrimination experienced by those fleeing poverty and persecution. While seeking asylum in a safer country, many people coming to Canadian shores are confronted with the reality that the persecution continues. They discover the unfairness of discretionary powers that allow for detention based not on something that person has done, but rather on what that person is deemed to be: a person without status. These discretionary powers are entrenched in the refugee determination system, where decision-making is often arbitrary.

A good example of this arbitrariness is the case of two Palestinian brothers, both members of SAB. These two brothers, who were born in the same refugee camp in Lebanon and who have identical histories and claims for refugee status, did not receive the same response from the IRB. While the first brother was rightly accepted, the second, who had to plead his case before an official notorious for refusing Arab claimants, was rejected. This unjust situation is aggravated by the fact that the decision supposedly cannot be appealed.

The Canadian government promised to implement a refugee claim appeal process by June, 2003. However, it has not yet done this. For this reason, the unilateral decision of this immigration official supposedly cannot be reviewed. Faced with a deportation order, non-status people are forced to choose between being sent back to the hopeless conditions they had fled and going underground, living without rights with the constant anxiety of being discovered.

It is in response to these realities that hundreds of refugees, immigrants and their allies marched from Montreal to Ottawa this past summer, proclaiming that no one is illegal. While SAB did not win status for all, the march was a visible demonstration of the daily struggle of refugee and immigrant communities’ self-organizing efforts and their fight against repressive anti-immigrant laws. The movement for justice and dignity for migrants, immigrants and refugees continues to grow. The fight for status — for an end to deportations and for the free movement of people — is getting stronger. The struggle in Canada, on behalf of victims of injustice like Lilia Diaz and her family, continues.


For more information: http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/

Mohawk Grand Chief Details Alleged Abuse By CBSA Officers

Mohawk elders were pushed to the ground and a woman was put through an X-ray machine designed for trucks, according to the Grand Chief of the Mohawks of Akwesasne.


The alleged incidents were cited by Grand Chief Tim Thompson Thursday in a speech to the Assembly of First Nation's National Day of Reconciliation.

Grand Chief Thompson used the event on Victoria Island, Ottawa to update other tribes on the situation at the Three Nations Bridge.

The bridge, connecting Massena, NY and Cornwall, Ontario has been closed since June 1st after Akwesasne Mohawks took control of the Canadian Customs building on Cornwall Island, which is Mohawk territory.

The Mohawks are demanding talks with the Canadian government on the alleged abuse of tribe members by Canadian border guards, and the government's decision to put firearms in the hands of the guards.

"We opposed the arming of Canadian Border Guards on our territory because we have seen our community members endure harassment by border guards on our territory for many years," Thompson said.

He said there are cases of alleged abuse currently before the Canadian Human Rights Commission, including:

•Elders being pushed to the ground

•A 17 year old male being subjected to a cavity search

•A young woman being put through a VACAS machine, an X-ray machine that examines trucks

"The safety of our people would be in jeopardy if we allowed guards to have firearms, especially those who are aggressive, racist and intent on racially profiling our people," Thompson said.

Source : Newport Television 2009

Canada Spying On Its Muslim Citizens

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is conducting regular interviews and interrogations with hundreds of Arabs and Muslims across Canada at their work places, homes and in the vicinity of local mosques, say national and Montreal-based Arab and Muslim community groups. The groups are reporting major increases in the numbers of calls from distressed community members concerning CSIS interventions. According to the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations in Canada (CAIR-Canada), CSIS intelligence gathering activities have increased over the past year.


“Community members who have been approached by CSIS across the country are calling our office on a weekly basis,” says Sameer Zuberi, CAIR-Canada’s communications coordinator. “This hike in CSIS visits is alarming to CAIR-Canada as it casts a blanket of fear and intimidation that is spread over our entire community.”

In response to increased CSIS activity, CAIR-Canada has shipped thousands of copies of a publication designed for Canadian Muslims dealing with CSIS and other Canadian authorities, entitled Know Your Rights Guide, to local mosques and community centres.

“I got a call from a CSIS agent a couple of months ago asking for a meeting at a café downtown on Peel street,” says former Concordia (Montreal) student Mohammed over the phone from Kuwait, where he is currently working as a mechanical engineer. He asked that his last name not be used due to fears of possible repercussions. “I was asked numerous questions concerning my own involvement in the Muslim community [and] was asked by the CSIS agent to not bring a lawyer to the meeting. The agents acknowledged that they had no specific incriminating evidence against me but explained in a non-direct fashion that they simply wanted to gather information on our community, leading me to feel suspect in Canada simply because of my religion.”

“People are being targeted by CSIS for simply belonging to a certain ethnic group with certain religious beliefs without any obvious rationale for such targeting,” says Bassam Hussein of the Centre communautaire Musulman de Montréal. “I was recently visited by a mother of four in Montreal who was seeking help due to CSIS harassment against her and her husband,” says Hussein. “CSIS went to her husband’s employer to inquire about him, the employer was terrified when CSIS contacted him and two weeks later, the employer let the husband go.”

The 2007 Conservative federal budget “earmarks new funding for CSIS,” according to the Ministry of Finance Web site, to the tune of $80-million over two years in addition to the approximately $200-million already allocated to Canada’s national spy agency. Media representatives from CSIS did not return repeated requests for an interview from the Mirror before deadline.

CAIR-Canada recently reported that approximately 30 per cent of all CSIS visits in the Muslim community are occurring at the workplace, often putting individuals’ careers in jeopardy.

“Community members feel that their civil liberties are being seriously compromised under the pretext of fighting terrorism,” says Hussein. “Community members who I know are being contacted by CSIS are simple people working hard to live in peace and raise their families.”

Source : The Montreal Mirror

'War' Mentality Erodes Rights : Report Says

Canada is among the countries that have succumbed to a war-on-terror mentality that has infected too many states, a roving panel of judges has found.
Calling upon the world to dispense with any "war" mentality, the judges say it's high time that terrorism suspects and intelligence agents cease to be treated as though they exist outside the rule of law.
"It's time for change," they write in Assessing Damage, Urging Action. The 200-page report, released earlier this month, advocates rolling back many emergency powers that have been invoked globally since 9/11.
"Human rights are not, and can never be a luxury to be cast aside in times of difficulty" concludes the expert panel, which was commissioned by the International Commission of Jurists.
"I'm not aware of anything that is comparable to this document," said Kent Roach, a University of Toronto law professor and counterterrorism expert, who testified at the ICJ's Canadian hearings. He anticipates the report will be highly influential, adding it is already being reviewed within Ottawa and by the U.S. Obama administration.
Canadian investigations helped shape the findings, with the Maher Arar affair and other controversies highlighted as examples of how polices can go astray.
From 2005 to 2008, the ICJ's panel spoke to officials, experts and victims of terrorist attacks. The trips to Bogota, Belfast, Cairo, Colombo, London, Ottawa, Washington, and places in between, appear to have left the panel somewhat horrified at how history and human-rights conventions can be forgotten in times of crisis.
"Intelligence agencies around the world have acquired new powers and resources, but legal and political accountability have not kept pace," the judges write.
The panel criticizes draconian regimes in Asia and the Middle East, but reserves some of its strongest admonitions for Western nations. "States that previously lauded the importance of the rule of law and human rights protections [...] are now at the forefront of undermining those protections," the report concludes.
The United States is faulted for highly controversial post-9/11 programs that are now being rolled back. The panel points to policies like "extraordinary rendition" and the often "sanitized and euphemistic labels" affixed to them.
The problems with such practises don't stop at the United States: Certain European countries that publicly deplore U.S. counterterrorism practises are privately said to be eager "markets" and "consumers" for the information that results.
As for Canada, the story of Maher Arar is said to be "a model of how transnational intelligence should not be happening."
The exonerated engineer was flagged by Canadian agencies before being sent from the United States to Syria, where he was tortured as an alleged al-Qaeda suspect.
Moroccan Montrealer Adil Charkaoui testified directly to the panel about his jailing and continuing monitoring in Canada. Several aspects of the "security certificate" policy he is controlled under were found to be lacking by the judges.
Canadian officials were lauded, however, for having the rare capacity to publicly probe their intelligence practices and past mistakes. Too few countries do this, the judges say.
The report will not be warmly welcomed in all quarters. In Canada and beyond, state agents complain they are increasingly shackled in the fight against terrorism. Some conservative judges argue that there are no absolutes in terms of human rights - that is, individual rights fluctuate with the threats faced by society.
The ICJ-appointed panel insists that the problem of terrorism, while very serious, is rarely as new or exceptional as it is often presented to be.
Insisting certain rights are immutable, they argue that heavy-handed responses to terrorism are counterproductive. "A military response to terrorism may seem to offer a short-term solution ," the panel writes, "but often creates long-term problems."

Source : Globe And Mail - February 2009

Immigrants From France Are Not Welcomed In Quebec

A curious thing is happening in Quebec: immigrants from France, highly prized and ardently recruited, are packing up in droves and quitting the snowy province.
"We are strangers here, and yet we had been assured we would be warmly welcomed," Rodolphe Claret, who emigrated to Montreal in 2005, recently told an interviewer from La Presse. "They made their pitch very effectively, it was a beautiful package, they showed us graphs and photos, we wanted to believe in it."
But after two years of working at menial jobs and struggling to make ends meet, Claret and his wife sold their bungalow and possessions and returned to France.
The Clarets and thousands like them are enmeshed in the perennial problem that afflicts immigrants to Canada: the inability to transfer foreign qualifications and work experience.
To address the problem, a new study from researchers at the Université de Montréal is recommending that Canada overhaul its immigration policy to favour younger candidates like foreign students and temporary workers, for whom foreign experience and credentials form less of a barrier.
"There is a serious lack of consistency between the government policy of wanting to attract qualified new immigrants to the labour market, and the reality that confronts those immigrants when employers refuse to recognize their experience and qualifications," the study finds.
The review is also needed, say the authors, to reverse the current trend that sees each successive generation of immigrants earn less money than its predecessor.
The study shows that Ontario's immigrants have historically fared better financially than new arrivals in Quebec and British Columbia, but that situation is changing.
In the 1990s, immigrants to Ontario fell behind those in Quebec and B.C. in terms of salary. Together the three provinces are home to 90 per cent of immigrants to the country. The income gap is growing, the researchers say, despite new programs aimed at integrating immigrants, largely because Quebec has a greater say in what immigrants it accepts, and because B.C. has a longer experience with new arrivals from Asia, who now form the bulk of immigrants to Canada.
The study found new arrivals to Ontario in the 1990s earned an average of 18 per cent less than those who immigrated in the 1960s. Those figures stood at 27.1 per cent in Quebec and 31 per cent in B.C. for the same time period.
But in the 1990s, Ontario immigrants earned an average of 5 per cent less than in the 1980s, whereas Quebec and B.C. immigrants' salaries remained flat.
The study, billed as the first comparative analysis of its kind, also tried to explain the phenomenon by examining economic conditions, country of provenance, gender and language skills.
"And we found that language skills by far are the most important factor in determining economic success," said Université de Montréal industrial relations professor Brahim Boudarbat, a labour economist who co-authored the study with doctoral student Maude Boulet.
Economic cycles, by contrast, have had a negligible impact.
The researchers also discovered that immigrant women in Quebec and immigrant men in B.C. tend to be the hardest hit in terms of earning potential, and that immigrants from Africa and Latin America have a comparatively harder time having their qualifications recognized.
The situation is particularly difficult for women, "who must effectively be prepared to start from scratch" upon arriving in Canada, Boudarbat wrote in the study.
Because of an agreement reached in the 1960s, Quebec is allowed to select its "economic class" immigrants, and in the last six or seven years has changed its policies to favour North African and European francophones.
"Quebec has effectively managed to stop the bulk of the economic decline of its immigrants," Boudarbat said. "The fact that other provinces don't have as much control over their immigration policies is necessarily an important factor. Ontario and B.C. simply don't have the same means to adjust."
While Quebec's immigrants now tend to be better educated than elsewhere in the country – the result of a provincial policy decision – it's also where the income gap between university-educated immigrants and those without higher degrees is deepest.
"A society and an economy doesn't just need PhDs, you need to recruit all kinds of people in a diversified economy, skilled and not," said Yann Hairaud, head of a non-profit Montreal agency that helps French immigrants adjust to Quebec life.
"The fundamental problem we see, and it's one that affects all immigrants to Canada, is the recognition of experience and qualifications."

Source : The Star

The Ultimate Injustice : The Maher Arar Case

A very brief story of this complicated case :

Maher Arar is a 34-year-old wireless technology consultant. He was born in Syria and came to Canada with his family at the age of 17. He became a Canadian citizen in 1991. On Sept. 26, 2002, while in transit in New York’s JFK airport when returning home from a vacation, Arar was detained by US officials and interrogated about alleged links to al-Qaeda. Twelve days later, he was chained, shackled and flown to Syria, where he was held in a tiny “grave-like” cell for ten months and ten days before he was moved to a better cell in a different prison. In Syria, he was beaten, tortured and forced to make a false confession. During his imprisonment, Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh, campaigned relentlessly on his behalf until he was returned to Canada in October 2003. On Jan. 28, 2004, under pressure from Canadian human rights organizations and a growing number of citizens, the Government of Canada announced a Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar. On September 18, 2006, the Commissioner of the Inquiry, Justice Dennis O'Connor, cleared Arar of all terrorism allegations, stating he was "able to say categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offence or that his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada." To read the Commissioner's report, including his findings on the actions of Canadian officials, please visit the Arar Commission's website.

Source : www.maherarar.ca

If You Are Black And Muslim, Your Canadian Citizenship Is Worthless

bousfian Abdelrazik, the Canadian citizen whose reputation remains tainted by ministerial accusations, wants his name restored and those Canadian security agents who aided his imprisonment in Sudan brought to justice.
“It is not over,” he said. “I need my name removed as soon as possible from that list.” He was referring to the United Nations Security Council blacklist of terrorist suspects known as the 1267 list, named for the resolution, co-sponsored by Canada, that created it.
I want to “live my life like a normal person, … like a normal Canadian,” Mr. Abdelrazik said.
In a wide-ranging and sometimes chilling account of six years of imprisonment and forced exile abroad, Mr. Abdelrazik recounted stories of interrogation and alleged torture. He told of Canadian Security and Intelligence Service agents laughingly saying “Sudan will be your Guantanamo” when he begged to be allowed to return home.
His ordeal – described as Kafkaesque by the federal court judge who ordered him repatriated – is far from ended. But the Harper government made it clear that Mr. Abdelrazik couldn't expect any support in his efforts to remove his name from the UN list.
Foreign Minster Lawrence Cannon, in a letter delivered Thursday, told Mr. Abdelrazik to check out a UN website that explains delisting procedures for individuals. “I regret to inform you that I must decline your invitation to meet,” the minister wrote.
It was Mr. Cannon who labelled Mr. Abdelrazik a threat to national security, in spite of the fact that he had been cleared by CSIS and the RCMP. Mr. Cannon made no mention of the fact that the Harper government had already sought – in December of 2007 – to have Mr. Abdelrazik delisted after the security agencies said they had knew of no reason not to back the request.
That delisting application was vetoed, apparently by the United States, which originally put him on the blacklist.
Although individuals can apply for “delisting,” only governments can add people to the terrorist blacklist, and unless all 15 members of the Security Council agree to a delisting, it is denied. UN sources confirm that no one has ever been delisted without the backing of their government.
Mr. Abdelrazik is the only living Canadian on the list. The only other listed Canadian is Ahmed Khadr, who has been dead since 2003.
Mr. Abdelrazik, who has repeatedly – and under oath – denied any involvement in terrorism, restated those claims Thursday.
He point-by-point denied the allegations cited by the U.S. government in nominating him to the blacklist. They include that he fought in Chechnya, trained in a terrorist camp in Afghanistan, knew Osama bin Laden and was a key operative in al-Qaeda.
“I have never seen bin Laden in my entire life. … I have never been to Chechnya,” he said. He said he had never been to Afghanistan. “I have never hurt anyone in my life,” Mr. Abdelrazik said in an impassioned 40-minute news conference on Parliament Hill. “I have never been involved in that sort of thing.”
But he did offer an account of torture and abuse in Sudanese prisons. CSIS agents allegedly told him he would never see Canada again when they interrogated him in a Sudanese jail in October of 2003.
“Sudan will be your Guantanamo,” he quoted one CSIS agent as telling him, a reference to the U.S. prison for terrorist suspects on a naval base in Cuba, where hundreds have been held – many in solitary confinement and without charge – for years.
Mr. Abdelrazik said one of the two CSIS interrogators was the same agent who questioned him at his home two days before he flew to Khartoum in March of 2003. Mr. Abdelrazik said he had called the Montreal police to get the CSIS agents to leave.
“One of them, he turned and said to me, ‘You will see…' ” he said.
Although CSIS denies it arranged for Mr. Abdelrazik to be imprisoned in Sudan, heavily redacted government documents say he was arrested “at our request,” meaning Canada's.
After months in solitary with little food and occasional torture, Mr. Abdelrazik said one day his Sudanese jailers told him the “Canadian m uhabarat want to talk to me,” using the feared Arabic term for secret police.
Mr. Abdelrazik says he was taken to a room with a table laden “with cakes and fruits and juice and bottles of water,” but before he could say anything, one of the CSIS agents said, “Remember I told you in Montreal that ‘You will see,' … and now, you will see.”
Mr. Abdelrazik said he begged to be allowed to go home and offered to face any charges the agents wanted to press.
“I am not going to help a terrorist,” the CSIS agent replied, according to Mr. Abdelrazik. The agent added that Mr. Abdelrazik was “Sudanese, not a Canadian, and should stay in Sudan forever.”
“My country doesn't need you,” the CSIS agent said. After the two left, Mr. Abdelrazik said the worst period of torture and abuse began.
Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyer, Yavar Hameed, said it was too early to decide whether to seek an inquiry or an apology or compensation from the government.
“I want those people who played this role to face justice, because I don't want this to happen to another person,” Mr. Abdelrazik said.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who has been mostly silent during the 16-month saga since Mr. Abdelrazik's plight became public, said Thursday that he backed “him being taken off the terrorist watch list.”
However, the Liberals were in power when Mr. Abdelrazik says CSIS harassed him in Montreal and then interrogated him in Sudan. The prime minister at the time, Paul Martin, refused to meet him or bring him home when Mr. Martin visited Khartoum in December of 2004.
“The Abdelrazik case is not about Mr. Abdelrazik alone,” Mr. Ignatieff said Thursday. “It's crucial that Canadians can count on a government to say Canadian citizenship is indivisible, we protect them all.”

Source : The Globe And Mail

Six Years In Legal Labyrinth

In the topsy-turvy world of security, few stories are more bizarre than that of Adil Charkaoui. Six years ago, the federal government jailed him as an alleged Al Qaeda sleeper agent. Now, it turns out, the government admits it has no credible evidence of that or indeed anything else against him that it's willing to test in court.But the government still wants the 36-year-old Montrealer – who has applied for but not yet been granted Canadian citizenship – deported to his native Morocco.Charkaoui is one of five Muslim men, non-citizens all, caught up in the Catch-22 web of Canadian immigration law. This allows the government – under judicial oversight – to jail without charge and eventually deport any non-citizen it deems a security risk.The judicial oversight clause is important. Even though the law is stacked against detainees (secret evidence is permitted), all five have managed to convince judges that they are not as dangerous as the government claims and need not be kept in jail.Charkaoui, however, is the legal star of the five. He's won two Supreme Court challenges and, as he gradually demolished Ottawa's case against him, managed to make the government look like an idiot.In 2003, when Charkaoui was first arrested, the government's claim he was an Al Qaeda sleeper agent made headlines across the country. But earlier this year, CSIS senior manager Ted Flanigan admitted in court that the spy agency has no evidence of that. Rather, Flanigan said, CSIS believed that Charkaoui "meets the profile" of a sleeper agent – which is to say, he could be one."A (real) sleeper agent would be completely different," Flanigan acknowledged.At one point, the government claimed that Charkaoui once attended a Pakistani terrorist training camp. It has now quietly dropped that allegation. Ditto to government claims – again widely reported – that he once discussed how to seize a commercial airliner. That too has evaporated.But what finally sandbagged the government's case was Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer's ruling this spring ordering Ottawa to reveal hitherto secret material in open court. Exactly what she ordered released is unknown. But given the traditional deference of the courts on issues of national security, it's a good bet that Tremblay-Lamar didn't tell the Crown to pony up the names of secret informants or reveal material from foreign spy agencies.It's more likely that she concluded that the government was using national security as an excuse to protect evidence too weak to withstand cross-examination.Ottawa's response was to withdraw most of its evidence against Charkaoui, acknowledging that whatever remains can't sustain its claim that he's a security threat. Tremblay-Lamer is expected to rule next month on whether to throw out the entire case.Reached by phone this week, the subject of all this attention was more angry than triumphant. A former French teacher, Charkaoui can't get a job because of the terror allegations hanging over his head. And he's still waiting to hear back from Ottawa about the application for Canadian citizenship he made 10 years ago. "They tell me: `We're still studying your case,'" he says wryly.As for his six-year ordeal, he does not want to let the government slink quietly away. Instead, he's hoping that Tremblay-Lamer will slam Ottawa for what he says was a blatant abuse of process."I want my name cleared," he says. "I want them to say clearly that they have no evidence against me."

Source : Toronto Star

The Ivan Apaolaza Case

Ivan Apaolaza Sancho, a 36-year old Basque refugee claimant and political prisoner, has been detained at the Rivière-des-Prairies prison since June 2007. He was arrested by the RCMP, acting at the behest of the Spanish authorities, who allege that he was a member of the Basque nationalist group ETA, a "listed entity" under Canada's Antiterrorism Act. Ivan vigorously denies the allegations. However, the Minister of Immigration has argued that Ivan should be deported from Canada on these grounds and that he should be detained pending deportation.
Despite repeated requests from his lawyers, not one piece of evidence to support the allegations has been presented. Ivan is detained and faces deportation on the basis of allegations contained within Spanish arrest warrants. Moreover, the allegations in these warrants themselves seem to come from a "confession" a Basque woman made under torture while she was held incommunicado by Spanish police. Under Canadian and international law, information obtained under torture cannot be used in any judicial proceeding.

Ivan in prison in Spain (March 2009).
The Immigration and Refugee Board agreed in May 2008 that the confession in question was likely obtained under torture, but did not accept evidence that the allegations were based on this declaration. As a result of this decision, Ivan is barred from making a refugee claim in Canada. Ivan now faces deportation to Spain where he fears torture at the hands of the Spanish police and further detention without a fair trial. Amnesty International has reported that torture is frequent in Spain in cases such as Mr. Sancho's.
Ivan is one of hundreds of Basque political prisoners. For centuries, the Spanish state has inflicted intense and cruel repression on the Basque left-sovereignist movement, which enjoys broad support in Basque society. Today, following in Franco's footsteps, the state continues to use political repression as it attempts to dismantle the Basque movement's base of social support. Of the 18,721 people arrested in Basque country for political reasons between 1977 and 2002, 9200 people served jail time, 5300 people reported having been tortured, and 9 people were murdered during police interrogations.

Source : www.peoplescommission.org