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26, 2006 Ottawans protest transfer of Mohamed Harkat to 'Guantanamo North' See Vancouver Sun article below Report by YayaCanada On the morning of April 24, 2006, Sophie Harkat received a call from an inmate of the Ottawa Detention Centre, and this is how she learned that her husband Mohamed Harkat had been suddenly taken away. She could only assume he was being transferred to what the government says is an immigration detention centre, but which many people are more realistically calling "Canada's Guantanamo". We have since learned that this is true. The government no doubt views the facility as an answer to the multitude of complaints that ordinary detention centres, designed for short term stays, do not provide the activities and amenities needed by long term Security Certificate detainees. But there is another, much cheaper and more humane solution - simply to let these men have supervised bail and proper trials. Instead they have been removed from the cities in which their families live to virtual isolation in a desolate place on the far outskirts of Kingston. Sophie Harkat will be dependent on the kindness of Kingston residents who have volunteered to meet her at the Kingston bus station and drive her out to Millhaven to see her husband on visiting days. Who knows what arrangements the other families will or will not be able to make to keep in touch with their husbands and fathers. There will be some benefits. Longer visiting times - "but not conjugal" said Sophie to answer the question in everyone's minds - telephone calls, which unfortunately will now entail long distance charges, outdoor exercise, TV in their cells - if money can be raised to purchase them since they aren't provided by the government - and freedom from the orange jumpsuits. "They say they can wear their own clothes," Sophie continued, speaking to protesters outside the Ottawa offices of Citizenship and Immigration at noon hour on Tuesday, April 25th, "but only at night. During the day they have to wear government issue t-shirts and jeans." Harkat's transfer is a harsh and ominous blow in the midst of the long wait for the judge's decision on whether or not he can be freed on bail with conditions similar to those of Adil Charkaoui. There was a good turnout for the protest, considering that it was a working day, with speakers representing many groups advocating human rights: Stuart Ryan for the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW), Colin Stuart for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Jo Wood for the Ottawa Raging Grannies, Jade Pichette for the Students Coalition Against War (SCAW), Jessica Squires of International Socialists - Canada, Christian Legeais, candidate in the past election on the Marxist-Leninist ticket and media representative for the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee. Looking around I could see that other groups, such as NUPGE, NOWAR-PAIX, and the "Witnesses" were also represented. Colin Stuart spoke emphatically about Christian involvement in human rights issues. This needs to be heard in a day and age when a US president who claims to be a Christian says that God told him to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, and presumably to forego all sense of morality and human rights at Guantanamo Bay, in detainee ghost flights, at Abu Ghraib, and on the home front as well by various invasive means and restrictive legislation. The Quakers have a long history of helping the oppressed with no strings attached, at times in concert with breakaway Christians from other sects, when the oppressors themselves were church going Christians. Jessica Squires said that Canada's Guantanamo is an indication of a pattern of progressive losses of liberty throughout North America and the world, and a clear signal that Canada will not be coming out against Bush's Guantanamo in spite of outraged reports from world human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. "Mohamed Harkat" was officially declared a refugee when he came to Canada, yet now they want to deport him to the very country he fled from," said Squires. "That's a shame!" she said, emphasizing the word "shame" enough that the crowd picked it up and repeated it loudly. These Muslim men have been locked up for years solely on the word of Canada's secret police organization CSIS, an entity with a questionable reputation of it own yet whose "evidence" judges are reluctant but obliged to accept without it ever being subjected to the nuisance of cross-examination. A review of the Law Union of Ontario's Opening Submissions to the Arar Inquiry will give you a good indication of the reliability of CSIS evidence, yet the government and the courts are making decisions as if what CSIS tells them is true. You might also want to re-read the testimony of CSIS analyst PG, particularly Part II, for insight into how CSIS gets its "intelligence" and then, after looking for sources that "corroborate" it, prepares reports for government consumption. Canada's Guantanamo is no solution to terrorism and the whole process involving the Security Certificate is an obscenity in a country that prides itself on its human rights record and its justice system. Racist Islamaphobia is determining US policies that our government eagerly, and for lack of common sense and ordinary human decency, emulates. To paraphrase Stuart Ryan's remarks to the Ottawa protesters, history will record this as a black mark on Canada's image. Related: Zerra.net: Harkat transferred to Guantanamo North News that Mohamed Harkat was moved to a special prison in Kingston was received with anger by his many supporters. Harkat was transferred to the facility without warning at 10:30 am on April 24, 2006. Sophie Harkat, Mohamed's wife, says that the decision feels "like they are locking him up and throwing away the key while the decision on his release on bail, his reunification with his family is pending." Read more... *************************************
 'Guantanamo North'
opens for terror suspectsFour held at new facility in Kingston The $3.2-million Kingston Immigration Holding Centre was constructed on the grounds of the Millhaven penitentiary, above. Four foreign terrorism suspects detained in Canada are being held there. Allison Hanes, National Post Published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 The Vancouver Sun Four foreign terrorism suspects detained in Canada under national security certificates were transferred yesterday to a new dedicated holding facility in Kingston, Ont., that detractors have branded "Guantanamo North." The separate, six-cell, high-security complex constructed on the grounds of the Millhaven penitentiary will now be home to Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian national, Hassan Almrei, a Syrian, Mohamed Mahjoub and Mahmoud Jaballah, both Egyptian. "The transfer has been completed for the four," Cara Prest, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said late yesterday, having earlier refused to confirm the move citing security concerns. Along with Moroccan-born Adil Charkaoui -- who is now out on bail in Montreal -- the four were arrested in Canada on suspicion of having ties to international terrorist groups. The Canadian government is trying to deport all five to their homelands, employing a rare procedure called a national security certificate that allows them to be held without charge in administrative detention while all evidence is reviewed behind closed doors by a Federal Court judge. The four suspects are fighting expulsion on the grounds that they will be tortured, imprisoned or executed if they return to their countries of origin. They are also challenging the legality of their confinement. All five are free to leave Canada if they wish at any time. But until yesterday, the men were housed in jails and prisons in Ottawa and Toronto because they have been deemed a security threat. Ms. Prest said the $3.2-million Kingston Immigration Holding Centre was built to better meet the needs of the special prisoners, whose detention is governed by different laws than those of regular inmates. "The facility is going to be better suited for them to meet with their families, have better access to writing materials, reading materials, exercise, health and dental services and religious observance," she said. Sophie Harkat, who wed Mohamed Harkat two years before his apprehension, had been expecting her husband's transfer since he was informed of the impending move in a letter some months ago. But she said she was shocked to have to learn the news from an inmate at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre who called her around lunchtime to tell her that her husband had been whisked away. "They didn't allow him a phone call. They didn't allow him a chance to say goodbye," she said. "They just grabbed him." Ms. Harkat -- who is convinced of her husband's innocence and runs a group aimed at freeing him -- challenged the claim that he would be better off in Kingston. Until yesterday, the Ottawa resident was able to visit her spouse twice a week. Now she will have to travel two-and-a-half hours to see him. "There's a Guantanamo North in Canada," said Ms. Harkat, comparing the Kingston detention facility with the much-maligned U.S. prison camp for illegal combatants and foreign terrorism suspects on a military base in Cuba. "This is the same as Guantanamo except they'll have access to their families. "This is shameful." Mr. Harkat's Toronto lawyer, Paul Copeland, said he knew his client would eventually be moved from Ottawa to Kingston, but had hoped it would not happen until a final decision is made on his application for bail. Mr. Copeland said he had also hoped Mr. Harkat would remain in Ottawa until a challenge of his detention is heard by the Supreme Court of Canada in early June. "Am I surprised? No," Mr. Copeland said. "Is it consistent with [the government's] usual behaviour? Yes." Mr. Harkat, arrested in December, 2002, is suspected, according to Federal Court rulings, of being a member of Osama bin Laden's terror network who uses the handle Abu Muslim. Mr. Almrei, meanwhile, is believed to have a history of involvement with Islamic extremist groups and trained at terror camps in Afghanistan. Mr. Majoub is considered a high-level member of the Egyptian faction the Vanguards of Conquest, while Mr. Jaballah is alleged to have been a member of the Al Jihad terror organization. It was unclear yesterday whether the four would be allowed to mingle with each other at the new facility. ahanes@nationalpost.com © National Post 2006 http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id= 53f5d080-6ac8-4c78-804a-993aaf775b66&k=8574&p=1 Fair Use Notice The above newspaper article is copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. yayacanada.com Main Page - "Abolish the Security Certificate" |