Canadian
Government’s Double Standard on Imprisonment Without
Charges
Last week the
Canadian Supreme Court was asked to rule on the constitutionality of security
certificates which allow the federal government to hold immigrants or refugees
without charge for indefinite periods of time in the name of “national
security”. Currently five individuals are in prison under such certificates for
periods ranging from four to six years. The lead appellant in the Supreme Court
appeal is AdilCharkaoui, a
Morroccan-born permanent resident of Canada who is
accused by federal authorities of being an Al Qaeda “sleeper agent”. To date,
no evidence to substantiate this claim has been presented to Charkaoui or his lawyers, nor has any such evidence been
presented to a judge. All of the imprisoned men face deportation under the
security certificates and some could face torture or execution in their home
countries based solely on suspicion of their alleged ties to terrorist groups.
The federal government argues that stripping these individuals of all
rights is warranted because Canada
is a potential target of terrorism. The argument that the charging of these individuals
or disclosing the evidence against them would jeopardize ongoing security
operations or the “war on terrorism” rings hollow, as the mere detention of
these individuals would surely have tipped off their confederates, if indeed
there ever were any. Similarly, it is difficult to believe that these five
individuals would pose any serious threat to security since the RCMP and/or
CSIS would presumably have them under constant surveillance.
Furthermore, the Canadian government is extremely selective when it comes
to the application of this standard. For example, it has never protested the U.S. government’s practice of holding prisoners
in Guantanamo
without charge and without any rights under the Geneva Conventions, nor has it
protested the fact that these prisoners are routinely tortured by their
American captors. Hundreds of the Guantanamo detainees have now been
released without any charges being laid, indicating that they were never a
threat in the first place. Nor has the Canadian government protested the U.S. “rendition” of Maher Arar,
a Canadian citizen, to Syria
where he was tortured by Syrian security officials, despite the fact that Arar is now considered totally innocent of any connection
to terrorism.
Furthermore,
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay recently demanded that the government of Iran either charge or release RaminJahanbegloo, a Canadian-Iranian
lecturer who is being held without charge in Iran on the basis that he is a
threat to the national security of that country. Similarly, the Canadian
government routinely attacks China
as a violator of human rights because it has tried, convicted and imprisoned a
number of individuals it claims have been involved in acts of terrorism or
plots to overthrow the government. Another example is Cuba where, apart from those prisoners being
held by the U.S. in their Guantanamo
prison, there are no prisoners who have not been duly charged and convicted by
the Cuban judicial system. Yet the Canadian government repeatedly labels Cuba a human rights violator because it
prosecutes and imprisons individuals for accepting money from a foreign power
(the United States) in order
to organize the overthrow of the legal government of Cuba. In addition, in the case of
Iran and Cuba, there is extensive evidence that the U.S. government is funding
individuals and groups to commit acts of sabotage and terrorism against various
targets in an effort to destabilize the governments of those countries, whereas
no act of terrorism has been carried out in Canada since the bombing of the Air
India plane 20 years ago.
According to
Article 10 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to
which Canada
is a signatory: “Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public
hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his
rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.” The use of
security certificates to hold non-citizens without charges, without trial and without
even knowing what offence they have allegedly committed is therefore a
violation of human rights and of international law. The Canadian government is
quick to use this section of the UN Declaration to condemn as human rights
violators any countries with which the U.S. has a dispute. However, it
routinely ignores the Declaration’s application to either itself or any of its
allies, particularly the U.S.
Such a double standard is totally unacceptable to anyone who genuinely stands
for human rights and justice.
If these
individuals are suspected of committing an offence, then they should be charged
and their guilt or innocence should be determined by “an independent and
impartial tribunal”, as is their right under the UN Declaration and
international law. If there is no basis or insufficient evidence for such
charges to be laid, then they should be released immediately.