Fwd: online petition campaign: justice for Moe Harkat
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Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition
Dec 5, 2011, 11:37:16 AM12/5/11
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Dear Friends,
I am writing to invite you to join me in signing the Statement Against Security Certificates (http://www.harkatstatement.com/ ) .
My friend, Moe Harkat, was arrested on a security certificate on Dec. 10 (Human Rights Day), 2002. He is still subject to a security certificate, and the last nine years of his life have been a Kafkaesque nightmare. He was imprisoned without charge or trial until 2006, and has since been on bail subject to strict conditions. Following the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Charkaoui (which found the certificate regime to be unconstitutional), the federal government amended the secret trial system to allow special advocates to contest secret intelligence during in camera proceedings, but not to share any information with or receive instruction from the certificate subjects. Consequently, Moe still does not know the full details of the allegations against him - nor does. The government has alleged that he is a sleeper agent working for the Bin Laden Network, and they have sought since 2002 to deport him to his native Algeria. Moe fled Algeria as a refugee in the 1990s.
The security certificate regime makes a mockery of the notion of due process. It allows for the indefinite detention of persons without Canadian citizenship on the grounds of categorical suspicion and secret 'evidence'. Decisions are made according to a standard of 'objectively reasonable suspicion', as opposed to 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Two of the five post-September 11 secret trial cases have been withdrawn or quashed in Federal Court, but three other men - all Muslim - continue to exist in a legal limbo. Canadian law societies, bar associations, human rights groups, and social justice organizations have campaigned in opposition to security certificates for years.
This December 10 is the 9th anniversary of Moe's arrest. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat campaign has an online petition that you can sign. We would like to see a surge of signatures to coincide with this anniversary. Please note that this petition is directed at the certificate process itself, as opposed to any particular case.
I urge you to sign, and to pass the link to the Statement Against Security Certificates along to your colleagues.
If you would like additional information about the certificate mechanism, the cases before the courts, or the Statement, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
- Mike Larsen
Instructor, Criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Co-managing Editor
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
www.jpp.org
Mike Larsen (Criminology Department)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey Main C3881
12666 72nd Avenue
Surrey, BC V3W 2M8
Tel: 604 599 3412
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1411 / Virus Database: 2102/4050 - Release Date: 12/01/11
I am writing to invite you to join me in signing the Statement Against Security Certificates (http://www.harkatstatement.com/ ) .
My friend, Moe Harkat, was arrested on a security certificate on Dec. 10 (Human Rights Day), 2002. He is still subject to a security certificate, and the last nine years of his life have been a Kafkaesque nightmare. He was imprisoned without charge or trial until 2006, and has since been on bail subject to strict conditions. Following the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Charkaoui (which found the certificate regime to be unconstitutional), the federal government amended the secret trial system to allow special advocates to contest secret intelligence during in camera proceedings, but not to share any information with or receive instruction from the certificate subjects. Consequently, Moe still does not know the full details of the allegations against him - nor does. The government has alleged that he is a sleeper agent working for the Bin Laden Network, and they have sought since 2002 to deport him to his native Algeria. Moe fled Algeria as a refugee in the 1990s.
The security certificate regime makes a mockery of the notion of due process. It allows for the indefinite detention of persons without Canadian citizenship on the grounds of categorical suspicion and secret 'evidence'. Decisions are made according to a standard of 'objectively reasonable suspicion', as opposed to 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Two of the five post-September 11 secret trial cases have been withdrawn or quashed in Federal Court, but three other men - all Muslim - continue to exist in a legal limbo. Canadian law societies, bar associations, human rights groups, and social justice organizations have campaigned in opposition to security certificates for years.
This December 10 is the 9th anniversary of Moe's arrest. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat campaign has an online petition that you can sign. We would like to see a surge of signatures to coincide with this anniversary. Please note that this petition is directed at the certificate process itself, as opposed to any particular case.
I urge you to sign, and to pass the link to the Statement Against Security Certificates along to your colleagues.
If you would like additional information about the certificate mechanism, the cases before the courts, or the Statement, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
- Mike Larsen
Instructor, Criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Co-managing Editor
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
www.jpp.org
Mike Larsen (Criminology Department)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey Main C3881
12666 72nd Avenue
Surrey, BC V3W 2M8
Tel: 604 599 3412
-----
No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1411 / Virus Database: 2102/4050 - Release Date: 12/01/11
--
Vancouver Island Human Rights Coalition
418-620 View Street, Victoria, BC
Coast Salish Territories, V8W 1J6
Tel. (250) 382-3012 Fax (250) 380-7311
http://vihrc.org
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