Justice pour Anas: On veut la vérité!

Le 1er décembre 2005 (il y a plus d'un an), l'agent Bernier du poste
25 a tué avec deux balles Anas Bennis, un canadien d'origine marocaine
âgé de 25 ans. Anas a été tué hors d'une mosquée de quartier au coin
de Côte-des-Neiges et Kent, près de chez lui.

La police affirme qu'Anas les a attaqués sans raison avec un couteau
de cuisine. Pourtant, la famille et les amis d'Anas trouvent cela dur
à croire. Ils sont frustrés par l'attitude des autorités qui refusent
de rendre les preuves accessibles, dont une vidéo de l'incident.

Le 7 janvier 2006, malgré le froid, environ 4500 personnes ont
participé à une manifestation pour demander une enquête publique dans
la mort d'Anas. En décembre 2006, le premier anniversaire de la mort
d'Anas a été souligné par des vigiles à l'endroit où il a été tué.

Il n'y a jamais eu d'enquête publique, mais la police de Québec a mené
une enquête en secret. Le 4 novembre 2006, un procureur de la couronne
décidait qu'aucune accusation criminelle ne serait déposée contre les
policiers. Les rapports de la couronne et de la police demeurent
secrets, supprimés par le Ministre de la Sécurité Publique du Québec,
Jacques Dupuis.

Aucune explication satisfaisante de la mort d'Anas par la police n'a
été offerte à la famille Bennis. Le mystère et le secret entourant
cette affaire renforce la croyance qu'Anas Bennis a été tué par la
police dans un cas de profilage racial et religieux.

Le Collectif Justice pour Anas, mené par la famille Bennis, relance
ses efforts en 2007; nous demandons:

1) l'accès immédiat à tous les rapports, preuves et informations
concernant la mort de Mohamed Anas Bennis pour la famille Bennis et le
public;
2) une enquête publique et indépendante complète sur la mort de
Mohamed Anas Bennis;
3) que la police rende des comptes, et la fin du profilage racial et
de l'impunité policière.

Joignez-vous à nous pour nous soutenir, organiser et mobiliser pour la justice.

--Le Collectif Justice pour Anas
Tél: 514-342-2111
Courriel: justicepouranas@gmail.com
-----

--> Pour plus de détails et une mise en contexte au sujet de ce cas
troublant de bavure policière, visitez l'adresse suivante :

http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html

--> Nous recherchons le SOUTIEN de groupes pour la campagne Justice
pour Anas. Si votre groupe, collectif ou organisation soutient les
trois revendications de notre campagne, veuillez nous contacter afin
que nous vous ajoutions à notre liste.

Les groupes suivants ont endossé les trois revendications du campagne
Justice pour Anas :

-- Action Anti-Raciste/Anti-Racist Action Montréal
-- Association Bélagir
-- Action des chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture et la peine de mort (ACAT)
-- Action et solidarite pour la Colombie
-- Association facultaire des étudiants en sciences humaines de l'UQÀM
-- Association Vwa Zanset (Voice of the ancestors)
-- Bloquez l'Empire Montréal
-- le Centre de services de justice réparatrice
-- le Centre des travailleurs et travailleurs immigrants/Immigrant
Workers Center
-- le Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP)
-- le Conseil des églises pour la justice et la criminologie
-- Haiti Action Montreal
-- Head & Hands/À deux mains
-- Kabataang Montreal
-- Mères Unies contre le Racisme/Mothers United against Racism
-- l'Observatoire canadien pour les droits humains (OCDH)
-- No One Is Illegal/Personne n'est illégal-Montréal
-- NPD Section Québec
-- Philippine Women Centre of Quebec/Centre des femmes Philippines du Québec
-- Projet Genèse/Project Genesis
-- Quebec Public Interest Research Group-McGill
-- Quebec Public Interest Research Group-Concordia
-- Québec Solidaire
-- SIKLAB-Quebec Filipino Migrant Workers Organization
-- Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity Across Borders
-- South Asian Women's Community Center
-- Tadamon! Montréal
-- 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
-- United Muslim Students' Association of Montréal (UMSA)


INFO : justicepouranas@gmail.com; 514-342-2111

Read More......

Justice for Anas: We want the truth

On December 1st, 2005 -- more than one year ago -- police officer
Bernier from Station 25 shot and killed Anas Bennis, a 25-year old
Canadian of Moroccan heritage. Anas was killed outside a neighborhood
mosque at the corner of Côte-des-Neiges and Kent, just minutes from
his home.

The police claim that Anas inexplicably attacked them with a kitchen
knife. However, Anas' family and friends find this hard to believe.
They are frustrated by the attitude of the authorities who refuse to
make the evidence available, including a videotape that captured the
incident.

On January 7th, 2006, in the freezing cold, approximately 4500 people
participated in a demonstration to demand a public inquiry into Anas'
death. In December 2006, the first anniversary of Anas' death was
marked by vigils at the location he was killed.

There has never been any public inquiry, but Quebec City police
undertook a closed investigation. On November 4th, 2006, the crown
prosecutor decided that no criminal charges would be laid against the
police officers. The crown and police report remains secret,
suppressed by Quebec Minister of Public Security Jacques Dupuis.

No satisfactory explanation for Anas' death by police has been offered
to the Bennis family. The mystery and secrecy surrounding this case
reinforces the belief that Anas Bennis was killed by police in a case
of racial and religious profiling.

The Justice for Anas Collective, under the leadership of the Bennis
family, is relaunching its efforts in 2007; we demand:

1) the immediate release of all reports, evidence and information
concerning the death of Anas Bennis to the Bennis family and to the
public;
2) a full, public and independent inquiry into the death of Anas Bennis;
3) police accountability, and an end to racial profiling and police impunity.

Join us to help organize and mobilize for justice.

-- The Justice for Anas Collective
Tel: 514-342-2111
Email: justicepouranas@gmail.com
----------

--> You can read more details and background information about this
disturbing police killing at the following link:

http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html

--> We are seeking group ENDORSEMENTS of the Justice for Anas
campaign. If your group, collective or organization supports the three
demands of our campaign, please contact us so that we can add you to
our support list.

The following groups have so far endorsed the demands of the Justice
for Anas campaign:


-- Action Anti-Raciste/Anti-Racist Action Montréal
-- Association Bélagir
-- Action des chrétiens pour l'abolition de la torture et la peine de mort (ACAT)
-- Action et solidarite pour la Colombie
-- Association facultaire des étudiants en sciences humaines de l'UQÀM
-- Association Vwa Zanset (Voice of the ancestors)
-- Bloquez l'Empire Montréal
-- le Centre de services de justice réparatrice
-- le Centre des travailleurs et travailleurs immigrants/Immigrant
Workers Center
-- le Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP)
-- le Conseil des églises pour la justice et la criminologie
-- Haiti Action Montreal
-- Head & Hands/À deux mains
-- Kabataang Montreal
-- Mères Unies contre le Racisme/Mothers United against Racism
-- l'Observatoire canadien pour les droits humains (OCDH)
-- No One Is Illegal/Personne n'est illégal-Montréal
-- NPD Section Québec
-- Philippine Women Centre of Quebec/Centre des femmes Philippines du Québec
-- Projet Genèse/Project Genesis
-- Quebec Public Interest Research Group-McGill
-- Quebec Public Interest Research Group-Concordia
-- Québec Solidaire
-- SIKLAB-Quebec Filipino Migrant Workers Organization
-- Solidarité sans frontières/Solidarity Across Borders
-- South Asian Women's Community Center
-- Tadamon! Montréal
-- 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
-- United Muslim Students' Association of Montréal (UMSA)


INFO : justicepouranas@gmail.com; 514-342-2111

Read More......

"We are slowly dying here": Urgent Hunger Strike Update from Guantanamo North

Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
(416) 651-5800, tasc@web.ca

January 30, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"We are slowly dying in here..."

Weekend Scare Underscores Very Real Danger of Sudden Death for Hunger
Striking Detainees at Canada's Guantanamo North

Still No Medical Monitoring After Two Months Without Food

JANUARY 30, 2007 -- "We are slowly dying in here," Mohammad Mahjoub says
over the phone on day 67 of his hunger strike, day 56 for Mahmoud Jaballah
and Hassan Almrei. "Our situation is very bad."

The three men, held indefinitely under the much-criticized security
certificate regime of secret evidence and deportation to torture, are kept
at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC), dubbed Guantanamo North.
Despite last Thursday's visit by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who
did not meet with the detainees, there has been no negotiation with the
men, and no effort to end a critical situation that could turn deadly at
any time.

NO MEDICAL MONITORING
Indeed, the detainees' lives are on the line as staff at the facility play
a dangerous game of roulette: despite considerable medical literature
spelling out the need for daily medical checks of hunger strikers who have
passed day 10 without food, medical staff have NOT conducted a single
physical check on any of the detainees, who are subsisting on water and
juice. The need to check weight, pulse, blood pressure, respiration,
electrolytes, and sodium and potassium levels, among other standards, is
essential in preventing the kind of traumatic incident that occurred this
past weekend.

On Saturday, January 27, Mr. Jaballah reports that he felt dizziness at
about 3:15 pm, pressed the emergency button, and someone finally saw him at
approximately 4 pm. He was very weak and unable to walk, and requested that
if he needed to be taken to another area for medical help, that this be
done with a wheelchair or cart. He was informed that a cart would arrive at
6 pm. He again felt quite ill, pressed the emergency button, fell down, and
was rendered unconscious, only waking up in another section of the KIHC. He
reports experiencing great pain that left him screaming, and a complete
lack of control over his body, with uncontrollable shivering and shaking.

"Because there has been no daily monitoring of blood, pulse, weight, or
other vital signs, it is hard to pinpoint the exact cause of this incident,
but our consultation with a Toronto-area physician who has attended to one
of the men during a prior hunger strike says that low potassium or sodium
could be one cause, coupled with dehydration and possible heart
arrhythmia," says Matthew Behrens of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in
Canada. "Needless to say, all of these can lead to a sudden
life-threatening drop in blood pressure that could place any of the men in
a coma."

DETAINEES VERY WEAK
Daily calls from the detainees indicate they are so weak that they spend
most of the day lying down. One has blood in his urine. Another is
suffering the severe effects of high blood pressure. Another has broken out
in severe skin rashes causing incessant itching, while a severely swollen
tongue has not been dealt with either. All are weak and dizzy from two
months without food. And there is no end in sight.

The detainees, their families, and friends and supporters are concerned
that Stockwell Day used his trip to KIHC to justify his preconceived notion
of the situation, rather than use the occasion as an opportunity to
actually learn the real reasons behind the hunger strike.

STOCKWELL DAY NOT GETTING FULL PICTURE
Stockwell Day did not get a full picture when he visited Guantanamo North.
He was unable to taste the daily humiliation the men face at the hands of
guards, nor to hear what it is like to be denied medical treatment for
things like Hepatitis C, blood in the urine, or a double hernia. Day needed
to hear what it is like to be held indefinitely, without charge, on secret
evidence, for upwards of seven years, as these men are living through, to
understand that having a microwave and a TV in your facility does nothing
to ease the pain of lengthy separation from families, the mental torture of
being held on secret 'evidence' neither you nor your lawyer will ever get
to challenge, and the daily fear of deportation to torture in Syria or
Egypt.

PROBLEM ALREADY FLAGGED BY CORRECTIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Day also did not get a taste of what it's like when there is no oversight
agency or ombudsperson to deal fairly with complaints, a key reason for the
hunger strike that was in fact flagged by the federal government's
2005/2006 Annual Report of the Correctional Investigator, which concluded
"The transfer of detainees from Ontario facilities to the Kingston holding
centre means that the detainees will lose the benefit of a rigorous
ombudsman's legislative framework to file complaints about their care and
humane treatment while in custody. The Office of the Correctional
Investigator is concerned that the detainees will no longer have the
benefits and legal protections afforded by ombudsman legislation. Pursuant
to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a non-profit
organization with no legislative framework, such as the Red Cross, is
unlikely to meet the protocol's requirement for domestic oversight." (See
below for full text of relevant section of the report)

INITIAL HOPES DASHED
Mahmoud Jaballah explains that despite initial hope that things might be
better at KIHC than they were at Metro West Detention in Toronto, the
punitive, mean-spirited atmosphere that has taken hold of the facility,
especially after they initially raised minor complaints about guards'
behaviour, has become intolerable. Guards are regularly slamming cell
doors, making rude comments, and making daily life difficult for the men,
who are not allowed to speak to pre-approved media without those same
guards present.

The threat they feel to their personal safety, and the even greater fear of
false allegations being made against them, means they are now trapped in an
Orwellian nightmare that could cause them their lives.

The men are told that health care, which used to be available to them in
their living unit, can now only be delivered in the next building. The men
say they do not feel safe going to the next building without a supervisor
present so there is a witness to possible false allegations that could harm
their chances for bail. [The facility is top-heavy with staff, including
two directors, two secretaries, seven supervisors, 12 guards -- all for the
three men] So unless they comply with petty and unreasonable prison rules,
they are denied a basic human right.

MEDICAL STAFF AND DUTY TO CARE
Last week, a group of some 70 health workers across Canada challenged the
lack of ethical standards at KIHC, and campaign representatives point out
that the World Medical Association Declaration on Hunger Strikers (adopted
by the 43rd World Medical Assembly Malta, November 1991 and editorially
revised by the WMA General Assembly, Pilanesberg, South Africa, October
2006) states at point #5 that "Physicians attending hunger strikers can
experience a conflict between their loyalty to the employing authority
(such as prison management) and their loyalty to patients. Physicians with
dual loyalties are bound by the same ethical principles as other
physicians, that is to say that their primary obligation is to the
individual patient."

As each minute ticks by, the spectre of the Criminal Code of Canada looms
larger, which defines as criminally negligent anyone who "in doing anything
or, in omitting to do anything that it is his duty to do, shows wanton or
reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons."

TAKE ACTION
1. WRITE /CALL/FAX Day, Finley and Harper. It is crucial that public
pressure continue to be felt in Ottawa. It is such pressure that forced Day
to go to KIHC; such pressure will be required to get negotiations going.

Specific points to raise:
a. The men be should provided with immediate and daily medical care in
their living unit.
b. If the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre will not send in health care
staff (something they did before September), the government must allow an
independent outside doctor in to check on the men.
c. The federal government must immediately appoint a neutral mediator to
deal with the problems, and set up a system to deal with ongoing issues
that is balanced and fair (as per the concerns raised by the federal
government's own Office of the Correctional Investigator)
d. The men should not have to die for a little bit of dignity.

*Stockwell Day, MP
House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: (613) 995.1154
day.s@parl.gc.ca
communications@psepc.gc.ca

NOTE: Stockwell Day is the Minister responsible for the Canadian Border
Services Agency (which runs the KIHC). Demand that he meet immediately
with the detainees or appoint a neutral party to immediately resolve the
crisis at KIHC.

*Diane Finley, MP
Phone (866) 496-3400 (Simcoe constituency office).
Finley.D@parl.gc.ca

NOTE: Finley is the new immigration minister. Ask that, as one of the two
ministers responsible for signing security certificates, she meet with the
families of the detainees (who have requested a meeting) and that she also
take action to meet the reasonable demands of the detainees.

* Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900
pm@pm.gc.ca


2. SOLIDARITY LETTERS.
Write a support card to the detainees (let us know at tasc@web.ca if you
have so we can monitor if mail is getting through). Mohammad Mahjoub,
Mahmoud Jaballah, and Hassan Almrei can be reached:

Kingston Immigration Holding Centre
c/o CSC RHQ Ontario Region
440 King Street West
PO Box 1174
Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y8


Further info: Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, (416) 651-5800,
tasc@web.ca, www.homesnotbombs.ca

+++++++
Annual Report of the Correctional Investigator, 2005/06 (with respect to
Kingston Immigration Holding Centre)
The second policy issue that concerns my Office is the situation of
individuals detained pursuant to national security certificates. A national
security certificate is a removal order issued by the Government of Canada
against permanent residents and foreign nationals who are inadmissible to
Canada on grounds of national security. A recent decision has been made by
the federal government to transfer security certificate detainees held
under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act from Ontario facilities
to a federal facility, pending their removal from Canada.
In Ontario facilities, the detainees could legally file complaints
regarding conditions of confinement with the Office of the Ontario
Ombudsman. That Office had the jurisdiction to investigate complaints
filed by the detainees pursuant to the Ontario Ombudsman Act.
The Immigration Holding Centre has been built in Kingston within
the perimeter fence of Millhaven Penitentiary. The Canadian Border Service
Agency entered into a service contract with the Correctional Service to
provide the Border Service Agency with the physical detention facility and
with security staff. The Border Service Agency has a contract in place
with the Red Cross to monitor the care and treatment of detainees in
immigration holding centres, including the new Kingston holding centre.
The Red Cross, a non-government organization, has no enabling legislation
to carry out a role as an oversight agency. The transfer of detainees from
Ontario facilities to the Kingston holding centre means that the detainees
will lose the benefit of a rigorous ombudsman's legislative framework to
file complaints about their care and humane treatment while in custody.
The Office of the Correctional Investigator is concerned that the detainees
will no longer have the benefits and legal protections afforded by
ombudsman legislation. Pursuant to the Optional Protocol to the Convention
against Torture, a non-profit organization with no legislative framework,
such as the Red Cross, is unlikely to meet the protocol's requirement for
domestic oversight. (full report available at
http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/reports/AR200506_e.asp)

Read More......

Justice for the Smithfield workers (North Carolina)

On Wednesday, January 24, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers(ICE) arrested 21 Smithfield workers from the Tar Heel plant. The arrests come on the heels of the company announcement that it will fire up to 600 people next month primarily those who walked out in protest last November over the firings of fellow employees allegedly for receiving social security no match letters. This is yet another attempt on the part of Smithfield to terrorize the workers who have been struggling for a collective voice on the job for over a decade. As we speak, families are torn apart; children coming home from school do not know where their parents are and workers are afraid to show up to work. Today, the day after the arrests, Smithfield's production was cut in half as workers did not report to work, fearing they would be next.

For more info and background: www.smithfieldjustice.com

Read More......

Democracy Now: Murder Charges Against Former Black Panthers Based on Confessions Extracted by Torture

Police in California, New York and Florida arrested eight former Black Panthers earlier this week on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Charges were thrown out in 1974 after it was revealed police used torture to extract confessions in the case. We speak with two of the defendants’ attorneys.

Read the transcript and listen to the interview HERE.

Read More......

News, Events and Analysis (January 22-28, 2007) :: Nouvelles, analyses et evenements (22-28 janvier 2007)

:::::
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL:: PERSONNE N'EST ILLÉGAL-MONTRÉAL
News, Events and Analysis :: Nouvelles, analyses et annonces d'événements
January 22-28, 2007 :: 22-28 janvier 2007
:::::

No One Is Illegal-Montreal has a new frequently updated news, analysis
and events website! Check it out at:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

--> If you want to receive regular updates from our low-volume announcements list (2-3 messages/week), you can subscribe at:
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/

:::

Personne n'est illégal a un nouveau site web contenant des nouvelles
régulièrement mises à jour, des analyses et des annonces d'événements!
Visitez-le : http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

--> Si vous souhaitez recevoir des mises à jour régulières depuis
notre liste d'envoi « volume modéré » (2 – 3 messages par semaine),
inscrivez vous :
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/
-----

Two Montreal-area fundraisers for the Six Nations Land Reclamation:
Dance Party (January 24) and Mixtape Exchange Party (January 27)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-montreal-area-benefits-for-six.html

Haitian folksinger and political activist Sò Ann in Montreal (January 29)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/january-29-haitian-folksinger-s-ann-in.html

Popular Assembly: People's Commission into Immigration "Security"
Measures (February 1)
http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/february-1-popular-assembly-peoples.html

Assemblée Populaire: La Commission populaire sur les mesures de
"sécurité" en immigration (1er février)
http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/1er-fvrier-assemble-populaire-la.html


Guantanamo North Hunger Strike UPDATE and APPEAL
http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/guantanamo-north-hunger-strike-update.html

Kader Belaouni: Asylum seeker passes one-year aniversary trapped in church
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/asylum-seeker-passes-one-year.html

Les Québecois sont-ils racistes?
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/les-qubecois-sont-ils-racistes.html


Le Devoir: Tué par la police en allant prier à la mosquée
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/le-devoir-tu-par-la-police-en-allant.html

Le cas de Anas Bennis/The Death of Anas Bennis
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html


Articles from Six Nations Newspapers
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/articles-from-six-nations-newspapers.html

The Fight to Decriminalize Kanonhstaton (Six Nations)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/fight-to-decriminalize-kanonhstaton.html

Solidarity Visit with Trevor Miller (Six Nations)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/solidarity-visit-with-trevor-miller.html

Newsbrief: Grassy Narrows declares moratorium on logging
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/newsbrief-grassy-narrows-declares.html


Fifth Estate: Solidarity, Immigration and Border Regimes
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/fifth-estate-solidarity-immigration-and.html

The Ciudad Juarez Declaration and the New Wave of Border Activism
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/ciudad-juarez-declaration-and-new-wave.html


Halifax: NOII Protesters push for action
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/halifax-protesters-push-for-action-on.html

Letter to Immigration Minister from Solidarity Across Borders
http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/letter-to-immigration-minister.html

Lettre à la ministre de l'Immigration de Solidarité sans frontières
http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2007/01/lettre-la-ministre-dimmigration.html


AFP: 1M Filipinos join diaspora
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/afp-1m-filipinos-join-diaspora.html

Reuters: US Border Patrol agent shoots dead Mexican migrant
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070114/us_nm/mexico_border_shooting_dc

AP: 761 "illegal" immigrants arrested in Southern California sweep
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=178768

Washington Post: Immigrants mistreated at detention centers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/16/AR2007011601463.html

CBC: Canada "strongly protests" man's deportation to Somalia
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/01/22/makhtal-kenya.html

Toronto Star: Portuguese refugees back for second chance
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/173815

Haaretz: Canada probing abuse claims of asylum seekers from Israel
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/807457.html

AP: 8 arrested in 1971 cop-killing tied to Black Panthers
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/8-arrested-in-1971-cop-killing-tied-to.html


PREVIOUS NEWSWIRE (Reflections from Iran, No Border Camp, Tyendinaga
Update, Solidarity Statement with Six Nations, Justice for Anas,
Status for Kader, Siraj Family of NYC, Guantanamo North, Euro-African
Border Enforcement, No One Is Illegal Audio ... and more!)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/news-events-and-analysis-january-15-21.html

BULLETIN PRÉCÉDENT: (Guantanamo canadien, Statut pour Kader, Justice
pour Anas, Barricade à Tyendinaga, Contingent anti-impérialiste ... et
plus!)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/nouvelles-analyses-et-annonces-15-21.html


Personne n'est illégal – Principes
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/personne-nest-illgal-principes.html

No One Is Illegal Montreal's Basis of Unity
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-one-is-illegal-montreals-basis-of.html
-----

To get in touch with No One Is Illegal-Montreal, e-mail us at
nooneisillegal@gmail.com or phone 514-848-7583.

Pour communiquer avec Personne n'est illégal Montréal, écrivez-nous à
nooneisillegal@gmail.com ou téléphonez au 514-848-7583.

:::

No One Is Illegal-Montreal is an active member group of the Solidarity
Across Borders immigrant justice network in Montreal.
More about us at: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
More about Solidarity Across Borders at: http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org

Personne n'est illégal – Montréal est un groupe qui est membre actif
de Solidarité sans frontières, un réseau basé à Montréal qui lutte en
faveur de la justice et de la dignité pour tou-te-s les sans-statut.
Plus d'information sur Personne n'est illégal:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
Plus d'information sur Solidarité sans frontières:
http://www.solidaritesansfrontieres.org

:::

Stay in touch! Check out our website regularly. Demeurez à l'écoute.
Visitez notre site web régulièrement.
-- No One Is Illegal/Personne n'est illégal-Montréal
-----

nooneisillegal@gmail.com
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
514-848-7583

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Mise à jour concernant la grève de la faim des détenus des procés secrets

Les détenus subissant un procès secret Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah et Hassan Almrei sont toujours en grève de la faim. Jeudi le 25 janvier 2007, Mohammad Mahjoub en était à son 62 jour, pendant que Mahmoud Jaballah et Hassan Almrei en étaient à leur 51. Le gouvernement fédéral refuse de négocier avec ces hommes. Pendant ce temps, ces hommes n'ont bu que du jus d'orange et occasionnellement du bouillon. Ces hommes ne bénéficient d'aucun suivi médical. L'absence de suivi et de soins peut mener à de sérieuses conséquences.

MISE À JOUR ICI

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Canadian jobs beckon Bangladeshi workers

Canadian jobs beckon Bangladeshi workers
Porimol Palma
(from the Daily Star, Bangladesh)

For the first time, Bangladesh is expecting to send workers to Canada, a lucrative job market that ensures high salaries and workers' rights at low service charges.

Bangladesh Overseas Employment and Services Limited (BOESL), a state-owned recruiting agency, has already prepared a draft contract with a Canadian outsourcing company that was attested by the Canadian High Commission in Dhaka recently.

Once the contract is approved, BOESL can start sending workers of various technical professions, including plumbers, truck drivers, electricians and welders, within the next few months, sources in the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment said.

Full article HERE.

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HOUR: Bennis family demand justice

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=11263

January 25th, 2007
Racial profiling in our midst?
Bennis family demand justice
Meg Hewings

Khadija Bennis has quietly grieved the loss of her beloved twin brother for over a year, as she patiently waited to access information surrounding the bizarre circumstances of his killing. But now, with no information forthcoming, she is speaking out.

Twenty-five-year-old Mohamed-Anas Bennis was shot dead by a Montreal police officer shortly after leaving dawn prayer at his neighbourhood mosque at the corner of Côte-des-Neiges and Kent on December 1, 2005. Bennis was shot twice: two bullets fired from above ripped through his body, one striking his heart. The Montreal Police allege Bennis was carrying a kitchen knife at the time and the shooting was an act of self-defence.

But Khadija Bennis, her family and their community have grown frustrated by authorities who refuse to make evidence available, including videotape that captured the incident.

"This is a case of racial profiling," says Khadija Bennis. "The investigation is over, but we still have no details. Something is being hidden or else the information would come out."

Indeed, the Bennis case has been supremely secret. Although Quebec City police did undertake a closed investigation, there were no criminal charges laid against the police officers involved in the incident. To this day, the Crown and police reports remain secret, suppressed by Quebec Minister of Public Security Jacques Dupuis.

"It's very hard to believe what the police/coroner are saying, because Anas was the most gentle person," says the victim's sister. "He would tell me, 'Khadija, make sure you don't walk on ants' - he was [that] conscious of the environment, and plants. He was spiritual, very generous and loving."

On January 7, approximately 4,500 people participated in a demonstration to demand a public inquiry into Bennis' death, though nothing has come of it to date. Another protest is being planned for February.

"[Racial profiling] is a social problem," Khadija Bennis implores. "Anyone's brother or father could be in the same situation. We don't want that to happen to anyone else. We live in a free society and we don't want those protecting us to be killing us."

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Guantanamo North Hunger Strike Update and Appeal

Secret trial detainees Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, and Hassan Almrei are still on a hunger strike. As of Tuesday January 23, 2007, Mohammad Mahjoub has been on hunger strike for 60 days, while Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei have been on hunger strike for 49 days. The federal government is refusing to negotiate with the men. During all this time, the men have been drinking only orange juice and occasionally clear broth. The men are not being medically monitored and the failure to provide appropriate medical monitoring and care could lead to very serious consequences.

Read the full UPDATE.

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The Ciudad Juarez Declaration and the New Wave of Border Activism

Nearly one thousand people gathered in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Oct. 12-15, 2006 at the first ever Border Social Forum (BSF). Modeled after the massive World Social Forum that draws tens of thousands of people every year, the Ciudad Juarez gathering featured dozens of workshops, a border “reality tour” and street demonstrations against the Bush administration's planned series of new border walls and the North American Free Trade Agreement. At the conclusion of the BSF, delegates from U.S. and Mexican non-governmental organizations issued a 23-point declaration that calls for sweeping changes in immigration, human rights, labor, economic, and environmental policies on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Full report HERE.

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AP: 761 illegal immigrants reported arrested in Southern California sweep

SANTA ANA, Calif. - Federal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 750 illegal immigrants over the past week in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in what they described as one of the biggest such sweeps in U.S. history.

The weeklong series of raids in the five-county region targeted illegal immigrants who had previously been deported for crimes or had ignored final deportation orders.

The raids netted 338 illegal immigrants who were arrested at their homes and apartments and 423 who were identified in area jails since Jan. 17. Those already jailed will be transferred to federal custody when they finish serving their state sentences, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The sweep netted illegal immigrants from 14 countries in all, including Mexico, Honduras, Ukraine, India, Japan, Poland and Trinidad.
Of the 761 people arrested, more than 450 have already been deported, Kice said.

FULL ARTICLE HERE.

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Reuters: U.S. Border Patrol agent shoots dead Mexican migrant

A U.S. Border Patrol agent shot and killed a 22-year-old Mexican who was crossing illegally into the United States, U.S. police said on Saturday.

The agent shot Francisco Dominguez, who had crossed into Arizona with family members and other migrants, while trying to take him into custody, Cochise County Sheriff's Office spokesman Carol Capas said.

She declined to give further details, including why the shooting occurred, because of an ongoing investigation. A spokesman at a U.S. Border Patrol office in Tucson, Arizona, could not be reached for comment.

Full article HERE.

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Asylum seeker passes one-year aniversary trapped in Pointe-Saint-Charles church

It’s five p.m. on a Friday afternoon, and the carpeted floor of St. Gabriel’s Presbytery in Pointe-Saint-Charles is a mess of wires and broadcast equipment.

Four people crowd the microphones set up on a small wooden table in the center of the room.

“Hello, I’m Kader B,” says the host of the monthly show. “You are listening to Radio Sanctuary on CKUT.”

The Presbytery is not the most practical place for broadcasting a radio show, but for Abdelkader Belaouni, also known as Kader, there is no other choice.

If he leaves the church property, he’ll be sent back to Algeria, the home country he fled during the civil war in 1996.

Jan 1, 2007 was the one-year anniversary of him seeking sanctuary at the church rather than report for deportation.

FULL ARTICLE HERE.

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AP: 8 arrested in 1971 cop-killing tied to Black Panthers

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Eight men were arrested Tuesday in the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer that authorities say was part of a militant black group's five-year campaign to kill law enforcement officers in California and New York.

Police said seven of the eight are believed to be former members of the Black Liberation Army, a violent offshoot of the Black Panther Party.

The August 29, 1971, shooting death of Sgt. John V. Young, 51, was one in a series of attacks by BLA members on law enforcement officials on both coasts, police said.

The attacks, carried out between 1968 and 1973, also included the bombing of a police funeral in San Francisco and the slayings of two New York City police officers, as well as three armed bank robberies that helped fund their operations, police said.

The arrests were just the latest attempt in recent years to hold antiwar radicals and black-power militants responsible for crimes committed a generation ago.

The investigation of the Black Liberation Army killing spree was reopened in 1999 after "advances in forensic science led to the discovery of new evidence in one of the unsolved cases," the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.

Morris Tabak, the department's deputy chief of investigations, would not elaborate on the evidence except to say: "It could be fibers. It could be DNA. It could be other biological evidence."

Murder and conspiracy charges were filed against Ray Michael Boudreaux, 64, of Altadena; Richard Brown, 65, of San Francisco; Herman Bell, 59, and Anthony Bottom, 55, both behind bars in New York state; Henry Watson Jones, 71, of Altadena; Francisco Torres, 58, of New York City; and Harold Taylor, 58, of Panama City, Fla.

Bell's lawyer, San Francisco attorney Stuart Hanlon, called the arrests a "prosecution based on vengeance and hate from the '60s."

"There's a law enforcement attitude that they hate these people, the Panthers," Hanlon said. "Now they're going after old men."

Richard O'Neal, 57, of San Francisco, was also arrested on conspiracy charges.

A ninth suspect, Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth, 62, was still being sought. Police said he could be in France, Belize or Tanzania.

It's unclear whether Bridgeforth and O'Neal were members of the Black Liberation Army.

None of the suspects will face the death penalty, said Maggy Krell, deputy state attorney general. The death penalty law in effect at the time of the attack was declared unconstitutional in 1972.

The slain officer was killed when Bell and Torres, armed with guns and dynamite, raided a neighborhood police station, firing a shotgun through a hole in the lobby's bulletproof window, as accomplices were posted outside as lookouts, according to police officials in New York. A civilian clerk was wounded. Torres is accused of trying to ignite the dynamite as the pair fled the station, but the explosives failed.

The station was nearly empty that night as most officers responded to a diversionary bombing of a bank by other conspirators, according to the NYPD.

After his arrest Tuesday in New York, Torres called the case "a frame-up."

Three men, including Taylor, were charged in the attack in 1975. But the charges were thrown out by a San Francisco judge because of a ruling that evidence was obtained by torture after the suspects were arrested in New Orleans.

Bell and Bottom are serving life sentences for the killings of two New York police officers.

Brown, Boudreaux, Jones and Taylor were jailed in 2005 for refusing to answer questions before a grand jury investigating Young's death.

Three men, including Taylor, were charged in Young's attack in early 1975, but those charges were dismissed by a San Francisco judge because of an earlier ruling that evidence was obtained by torture.

Another suspect in Young's slaying, John Bowman of Oklahoma, died in December, according to his lawyer, Ann Moorman of Ukiah.

In some other cases dating to the Vietnam era, Sara Jane Olson, formerly known as Kathleen Soliah, was arrested in 1999. A former member of the Symbionese Liberation Army -- the radical group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst in 1974 -- she pleaded guilty and was sent to prison for the 1975 attempted bombings of Los Angeles police cars and a Sacramento-area bank robbery that left a woman dead. Four other former SLA members were also sent to prison in the robbery.

Katherine Ann Power, an antiwar radical implicated in a fatal bank robbery in Boston in 1970, surrendered in 1993 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/01/23/cold.case.ap/index.html

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Newsbrief: Grassy Narrows declares moratorium on logging

Thursday Jan 18, 2007 Toronto Star brief:

FIRST NATION DECLARES MORATORIUM ON LOGGING

Grassy Narrows First Nation is declaring a moratorium on all industrial
activity in its traditional territory, north of Kenora, in a bid to stop
clear-cutting, says spokesperson Joe Fobister. The declaration has no
legal weight but Fobister hopes it will prompt the province to order an
end to clear-cutting that disrupts native trap lines.

For more information: http://friendsofgrassynarrows.com/

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The Fight to Decriminalize Kanonhstaton

Court Report by Sarita Ahooja, No One Is Illegal-Montreal
(Jan 17, 2007)

CAYUGA - Five defendants from the Six Nations Land Reclamation appeared at
the Cayuga court today, accompanied by family members and supporters, to
continue proceedings related to the April 20th OPP invasion and June 9th
incidents. OPP security was tight, prohibiting entrance from all other
doors except the main entrance and obliging everyone to pass through a
metal detector.

Shawn Henry, a young native man who was arrested at the reclamation site
and held in custody for 7 days earlier this summer, pled guilty to assault
with a weapon (bolt and screw). He received 30 days of community service,
12 months probation and is prohibited from returning to the Douglas Creek
site, otherwise known as Kanonhstaton (the Protected Place).

Audra Taillefer, Ken Hill, Christopher Hill and Irwin Ronald Gibson, where
represented by their defense team Jean Paquette and Stephan Ford. Mr. Ford
requested an adjournment in order to perfect his application for a
jurisdictional challenge to be submitted by next week (full article
below).

Christopher Hill, behind bars since mid-December, is the second to be held
without bail review (Turtle Island News article below). The judge did not
wait for his lawyer to appear in the courtroom, and immediately postponed
the bail review to January 24th.

The criminalization of Six Nations Land Reclamation activists has not
abated, as a new warrant for the arrest of Jarrod Greene was issued
yesterday. Many people on the reclamation site fear a new wave of arrests
as Six Nations Police continue to assist the OPP with capturing Warriors.

The jurisdictional challenge aims to assert the sovereignty of the
Haudenosaunee Confederacy, which is protected by the Two Row Wampum (an
agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the settlers which
formalizes a commitment to co-exist and respect each others societies and
laws and not intervene). The motion would annul all the colonial charges
laid against the Warriors. Judge Davis granted a suspension of the
preliminary hearings until the motion is heard by Superior court in the
upcoming weeks. The lawyers admit that this legal avenue could take years,
and will eventually have to be heard at the Supreme Court of Canada.

Meanwhile, Trevor Miller’s lawyer says it is important to get him out of
jail before the suspension takes effect, as he would be stuck languishing
in jail until the jurisdictional challenge be decided upon. Monday,
January 22nd Trevor will appear in court once again to set the next bail
review for February 9th . His lawyer has still not received the court
transcripts from the first bail review in August 2006. This has not only
held up proceedings for another overdue bail review, which should take
place every 90 days, but has also violated the court order to produce the
transcripts declared by the then sitting judge, Marshall, at the last
court appearance in December 2006.

Supporters and family members were determined not to let the stalling
tactics discourage them from increasing political pressure and pursuing
the campaign to shed light on the continuous criminalization of people
involved in the Six Nations Land Reclamation.


More on …
PROTESTER'S LAWYER CHALLENGES THE WAY COURTS TREAT NATIVES
Jan 18, 2007 - Cayuga, The Hamilton Spectator

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Articles from Six Nations Newspapers

[Transcribed articles from TURTLE ISLAND NEWS & TEKAWENNAKE, local newspapers in Six Nations.]


SECOND MAN STILL IN JAIL
(Turtle Island News, Jan 17)

CAYUGA - A Six Nations man arrested by Six Nations police two weeks ago on
an outstanding OPP warrant remains in custody after an appearance in
Cayuga Court last Wednesday. The case was adjourned until today.
Christopher Hill, 20 years old, was arrested in Oshweken and handed over
to the OPP on charges of assaulting a police officer during the OPP raid
on April 20th at the former Douglas Creek housing development. He’s the
second man from Six Nations to de denied bail after being arrested for
involvement in incidents related to the land reclamation. Trevor Miller,
31, was denied bail Sept 22 last year and has remained in custody for the
past six months. He is facing two counts of robbery plus violence, assault
causing bodily harm, and simple assault for his involvement in an
altercation with two CHTV cameramen on June 9, 2006. Miller and Hill are
both scheduled to appear at the Ontario Superior court in Cayuga Jan 17th.



SIX NATIONS NEGOTIATORS GETTING IMPATIENT WITH THE PROVINCE
By Jim Windle with files from Randell Hill (Tekawennake, Volume 38,
Edition 3)


SIX NATIONS- The proof will soon be in the pudding as to whether
Caledonians who say, “if the land is theirs, give it to them and get it
over with,” are sincere or not. Late Tuesday afternoon, the Six Nations
Iroquois Confederacy released a statement that may be the first step
towards ending the Caledonia land claim dispute and lancing the festering
sore, which has been irritating an already volatile situation for almost a
year with the occupation of Douglas Creek Estates subdivision.

But the road to that settlement threatens to be just about as rough as the
old Plank Road itself. Earlier in the day, an OPP press release announced
the issuance of a warrant of the arrest of Jarrod Greene. The man is
alleged to have been behind the controls of the front-lend-loader that dug
up a small intersection of Highway #6 during a tense confrontation between
Natives and Caledonians on Bread and Cheese Day (Victoria Day, May 22,
2006).

So far, OPP report 32 people being arrested who are facing 69 charges
related to the Reclamation. Police say Green faces mischief charges for
his alleged part in the incident involving the front-end-loader. But
Confederacy Chiefs have countered with their own statement, which they say
makes Green’s charged null and void, since they argue the province has no
jurisdiction to pursue the incident.

Allen MacNaughton issued a statement to the media shortly after a tense
exchange with provincial negotiators at a side table meeting, which
resulted in the Six Nations delegation and the federal representatives
reprimanding the Ontario negotiators for altering an agreement already in
place regarding the dismantling of some of the homes on the former Douglas
Creek Estates. “The point we’re making is that it’s critical,” MacNaughton
told Tekawennake. ”We’ve been sitting at this table for this long -
information has been put out on the table from both sides. We need to see
some movement at those tables.”

MacNaughton is convinced the Crown has been surprised by the amount of
supporting documentation Six Nations has presented to support its claim
that the land in question was never surrendered for the purpose of sale.
“But they’re still not moving,” he said. “I’m worried that they are going
to procrastinate and drag this out until they have an election and then
they’re going to start all over again.”

The media release that went out Tuesday reads as follows: “Six Nations,
through its negotiating team, has tabled documentation with the federal
government of Canada and the Province of Ontario, on lands not only at the
former Douglas Creek Estates housing development on the outskirts of the
town of Caledonia, but on the Plank Road (Highway #6) itself. That
documentation has been tabled as part of the now almost one year-old Six
Nations/federal/Ontario negotiations dealing with Six Nations land rights
up and down the Grand River.

Mohawk Chief Allen MacNaughton said the Six Nations Haudenosaunee are
confident that Canada, in right of the Crown, does not have any
documentation that supports the transfer, sale, or surrender of Plank
Road, and has not filed any documentation to support any position that is
contrary to the documents filed by the Haudenosaunee Land Rights
Negotiating Team outlining Haudenosaunee rights over these lands. As a
result, the recent move by the Ontario Provincial Police to charge a Six
Nations man in connection with the digging up of a small portion of Plank
Road during a volatile weekend in May that saw Caledonia residents assault
Six Nations people, has placed the OPP not only outside their
jurisdiction, but embroiled them in a political issue that is outside
their mandate as a police force.

Ownership and title to the road belongs to the Haudenosaunee. Any decision
affecting either the road, the incident outlined by the OPP or the Six
Nations man involved, fall under the authority and the jurisdiction of the
Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council. The Six Nations
Confederacy Council Hodiyenehsoh (Chiefs) have been working for almost a
year towards a peaceful resolution of the Reclamation of Douglas Creek
lands at Caledonia and Six Nations land rights.

Chief MacNaughton said the move by the OPP is ‘an intrusion into an area
of jurisdiction that is outside the authority of a police force. This
clearly is a political matter, not a criminal activity.’ MacNaughton said,
‘it is these kinds of antics by the province, the federal government and
its police force that are causing delays at the negotiating table and
continues to place Six Nations’ lives at risk.’ The Hodiyenehsoh are
dedicated to finding a peaceful resolution to the Douglas Creek Estates
Reclamation and working with the Crown, as represented by both its federal
and provincial governments, towards a long-term plan aimed at finding a
resolution of Six Nations land rights issues. But Chief MacNaughton said,
“We will soon be celebrating another anniversary, this time of the
reclamation. We will be marking one year at the table with little progress
as the federal and provincial governments continue to engage these small
tactics.” Six Nations land issues are the oldest in the country. The
Haudenosaunee have been waiting for over 200 years for answers from the
federal crown over what happened to Six Nations land and trust funds.

“We will be soon to have been waiting 201 years, said MacNaughton.” It is
not known at this time when the talks will resume. There is some fear that
the release of this information on the ever of Gary McHale’s flag rally,
could cause certain Caledonia residents to overreact. OPP have assured
those at the reclamation site that they are well prepared and equipped to
handle the situation and have urged Natives at the site to stand down and
let them handle it.



WHO OWNS MOHAWK PARK?
By J. Windle (Tekawennake, Jan 17)


BRANTFORD - “Signs or no signs, this is Mohawk land,” according to members
of a group known as Mohawk Nation of the Grand River. The signs they put
last week at the entrance of Mohawk Park and at the intersection of
Birkett’s Lane and Mohawk Street in Brantford have since been removed. The
4x8 food painted wooden signs declare that the lands in question represent
“repatriated sovereign Mohawk Nation land” as per Haldimand Treaty of
October 25th, 1784.

The purpose of the “Good Faith Notice” as they called it, was not to
frighten or discourage public usage of the Park or the adjacent Glebe
lands, but rather to save it from any possible plans to complete the
Brantford Southern Access Route which would destroy the beautiful green
space Brantford and area citizens have enjoyed for generations. City staff
removed the Mohawk Park sign late Tuesday afternoon under orders from city
Hall. But the Mohawk Street sign remained up. That sign was defaced with
black spray paint before being removed by unknown persons. Mayor Hancock’s
stated the sign was “inappropriately” placed. It is his understanding that
Mohawk Park has not been Mohawk land since John Lovejoy took possession of
the tract in the 1830’s. Ownership and usage of the land has changed many
times since then, but Mohawks question how the property got into Lovejoy’s
possession in the first place.

It is their contention that the parcel of land was given to Lovejoy,
without Mohawk approval, in the months leading up the digging of the Grand
River Navigation Company’s canal. Documents of the day show a lot of land
speculation going on in advance of the navigation company’s canal system
being built, promising great wealth to anyone holding land along the
canal.

What is now Mohawk Lake was then a marsh, which was to be dredged out to
provide a turn-around area for freight barges and small passenger ships.
As such, this was soon to become very valuable property for Lovejoy. But
there was a problem.

Six Nations sitting Chiefs refused to surrender land except for the
purpose of establishing lease arrangements. This was common practice in
the time of Joseph Brant. Lease deals retain Aboriginal Title while at the
same time produce ongoing revenue for the people of Six Nations. At least
that was the plan.

An agreement had been reached with the Crown that the management and
transaction of land dealings along the Haldimand Tract were to be handled
by government appointed trustees who were to obtain specific permission
and approval from the traditional confederacy chiefs of the day before
made legal. Revenues from sales and leases were to have been held in a
trust fund and dispersed back to the Six Nations for the daily needs of
the community.

Both the land and trust fund were systemically stolen with Six Nations
chiefs having no recourse other than to file letters of complaint, which
they did. But their concerns and demands for an accounting of their lands
and funds were stonewalled time and time again, until today.



WE PAY NO GST OR PST SAYS ‘MOHAWK NATION OF THE GRAND RIVER’
By J. Windle (part of an article in Jan 10 issue, Tekawennake)


SIX NATIONS – A ‘Notice of Good Faith’ appeared in the Brantford Expositor
Monday, informing businesses and shopkeepers that members of the Mohawk
Nation of the Grand River will no longer pay PST and GST anywhere along
the Haldimand Tract. The Mohawk Nation of the Grand River organization has
started a campaign designed to educate and re-establish itself as the
legal title-holders of the Haldimand Treaty. “We’re not saying we are
better that any of the Six Nations, but we do have a traditional role to
play which has been ignored by for many years by the Haudenosaunee
Confederacy.” Mohawk Worker representative Bill Squire told Tekawennake
recently.

With the discussions going on between Haudenosaunee Confederacy
representatives, the Six Nations Elected Council, and the federal and
provincial fact finders, this group of traditional Mohawks believes it can
no longer stand back and watch and do nothing while Haldimand Tract lands
are being negotiated without ‘legitimate’ representation. They reject the
legitimacy of Haudenosaunee Mohawk Chief and lead negotiator Allen
MacNaughton.

Read More......

Solidarity Visit with Trevor Miller

By Fiona Becker (Jan 21, 2007)

(Trevor Miller is a Mohawk of the Bear Clan from Six Nations of the Grand
River Territory. He has been in custody since August 8th, awaiting a trial
date and a bail review for charges related to the Six Nations Land
Reclamation.)

We visited Trevor Miller at the Hamilton Detention Center on Wednesday
January 17th, and spoke with him, via telephone, through a glass wall for
approximately 20 minutes.

Trevor is extremely appreciative of the letters that he has been receiving
from all over the world and said, “they are some of the only things that
keep me going”. He is locked up in a cell for 13 hours a day, lights go
out at 8 pm every night, and the detention center is notorious for inmate
violence. He himself was a victim of this violence in November 2006.

Prison authorities have unsuccessfully pressured Trevor to give up the
whereabouts of those who still face charges and who have not been picked
up by the OPP.

Trevor is holding up and explained that he is reading and writing every
day, “I have never learned so much in my life”. He has been reading the
Great Law of Peace and the ways of the Onkwehonweh.

Trevor has been writing back to people who send him letters. But because
jail authorities often rip off the return address, he can’t respond. He
requested that return addresses to be included in the body of the text, so
that he can then respond to everyone who writes to him. He asked that
those who have already written, re-write again, as indicated.

Trevor also mentioned that his reading material is running out. Much of
the material that he is sent is often screened and denied to him by the
administration. He said that the best way to ensure that books and
magazines or newspapers get to him is by sending them directly to his
mother.

All in all, Trevor wanted the message relayed that he is extremely
thankful for all the letters of support. Please continue to write to
Trevor Miller and let him know that he is not alone.

Send letters to:
Trevor Miller – Range 4D
Barton Street Jail
165 Barton Street East
Hamilton, Ontario, L8L 2W6

Please also send reading materials to Trevor Miller via his mother, Trudy
Miller. Trevor is particularly interested in reading about the history of
colonialism on Turtle Island. (Books by Ward Churchill and Taiaike Alfred
are recommended).

Send reading material via Trudy Miller:
P.O. Box 221, Ohwsweken, Ontario, N0A 1M0

SUPPORT THE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND!
Send checks to:
Janie Jamieson - Delegated Spokeswoman for the Six Nations Land
Reclamation RR #1, Ohsweken, Ontario, N0A 1M0 (mark “legal defense fund”)

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Fifth Estate: Solidarity, Immigration and Border Regimes

From ONTO: "The following article is my contribution to the new issue of Fifth Estate magazine. Its an overview of some of the contemporary tactics and strategies that anarchists are doing in solidarity with immigrants against border controls."

Full article HERE.

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AFP: 1M Filipinos join diaspora

1M Filipinos join diaspora

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 06:23pm (Mla time) 01/22/2007

MANILA -- More than one million Filipino workers ranging from domestic helpers to doctors, engineers and pilots joined the growing army of Filipinos employed overseas last year, according to official data.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) says more than eight million Filipinos, about one tenth of the country's population of 86 million, were working overseas last year.

The Philippines has become one of the world's biggest exporters of workers, whose income now plays a central role in the country's economy.

In the 11 months to November last year remittances sent home by overseas workers totaled $11.44 billion, about 10 percent of gross domestic product, according to data from the central bank.

The Philippines has become one of the world's biggest exporters of workers and now constitutes one of the biggest sectors of the country's economy.

A recent Asian Development Bank report put the real figure (money not declared) in the $14 billion to $21 billion range -- which dwarfs the $2billion the country received last year in foreign direct investment.

Attracted by higher wages, the exodus is fast draining the Philippines of its skilled professional workforce such as teachers and nurses.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) nurses and other medical workers are leaving the Philippines at the rate of at least 15,000 a year for better-paying jobs abroad, threatening the country's health infrastructure.

WHO country representative Jean Marc Olive warned that the exodus was expected to persist until at least 2015, with annual demand for medical workers in the United States and Europe estimated to be about 800,000.


In sectors such as aviation, pilots and engineers are being poached to meet the demand of the world's rapidly expanding airline industry.

Some 250,447 Filipinos make up one of the biggest sectors of the world's merchant navy, while in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore they constitute the bulk of domestic workers.

The United States is the world's biggest employer with 2.7 million Filipinos, as of December 2004.

Figures for 2005 and 2006 have yet to be compiled.

The Middle East employed 1.6 million Filipinos, with one million employed in Saudi Arabia alone in sectors ranging from the oil and gas industries, to building, technology and health care.

According to government data, Filipinos are employed in 194 countries and territories around the world from tiny Palau in the Pacific to Equatorial Guinea in Africa.

Filipinos can be found dealing cards in the casinos of Macau and even the head cook in the White House is a Filipino.

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CP: Missing Lives -- The Women Behind the Headlines

MISSING LIVES - The Canadian Press

Five years ago a pig farm near Vancouver became one of Canada's largest
crime scenes

What followed were headlines about the massive forensic investigation and
26 murder charges against Robert William Pickton. Far from the headlines
have been the stories of the dead women. Twenty-six women who lived on and
disappeared from the streets of Canada's most dismal inner-city
neighbourhood: Vancouver's bleak Downtown Eastside. Twenty-six missing
lives.

In the five years since the Pickton pig farm made national headlines,
the memories of the women have faded even further from the public
spotlight. When mentioned, they are usually referred to only as "drug
addicts" or "street prostitutes." They are often only numbers: 26
victims, their names seldom used in news reports. All of the stories
behind the names have never been told. Until now.

The Canadian Press, Canada's independent news agency, felt those stories
needed to be told. Six reporters from across the country spent hundreds of
hours researching details not previously reported. The result is Missing
Lives: profiles on each of the 26 women.

Missing Lives reveals the 26 women as daughters, sisters, mothers:
troubled souls whose lives touched others in lasting ways.

Read the Canadian Press special at any of the following links:

THE RECORD
http://www.therecord.com/cp_specials/missing_lives/

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/cp_specials/missing_lives/

THE HAMILTON FREE PRESS
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/special/index.html


For more information:

THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S MEMORIAL PROJECT
http://www.globalwomensmemorial.org/

Missing Vancouver Women
http://www.missingpeople.net/

Vanished Voices-Angela Jardine
http://www.vanishedvoices.com

Seen Me Lately
http://www.seenmelately.ca

hazel8500
http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/

Vancouver's missing women group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vancouvermissing

Holly's Fight for Justice
http://fightforjustice.blogspot.com/

Documentary by Audrey Huntley, Go Home, Baby Girl,
http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/missingwomen.html


"Justice Delayed Is Still Justice"

Highway of Tears
http://www.highwayoftears.ca

Please help find our daughter
http://www.findfran.com

Sex Trade Workers of Canada
http://www.sextradeworkersofcanada.com

Missing & unidentified Victim's organization
http://www.doenetwork.org/

Outpost for Hope
http://www.outpostforhope.org/

Missing/Murdered Native Women
http://www.missingnativewomen.org/index.htm

Read More......

January 29: Haitian folksinger Sò Ann in Montreal

Haiti Action Montreal presents:

::::::::::
Sò Ann (with musical guests Kalmunity)
7pm Monday, January 29
Bar Toc Toc
6091 du Parc (corner, Van Horne)
$5-25 suggested donation
(*All proceeds go to Sò Ann's educational projects in Haiti)
::::::::::

“Even though they released me, I still am not free. There are other
Sò Anns still in jail."

So Ann, the legendary Haitian folksinger, activist, grandmother, and
recently released political prisoner, is touring Canada to talk about
her ordeal and Haiti’s present political struggles.

The event will include a presentation by So Ann, a performance by the
Kalmunity collective, as well as a short film and slideshow.

BIO:

Annette Auguste, 62, affectionately known as So Ann, was arrested by
US Marines on May 10, 2004 (Mothers Day), who stormed her home in
Port-au-Prince, destroying her property, killing her dogs, and
arresting, hand-cuffing and head-bagging her entire household,
including her 5-year-old grandson and 68-year-old sister.

Sò Ann spent the next two years and three months in a Petionville
prison, becoming a symbol of the arbitrary and repressive fate that
awaited Lavalas organizers. In January 2006, Amnesty International
declared So Ann a political prisoner.

Her liberation last August--after a short trial where the judge
dismissed the concocted charges against her--was greeted with
jubilation in Haiti and the diaspora. Thousands turned out to parade
in the streets of Cité Soleil when she visited the seaside slum, the
capital’s largest, on September 4.

During the 29-year Duvalier dictatorship and succeeding military
juntas, Sò Ann lived in New York, where she was a democracy activist
and protest singer. She was usually called upon to lead the singing
of the national anthem that traditionally opened the rallies and
demonstrations at which she was a fixture.

Upon returning to Haiti in 1994, Sò Ann quickly became a prominent
organizer and leader in the Lavalas Family party of President Jean-
Bertrand Aristide, whom she helped get re-elected in November 2000.

US soldiers kidnapped Aristide and his wife from their home on
February 29, 2004 and flew them into exile in Africa. US, French and
Canadian troops occupied Haiti and installed a murderous coup regime,
which drove many Lavalas Family leaders into exile. Sò Ann, however,
remained. She was recovering from recent surgery and finishing a new
album with her all-woman chorale.

For more information, see recent interview HERE.


7pm Monday, January 29
Bar Toc Toc
6091 du Parc (corner, Van Horne)

For more information:
haitiactionmontreal@gmail.com
or (514) 618-2253

Read More......

Les Québecois sont-ils racistes?

Le 15 Janvier 2007, une enquête Léger Marketing, commanditée par le Journal de Montréal, TVA et 98.5 FM et publiée dans le Journal de Montréal révèle que 59% des Québécois se disent racistes. Un chiffre peu étonnant en soi - si ce n'est l'impressionant nombre de Québécois et Québécoises disposéEs à s'identifier ouvertement et explicitement comme racistes! Révoltante par contre est la réaction épidermique immédiatement créée dans les médias, les sphères politiques et la population. Réactionnaire à l'extrême, le premier ministre Charest affirme que «Qu'on se questionne sur l'autre, qu'on puisse avoir des inquiétudes sur cette question de la diversité, c'est une chose. Mais d'aller au point de dire qu'on est raciste, non. Ce n'est pas du tout le cas au Québec». On nous sert un ballet de chercheurs, méthodologistes et autres "experts" tous campés sur la défensive, qui s'égosillent à discréditer le sondage, les "témoignages" de QuébécoisES offusqués se multiplient, Dumont s'en mêle, et le racisme indéniable, profond, enraciné du Québec est exposé au grand jour. -- NKB.

::::::::::

1. Différences culutrelles, Radio Canada, 15 Janvier 2007
http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2007/01/15/001-Sondage-racisme-quebecois.shtml

2. Tempête «identitaire» au Québec, Le Devoir, 16 Janvier 2007
http://www.ledevoir.com/2007/01/16/127579.html#

3. Critics slam Quebec racism poll, Jeff Heinrich, The Gazette, January 16
2007
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=5fbb2f18-b847-4822-bb87-6b7138945665&k=58135

4. Dumont letter smacks of demagoguery, Charest says, The Gazette, January
19 2007
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=4c0c1008-256c-4058-97c1-a97439b37424

5. Un sondage imprudent, La Presse, 19 Janvier 2007
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070119/CPOPINIONS/701190841&SearchID=73269681601091

6. Les Québecois sont-ils racistes? Les Voix de l?Est, 19 janvier 2007
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070119/CPACTUALITES/701190632/5282/CPOPINIONS

Read More......

Le Devoir: Tué par la police en allant prier à la mosquée

Le Devoir
LES ACTUALITÉS, samedi 20 janvier 2007, p. a2

Tué par la police en allant prier à la mosquée
La soeur jumelle de Mohammed Anas Bennis veut savoir ce qui s'est passé

Cauchy, Clairandrée

Vers 6h30, le matin du 1er décembre 2005, Mohammed Anas Bennis quitte son domicile pour aller faire sa prière à une mosquée située à quelques coins de rue. Au même moment, une opération policière conjointe du Service de police de la Ville de Montréal et de la Sûreté du Québec a cours juste à côté pour démanteler un réseau de fraudeurs. Selon la version policière, M. Bennis serait sorti de nulle part et aurait attaqué un policier avec un couteau de cuisine. Un policier a tiré deux balles, dont une l'a atteint en plein coeur. Un an plus tard, la famille de M. Bennis ne croit toujours pas à cette version des faits et tente en vain d'obtenir une copie du rapport d'enquête sur le décès de M. Bennis.

Plus d'un an après sa mort, Khadija Bennis n'arrive pas à faire le deuil de son frère jumeau, décédé lors d'une intervention policière qui se déroulait à Côte-des-Neiges, à deux pas de la mosquée où son frère se rendait faire sa prière du matin.

En novembre dernier, le substitut du procureur de Rimouski a annoncé qu'il n'avait pas l'intention d'entamer des poursuites contre les policiers qui ont tué M. Bennis, à la lumière du rapport d'enquête sur l'événement. C'est la police de la Ville de Québec qui a mené l'enquête puisque des policiers de Montréal et de la SQ participaient à l'opération. La famille s'est vu refuser l'accès au rapport, elle n'a donc pu voir ni le couteau avec lequel M. Bennis aurait asséné deux coups à un policier ni la vidéo de surveillance d'un édifice adjacent qui aurait enregistré la scène.

«Cela nous donne le sentiment qu'on nous cache quelque chose. Qu'on nous donne le rapport et qu'on nous laisse faire notre deuil», implore la soeur jumelle du défunt, Khadija Bennis, aujourd'hui âgée de 27 ans.

Après une manifestation d'un millier de personnes tenue le 7 janvier 2006 pour réclamer que toute la lumière soit faite sur le décès d'Anas Bennis, la famille s'est tenue coite, attendant les résultats de l'enquête. Une fois l'enquête terminée, le rapport a été transmis à un substitut du procureur, Me James Rondeau de Rimouski, qui a conclu qu'il n'avait «pas de preuves hors de tout doute raisonnable» pour porter des accusations, comme il l'a expliqué au Devoir.

«Le procureur a lu ses conclusions à mon père; nous n'avons jamais pu en avoir une copie. Au ministère de la Sécurité publique, on a refusé de nous donner le rapport d'enquête. Cela nous laisse perplexes. C'est notre confiance dans le système qui tombe», soutient Khadija, qui a mis sur pied récemment la Coalition justice pour Anas, reprenant ainsi le flambeau des mains de son père, retourné vivre au Maroc.

La loi sur la recherche des causes et circonstances des décès prévoit que les familles peuvent avoir une copie intégrale des rapports d'enquête, à condition que ceux-ci ne contiennent pas d'information confidentielle. Or de tels rapports contiennent presque toujours de telles informations. Le ministère a donc refusé de le transmettre à la famille.

«On leur a écrit pour leur dire qu'on comprend que certaines informations ne peuvent être données. On leur a demandé de nous donner une copie éditée», explique Khadija. Réponse du ministère: «La loi prévoit que les rapports doivent être transmis intégralement. S'il y a un seul renseignement qu'on ne peut transmettre, on ne peut donner un rapport biffé», explique au Devoir la responsable des communications du ministère de la Sécurité publique, Johanne Pelletier. Elle observe qu'il est très rare qu'un tel rapport soit remis aux familles.

Cette impasse choque Khadija Bennis, qui ne voit d'autre issue que celle de se tourner vers l'opinion publique. «Si mon frère n'était pas mort aujourd'hui, s'il avait été seulement blessé, il aurait eu le droit de voir les preuves contre lui, il aurait eu droit à une défense», lance-t-elle en soulignant que les amis d'Anas n'ont pas été contactés dans le cadre de l'enquête, pas plus que la famille.

Elle est convaincue que son frère, un jeune informaticien qui avait sa petite entreprise sur Internet, a été victime d'une bavure policière. «C'est du profilage ethnique, religieux. Il portait la barbe, des vêtements musulmans traditionnels. Mais ce n'est pas parce qu'il s'intéressait à Dieu que cela devient une personne à soupçonner. Présentement, le groupe ciblé, ce sont les musulmans, avant c'étaient les Noirs», poursuit Mme Bennis.

Au cours des prochaines semaines, elle compte se remettre à la tâche pour sensibiliser l'opinion publique, publier un dépliant, solliciter l'appui de groupes tels que la Ligue des droits et libertés et peut-être organiser une autre manifestation... «On veut avoir accès à l'information, qu'elle soit accessible au public, qu'on fasse une enquête publique. Nous ne faisons plus confiance à la police pour enquêter sur la police», fait-elle valoir.

Une plainte en déontologie policière a également été déposée à la fin de l'année dernière. Le processus étant tenu secret, cette démarche ne permettra cependant pas à la famille de M. Bennis d'obtenir les documents produits dans le cadre de l'enquête.

Tant à la Ville de Montréal qu'au SPVM ou à la police de Québec, on refuse de commenter l'événement. L'attaché de presse du comité exécutif note toutefois que le conseiller Marcel Tremblay a exprimé son souhait de voir les documents remis à la famille lors du dernier conseil municipal, en réponse à une question du conseiller de Projet Montréal, Richard Bergeron. «Mais cela ne relève pas de Montréal», précise Bernard Larin.

Read More......

La Rage du Peuple! on CKUT

No One Is Illegal-Montreal members were actively involved in producing "La Rage du Peuple", 12-hours of special New Year's Day programming on CKUT community radio in Montreal, focussed on the struggles of social justice movements worldwide.

Some highlights include interviews with immigrant justice organizers in the USA (Arnoldo Garcia and Aarti Shahani), interviews with local organizers like Tess Tesalona of the Center for Philippine Concerns and Sarita Ahooja of No One Is Illegal Montreal (represent!), a special edition of Radio Sanctuary with Kader Belaouni, and much much more.

All the audio has been uploaded and is linked on the CKUT News Collective blog; just CLICK HERE.

The theme song for La Rage du Peuple! is the song by the same name by Marseille rapper Keny Arkana. You can view her video HERE.

Read More......

Washington Post: Immigrants mistreated at detention centers

U.S. authorities mistreated suspected illegal immigrants at five prisons and jails nationwide, violating federal standards meant to ensure safe and humane custody, according to a government report released yesterday.

Read the Washington Post article HERE.

Highlight from the article: "Eric Lerner, a spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee, called the report a "whitewash" that was delayed to suppress controversy."

Read More......

Halifax: Protesters push for action on immigration issues

Protesters push for action on immigration issues

Friday, January 19 2007 | Chronicle Herald
By JENNIFER STEWART Staff Reporter

Article linked HERE.

A group of about a dozen protesters stormed the Halifax office of
Citizenship and Immigration Canada on Thursday with a list of demands for
the federal government.

The protesters, who are part of a local group called No One Is Illegal,
are looking for an immediate closure of the immigration holding centre in
Kingston, Ont., a unilateral condemnation of the Guantanamo Bay facility
in Cuba and the abolition of secret trials and security certificates.

The group is also pushing for the release of the so-called Secret Trial
Five, a group of five Muslim men detained by the Canadian government,
without charges or convictions, for a collective total of more than 250
days.

Dave Ron, spokesman for the group, said these men are faced with three
outcomes: deportation to torture, indefinite detention or release with
controlled orders, such as house arrest or increased surveillance.

"All of these options are unconstitutional," Mr. Ron said Thursday on the
sidewalk outside the Brunswick Street office.

"They actually contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Furthermore, they violate most principles of fundamental justice."

Behind him, several of the protesters, mostly young people, handed out
pamphlets explaining their concerns. Others shouted out slogans in the
chilly air.

"No one, no one is illegal," they chanted loudly, banging in unison on
plastic buckets.

The group started off inside the immigration office, demanding to speak
with Ron Heisler, Nova Scotia's director of operations for Citizenship and
Immigration Canada.

Mr. Ron said Mr. Heisler refused to speak with the group's members, who
were quickly ushered outside. But later on Mr. Heisler apparently told the
protesters he would pass along their message.

Two police officers monitored the hour-long demonstration. There were no
problems.

---

Read More......

Nouvelles, analyses et annonces: 15-21 janvier 2007

:::::
PERSONNE N’EST ILLÉGAL-MONTRÉAL
Nouvelles, analyses et annonces d’événements
15-21 janvier 2007
:::::

--> Personne n’est illégal a un nouveau site web contenant des nouvelles régulièrement mises à jour, des analyses et des annonces d’événements! Visitez-le :
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

Des liens vers des articles intéressants (de notre site et d’ailleurs) suivent dans ce message.

Nous enverrons par courriel des nouvelles provenant du site environ une fois par semaine; visitez le site plus fréquemment pour obtenir de l’information mises à jour. Nous espérons que ce blogue, accompagné des mises à jour hebdomadaires, sera plus accessible et facile à lire que les bulletins de nouvelles en format courriel envoyés précédemment.

--> Si vous souhaitez recevoir des mises à jour régulières depuis notre liste d’envoi « volume modéré » (2 – 3 messages par semaine), inscrivez vous : https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/
-- PERSONNE N’EST ILLÉGAL-MONTRÉAL
-----

Justice pour Anas! Un appel à votre solidarité et soutien
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/justice-pour-anas-un-appel-votre.html

Le cas de Mohamed Anas Bennis
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html


Radio-Canada: Barricade à Deseronto (Tyendinaga)
http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Ontario/2007/01/10/004-barricades-deseronto.shtml


Manifestation: Fermez le Guantanamo canadien (17 février)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/manifestation-fermez-guantanamo-du-nord.html

Lettre ouverte de Guantanamo canadien
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/lettre-ouverte-de-guantanamo-canadien.html

PC: Des manifestants dénoncent les certificats de sécurité
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070115/CPACTUALITES/70115188/1023/CPACTU

La Presse: Deux millions pour surveiller trois présumés terroristes
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070105/CPACTUALITES/70105001/1025/FRONTPAGE


Un statut pour Kader: Faxez, écrive
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/un-statut-pour-kader-faxez-faxez-crivez.html

Radio-refuge avec Kader (19 janvier, 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/radio-refuge-avec-kader-belaouni.html

Plus d’info concernant Kader Belaouni, en sanctuaire depuis janvier 2006
www.soutienpourkader.net


Contingent anti-impérialiste: Ils occupent, nous résistons (mars 2007)
http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com/2007/01/mars-2007-contingent-anti-imprialiste.html


Personne n’est illégal – Principes
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/personne-nest-illgal-principes.html
-----

Si vous souhaitez recevoir des mises à jour régulières depuis notre liste d’envoi « volume modéré » (2 – 3 messages par semaine), inscrivez vous : https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/

Pour communiquer avec Personne n’est illégal Montréal, écrivez-nous à nooneisillegal@gmail.com ou téléphonez au 514-848-7583.

Personne n’est illégal – Montréal est un groupe qui est membre actif de Solidarité sans frontières, un réseau basé à Montréal qui lutte en faveur de la justice et de la dignité pour tou-te-s les sans-statut.

Plus d’information sur Personne n’est illégal:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

Plus d’information sur Solidarité sans frontières: http://www.solidaritesansfrontieres.org

Demeurez à l’écoute. Visitez notre site web régulièrement.
-- Personne n’est illégal – Montréal

Read More......

News, Events and Analysis: January 15-21, 2007

:::::
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-MONTREAL
News, Events and Analysis
January 15-21, 2007
:::::

--> No One Is Illegal-Montreal has a new frequently updated news, analysis and events website! Check it out at:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

Below we present links to some items of interest from the website and other sources. We will be sending updates by e-mail from the site about once a week; check out the site more frequently for up-to-date info. We hope the news and events blog, with weekly updates, are more readable and accessible than our past e-mail-only newswires.

--> If you want to receive regular updates from our low-volume announcements list (2-3 messages/week), you can subscribe at:
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/

We hope you find this weekly compilation useful and informative.
-- NO ONE IS ILLEGAL-MONTREAL.
-----

::::: JANUARY 15-21, 2007 :::::

Reflections from Iran by a No One Is Illegal member
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/reflections-from-iran.html

Anti-Imperialist Contingent: Bush out of Baghdad, Canada out of Kandahar (March 2007)
http://blocktheempire.blogspot.com/2007/01/march-2007-anti-imperialist-contingent.html

MNN: “Imaginary Lines” Canada-US-Mexico
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/imaginary-lines-canada-us-mexico.html

No Border Camp / Campamento Contra Fronteras, Calexico/Mexicali, Fall/Otoño 2007
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/no-border-camp-campamento-contra.html

Tyendinaga Update: The Fight for Return of Culberston Tract Lands
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/tyendinaga-update-fight-for-return-of.html


Two Montreal-area fundraisers for the Six Nations Land Reclamation: Dance Party (January 24) and Mixtape Exchange Party (January 27)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/two-montreal-area-benefits-for-six.html

MNN: Six Nations Makes History
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/mnn-six-nations-makes-history.html

No One Is Illegal Solidarity Statement with Six Nations
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/solidarity-statement-with-six-nations.html


Siraj Family of NYC arrested as an intimidation tactic
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/siraj-family-of-nyc-arrested-as.html

UPDATE: Community outraged at $35,000 bond for Siraj family
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/update-community-outraged-at-35000-bond.html


Justice for Anas! Killed by the Montreal Police. A call for your solidarity and support
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/justice-for-anas-call-for-your.html

Globe and Mail: A Tale of Two Men (Mohamed Anas Bennis and Ian Bush)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/globe-and-mail-tale-of-two-men-mohamed.html

The Case of Mohamed Anas Bennis – Background Info
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html


Status for Kader! Fax, E-mail and Phone Campaign
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/status-for-kader-fax-email-and-phone.html

Radio Sanctuary with Kader Belaouni (January 19, 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/radio-sanctuary-with-kader-belaouni.html

Background Info to Kader Belaouni, in sanctuary since January 2006
www.soutienpourkader.net


AUDIO: Interview with Amir Hodhod, deported to the United States (January 9, 2007)
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/jaggisingh@gmail.com/2840-1-20070109-AmirfromJersey.mp3

Background Info to the Struggle of Amir Hodhod
http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/node/124


Rally: Close Guantanamo North (February 17, 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/rally-close-guantanamo-north-february.html

Open Letter from Guantanamo North (January 8, 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/open-letter-from-guantanamo-north.html

AUDIO: Open Letter from Guantanamo North, read by Ahmad Jaballah, son of Mahmoud Jaballah
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/jaggisingh@gmail.com/2840-1-20070109-OPENLETTER.mp3

AUDIO: Interview with Ahmad Jaballah (January 9, 2007)
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/jaggisingh@gmail.com/2840-1-20070109-AhmadJaballah.mp3

Montreal Picket in Support of Guantanamo North hunger strikers (January 15, 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/montreal-picket-in-support-of.html

CP: Activists descent on CBSA offices to protest security certificates
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/cp-activists-descend-on-cbsa-offices-to.html

Toronto Star: Inside Gitmo North
http://www.thestar.com/article/168467

Los Angeles Times: A Voice from Guantanamo’s Darkness: Jumah al-Dossari
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-dossari11jan11,0,3342644.story?coll=la-home-commentary


Border Enforcement is State Terrorism
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/border-enforcement-is-state-terrorism.html

The Gambian Front: More on Euro-African Border Enforcement
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/gambian-front-more-on-euro-african.html


No One Is Illegal Radio (January 2007): The re-opening of the Confederacy Council at Six Nations; the hunger strike at Guantanamo North; a message from Amir Hodhod in Jersey City
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21252

No One Is Illegal Radio 2006 Archives: Includes the voices of Latifa Charkaoui, Arnoldo Garcia, Kahehti:io, Sherene Razack, Hassan Almrei, Karen Coq, Hazel Hill, Kahentinehta, Roberta Keesick, Arash Aslani, Teresa Hayter, Aarti Shahani, Racha Moumneh, Rafeef Ziadah, Ashanti Alston Omowali, Biju Mathew, Trudy Miller, Angel Smith, Khadija Bennis
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/no-one-is-illegal-radio-2006-archive.html


No One Is Illegal Montreal’s Basis of Unity
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-one-is-illegal-montreals-basis-of.html
-----

If you want to receive regular updates from our low-volume announcements list (2-3 messages/week), you can subscribe at:
https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nooneisillegal-l/

To get in touch with No One Is Illegal-Montreal, e-mail us at nooneisillegal@gmail.com or phone 514-848-7583.

No One Is Illegal-Montreal is an active member group of the Solidarity Across Borders immigrant justice network in Montreal.

More about us at: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com

More about Solidarity Across Borders at: http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org

Stay in touch! Check out our website regularly.
-- No One Is Illegal-Montreal

Read More......

No Border Camp / Campamento Contra Fronteras, Calexico/Mexicali, Fall/Otoño 2007

http://deletetheborder.org/nobordercamp

No Border Camp 2007 Zine / Revista de Campamento Contra Fronteras 2007 -
This zine has been distributed through the US/Mexico borderlands, the
Cascadia region and at the Zapatista Encuentro in Dec/Jan of 2006/2007.

Proposal for Global Day of Action & No Border Camps - "This proposal was
read at the Encuentro with the Zapatista Communities and the People of
the World in Oventic on January 2nd 2007 in the plenary session for the
Intergalatic Encuentro as a proposal for a theme to the Intergalactic and
a Global Call to Action..."

As long as the US/Mexico border has existed, people having been
struggling against it. It is a highly militarized, violent boundary
marking an internal space of strict migration controls while allowing for
unrestricted movement of capital and wealth. This border exists in a
global context of apartheid borders and restriction of movement. For
years around the world people have been tearing down fences, freeing
detainees and fighting for the rights of migrant people. A global
movement against borders and migration controls is rising. One of many
tactics in this movement is the no border camp - a space for direct
action and building community. Join us for a transnational no border camp
on the Mexico/US border.

We are currently an informal network of groups and individuals on both
sides of the border. We are planning a transnational no border action
camp for the fall of 2007, in the region of Calexico and Mexicali. The
PGA hallmarks are the basic points of unity for the mobilization.

The camp is intended to be a spectacular intervention in a discourse that
at times ignores, and at other times justifies, the systematic violence,
indignity and exploitation experienced by migrants in this country. The
mobilization will bring many of us together in one place to share and
learn. It is of equal importance to us that this not be just one isolated
event that lasts a few days in one specific location. We view this
mobilization as a process. It is a process of creating an anti-capitalist
network for freedom of movement. For this mobilization to be a success,
groups and individuals from a diversity of locales and experiences must
make this project their own. We hope that others see this as an
opportunity to build a platform from which this struggle can be
demonstrated and articulated.

Several Regional gatherings are currently being planned. Send inquiries
to nobordercamp@gmail.com

Plans for this mobilization came out of the ongoing process of forming
the deletetheborder network and the "Roots of Resistance" camp hosted by
the organic collective in San Diego in September 2006.

People's Global Action Hallmarks:

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all
trade agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive
globalisation;
2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination
including, but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious
fundamentalism of all creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human
beings.
3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can
have a major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in
which transnational capital is the only real policy-maker;
4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social
movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximize
respect for life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the
construction of local alternatives to global capitalism;
5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy.

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Radio-Canada: Barricade à Deseronto (Tyendinaga)

http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Ontario/2007/01/10/004-barricades-deseronto.shtml

Une trentaine d'autochtones ont érigé des barrières devant une entreprise de construction de Deseronto, près de Belleville.

Des policiers surveillent de près la manifestation.

Les membres de la communauté mohawk de la Baie de Quinte manifestent contre la construction de 136 logements condominiums sur un terrain qu'ils revendiquent. Selon eux, Ottawa a donné ces terres à Deseronto sans leur consentement, il y a plus d'un siècle.

Le fédéral a récemment nommé un négociateur dans l'espoir de trouver une solution à la dispute qui ressemble beaucoup à celle qui se déroule à Caledonia au sud de Hamilton.

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Two Montreal-area Benefits for Six Nations Land Reclamation

((((( 1 )))))

SOLIDARITY WITH SIX NATIONS DANCE PARTY
a part of McGill's Social Justice Days

Wednesday, January 24th
Gerts' Bar, SSMU building, 3480 McTavish st. METRO MCGILL
8.30 pm; Admission $5-$10 sliding scale
This event is wheelshair accessible.

Featuring a report back from Six Nations land reclamation site in Ontario with speakers activist Kahntinehta and independent journalist Fiona Becker, a short video, and a late night dance party with live bands (Celebration, Florida!) and DJs Leila P, and Roots Rock Rebellion.

THIS EVENT IS A CALLOUT FOR MUCH NEEDED SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS FOR THE RECLAMATION SITE.
This could include:
-warm clothes
-blankets, sleeping bags
-coats
-personal hygiene products (toothpaste, soap, shampoo, toothbrushes,
etc)
-non perishable food
-tools (hammers, nails, etc.)
PLEASE BE AS GENEROUS AS YOU ARE ABLE

Endorsed by Block the Empire, No One Is Illegal & Solidarity Across Borders.
INFO: sparrow@riseup.net or emmastrople@riseup.net



((((( 2 )))))

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Mix Tape Exchange Party! Saturday, January 27
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

-bring a mixtape to trade (old school tapes or new school cds)

-themes are encouraged (ie. get out of bed mix, sing-along mix, summer in
february mix, etc..........)

-dress up as the theme of your mix tape (or die)

featuring bum shaking beats by:
DJs Diasporaface * Kandis C. * Mistint

*plus open mic for your mixtape tracks!*

Saturday, January 27th
9pm, mixtapes traded at midnight, sharp!
#720-679 St Remi

directions:
this warehouse space is just north of notre dame and st.remi. if you are coming
from notre dame and heading north on st. remi, you will come up on an
underpass. do not go under the underpass, but instead veer right, past the
'bread factory' loft/warehouse building, until you hit the dirt road just
behind it. this road/driveway is parallel with the train tracks. turn right and
walk until you see a bright red door with 720 written on and come on in.

::::::::::::::::::::a benefit for::::::::::::::::::::::
SNAP: a youth of colour and indigenous
youth activist training program

::and::

6 Nations Legal Defense
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

info: vibratethestate@hotmail.com


Background:
On February 28, 2006 members of the Six Nations of the Grand River community reclaimed a tract of land near Caledonia, Ontario since. This property had been illegally sold by the province to the Henco Corporation for the purpose of building a residential complex. On June 16, 2006 the Ontario government bought out the Douglas Estates developers and offered a substantial amount of money to Caledonia-area businesses that had alleged that they been negatively impacted by the road barricades.

Inversely, Six Nations have been mostly dealt with repression and lack of serious commitment to negotiate. On April 20, 2006 the OPP attacked the camp, armed with tasers, pepper spray and automatic weapons. A lot of people were injured and a few were arrested. Astonishingly, the community was able to peacefully re-establish the camp renaming the site Kanenhstaton (the Protected Place). They subsequently blocked all roads leading into the tract of land in an act of self-defence. Eventually, and in the interest of peaceful negotiations, the barricades started to came down on May 23, 2006. Nonetheless, the Caledonia residents have continued to engage in acts of provocation, to harass First Nations people and to invade the territory. As a result of some of these incidents, a number of First Nations people have been charged and arrested, and one continues to be held in jail.

As of November 10, 2006 the government position has been to continue to deny Six Nations the rightful ownership of the land. In fact, the Provincial government and the Federal government have been publicly arguing with each other over their responsibility, which only shows that the Canadian government is quite reluctant to negotiate in good faith. In addition, the appointment of Julian Fantino as the newly minted OPP commissioner on October 31, 2006, only heightens the fear that a military response is still a possibility.

At this moment, negotiations between the Six Nations Confederacy (legitimate government of the Grand River Community) and both levels of government can only take place once per month because that is the only time the federal representatives are available. At the time of this writing, the camp at Kanenhstaton is preparing for winter and is in vital need of funds and supplies.

Read More......

Update: Community Outraged at $35,000 Bond Set for Siraj Family

[For more updates, visit http://www.drumnation.org


PRESS RELEASE January 16, 2007

Community Outraged at $35,000 Bond Set by Immigration Judge for Mother & Daughter of Queens Family Arrested as Intimidation

For questions, contact: Fahd Ahmed, DRUM (940) 391-2660 or Kavitha Pawria, 718-216-0756

FOR PHOTOS, email: fahd@drumnation.org OR kavitha@drumnation.org

Despite frigid weather, a busload of family and community supporters from civil and human rights organizations traveled to Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey today to demonstrate their support for the Siraj family. Another chapter in a nightmare that has ruined the lives of a tight-knit family unfolded as an Immigration Judge, in a hearing closed to the public, set a forbidding bond in the amount of $20,000 for the mother and $15,000 for the daughter.

Today's hearing comes a week after Matin Siraj was sentenced to 30 years in prison for false terrorism charges based on an NYPD-paid informant's entrapment. Less than twelve hours after sentencing, the Siraj family's Queens home was raided by ICE at dawn and the father, mother and daughter were arrested and jailed in New Jersey. Immediately after today's hearing, speaking to a crowd of supporters in a press conference organized by DRUM, the family's immigration lawyer, Mona Shah, reported that the bond hearing was unusually lengthy, the bond amount was peculiarly high for a routine immigration matter, and that the mother and daughter were visibly distraught. After hearing the Judge's decision at the support demonstration, a family member expressed, "The Judge has set a prohibitive, unfair bond. I cannot make magic to raise this money and the family has already broken their backs to fight a preposterous case against their son. The lives of an innocent family are being destroyed." While family and community members scramble to raise funds, the family will be held at Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. The father will not receive a similar hearing and instead, is subject to an ICE Administrative decision under an unspecified timeline.

An organizer of today's demonstration in support of the family, Fahd Ahmed expressed, "Setting such an unreasonable bond is clearly another political tactic to keep our communities fearful and silent. The Siraj family, as another victim of the US government's "war on terror", is being targeted for their outspoken cries for justice on behalf of their son…they remain steadfast and courageous in speaking the truth as the government continues to try to break their spirits".

Given the high-profile media attention on their son's case, in which there were many underhanded legal irregularities and rights violations, these arrests and today's unreachable bond are being seen by the community as an attempt to silence and make an example of the family through harassment. From detention, the mother recently said that "this is a systematic targeting of Muslims, a political attack on a peaceful family—and we have been caught in the middle of it. We have not gotten any justice and will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to struggle with patience and courage."

DRUM, as a community based organization that works with Muslim and South Asian immigrants and has seen the targeting of this community before and especially after 9/11, is calling on all concerned individuals and organizations to support the immediate release of the Siraj family. DRUM, alongside countless civil and human-rights organizations and concerned citizens will continue to expose the ongoing injustices of the "War on Terror" against this family and all targeted communities.

Read More......

CP: Activists descend on CBSA offices to protest Canada's security certificates

Activists descend on CBSA offices to protest Canada's security certificates

15, 2007 - 3:27 pm
By: JANE TAGUICANA

TORONTO (CP) - Nearly 20 human-rights activists gathered Monday outside the
offices of the Canada Border Services Agency to protest the ongoing
detention of three men who have been held behind bars for more than four
years as perceived threats to national security.

Protesters, some of them clad in orange jumpsuits similar to those worn by
prisoners, braved cold temperatures and freezing rain to show their support
for Mohammad Mahjoub, 45, Mahmoud Jaballah, 44, and Hassan Almrei, 33.

"These men have been very clear: 'If you have a case against us, charge us
in open court,"' said protest organizer Matthew Behrens.

"'Show the evidence to us and we're more than happy to meet the case."'

Joining the group was Mahjoub's wife, Mona Elfouli, who tried to speak to
an immigration officer at the west-end Toronto facility, only to be turned
away by security officers who repeatedly demanded that the protesters leave
the building.

Elfouli said her husband, who hasn't eaten in 55 days, suffers from
hepatitis C and high blood pressure, but has been denied medical treatment.
Jaballah, meanwhile, has also been denied treatment for a double hernia,
protesters said.

The facility in Kingston, Ont., where the men are being held - dubbed
Guantanamo Bay North by critics who liken it to the controversial U.S.
detention camp for terror suspects in Cuba - has also refused to provide an
escort for her husband for medical treatments.

"Criminals have more rights than (these men)," Elfouli said.

"They treat my husband and the others not like human beings. They put them
in Guantanamo North and throw the key away and expect everybody to forget
about these people. What did they do to deserve that?"

The men are being held under security certificates - a controversial tool
that allows federal authorities, with Ottawa's permission, to detain
suspects deemed to pose a threat to national security without having to lay
charges or disclose evidence.

"Not a single piece of evidence has been presented in court to implicate
Mr. Mahjoub in any act of violence or in any kind of threat," said Behrens,
head of a group called the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada.

Ottawa doesn't care about the lives of the three men, he added.

"They're willing to let them starve to death and they're also willing to
send them overseas for torture."

The Supreme Court of Canada has been asked to rule on the constitutional
validity of Canada's security certificate system.

A four-hour vigil in support of the detainees was also held Monday in
Kingston to mark Martin Luther King Day, as were protests in a number of
other cities including St. John's, Nfld., Halifax, Fredericton, Montreal,
London, Ont., Kitchener, Ont., Winnipeg and Vancouver.

Read More......

PC: Des manifestants dénoncent les certificats de sécurité

Le lundi 15 janvier 2007

Des manifestants dénoncent les certificats de sécurité
Jane Taguicana
Presse Canadienne
Toronto

Une vingtaine de manifestants se sont rassemblés devant les bureaux de l'Agence des services frontaliers du Canada, lundi à Toronto, pour dénoncer la poursuite de l'incarcération de trois hommes qui sont détenus depuis plus de trois ans parce qu'ils représenteraient une menace à la sécurité nationale.

LISEZ PLUS ICI

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A voice from Guantanamo's Darkness: Jumah al-Dossari

A voice from Gitmo's darkness

A current detainee speaks of the torture and humiliation he has experienced at Guantanamo since 2002.

By Jumah al-Dossari
JUMAH AL-DOSSARI is a 33-year-old citizen of Bahrain.

This article was excerpted from letters he wrote to his attorneys. Its contents have been deemed unclassified by the Department of Defense.

January 11, 2007
LOS ANGELES TIMES


Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba — I AM WRITING from the darkness of the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo in the hope that I can make our voices heard by the world. My hand quivers as I hold the pen.

Read more HERE.

Read More......

CP: Tories earmark millions for improved border safety

January 13, 2007

WINDSOR, Ont. — The federal government is investing $431 million over the next five years to reinforce border safety, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced Friday in this southwestern Ontario border city.

Read more HERE

Read More......

Montreal picket in support of Guantanamo North hunger strikers

Photos: http://gallery.cmaq.net/hungerstrike

Around forty people - including the father of security certificate victim Adil Charkaoui - gathered this morning outside a building which co-houses offices of Immigration Canada, the Canadian Border Services Agency and CSIS in Montreal.

Several journalists from radio, tv and print media came out to cover the picket and were handed copies of an open letter written by the hunger-strikers as well as an in-depth information package on security certificates.

As a blizzard got underway, banners reading "Dignity for Almrei, Jaballah and Mahjoub: Close Guantanamo North" and "Security Certificates violate human rights" were unfurled. Other banners, from past hunger-strikes of Mr. Mahjoub and Mr. Almrei, attested to the duration of the struggle mounted by these men and their families, and to their inspiring strength in the face of such injustice and abuse. An open letter from the hunger-strikers to the people of Canada was read aloud, detailing their simple demand to be treated with dignity.

A speaker pointed out that while CSIS has failed to provide us with any evidence that the three men currently starving themselves in prison constitute any threat whatsoever to others in Canada, we have all too much proof that the racism inherent in the Canadian political system poses a very serious threat to many.

Despite the snowstorm, hundreds of flyers about "Guantanamo North" were distributed to passers-by. Dozens of solidarity postcards for the detainees were also distributed to participants in the rally, and participants were urged to send their messages of solidarity to the hungerstrikers and to make follow up calls to Stockwell Day, the man responsible for conditions at the prison.

All speakers expressed their intent to keep returning until each of the five victims was released without condition, deportation proceedings against them halted, security certificates abolished, the policy of deporting people to torture ended, and the Guantanamo north refugee prison closed.

As the crowd disbursed, Mrs. Charkaoui, Adil Charkaoui's mother, arrived in the snowstorm to show her support. She had been obliged - by the draconian conditions that have been imposed on the entire family, without Charkaoui's having been accused, let alone tried or convicted of any crime - to accompany her son to his workplace before coming to the rally. A larger rally to close Guantanamo North will take place 17 February 2007 in Montreal.

[posted by mfoster@web.ca]

Read More......

Radio Sanctuary with Kader Belaouni

CKUT Radio's "Off the Hour" presents:: Radio Sanctuary 5 :: The Hour of
Power ::

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Tune-In to the next Radio Sanctuary
Friday January 19th 5-6pm E.S.T
An hour of power with Kader live from the St-Gabriel's Church,
Point-St-Charles (MONTREAL)
90,3 FM in Montreal -- www.ckut.ca
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

On Friday January 19th from 5-6pm CKUT and Kader will broadcast the fifth
installment of RADIO SANCTUARY, a live hour-long remote broadcast hosted
by Abdelkader Belaouni.

Abdelkader Belaouni ("Kader" to his friends) is a refugee from Algeria who
came to Montreal via the USA. Kader is in sanctuary inside the
St-Gabriel's Catholic Church in his community of Point St-Charles -- a
mixed French-English poor working class neighborhood of Montreal, with a
long history of community mobilization.

Kader defied an order to be deported on January 5, 2006, and has remained
in sanctuary ever since.

CKUT is a community radio station proudly embedded in movements for social
justice, particularly those of migrants in Montreal. Since Kader cannot
leave the church, CKUT radio will join him inside the sanctuary of
St-Gabriel's Church, in the heart of Point St-Charles.

Join us for this bilingual (English and French) program with perspectives
on child poverty and the history of the neighborhood of Point St. Charles.

-->To view PHOTOS from the broadcast of Radio Sanctuary, visit:
http://gallery.cmaq.net/radio-sanctuaire

For more information, contact news at ckut.ca, call 514-448-4041 x6788, or
visit www.soutienpourkader.net

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Radio-Refuge avec Kader Belaouni

L'Émission "Off the Hour" de CKUT présente :: Radio-refuge 5 :: The Hour
of Power ::

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Écoutez Radio-Refuge, le vendredi 19 janvier, 17h-18h
Une heure avec Kader, en direct de l'Église Saint-Gabriel
à Pointe Saint-Charles, Montréal
90,3fm à Montréal -- www.ckut.ca --
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

Le vendredi 19 janvier, de 17h à 18h, CKUT et Kader diffuseront la 5ième
édition de Radio-refuge, une émission en extérieur, transmise en direct
et animée par Abdelkader Belaouni.

Abdelkader Belaouni (Kader pour ses amis), est un réfugié d'origine
algérienne qui est arrivé au Canada en passant par les ÉU. Kader se
trouve actuellement en refuge religieux à l'intérieur de l'église
catholique Saint-Gabriel dans sa communauté de Pointe Saint-Charles:
un quartier bilingue, pauvre et traditionnellement ouvrier qui a une longue
histoire de mobilisation communautaire.

Depuis le 5 janvier 2006, Kader défie un ordre d'expulsion et demeure en
refuge à l'église.

CKUT est une radio communautaire fièrement engagée dans les mouvements
de justice sociale et particulièrement dans les luttes des migrants à
Montréal. Puisque Kader ne peut quitter son refuge, CKUT se joindra à
lui à l'intérieur de l'église Saint-Gabriel, au coeur de Pointe
Saint-Charles.

Syntonisez CKUT pour écouter ce programme bilingue (français et
anglais), qui traitera de la pauvreté des enfants et l' histoire à Pointe
Saint-Charles.

--> Pour voir des photos de la production de Radio-refuge, visitez :
http://gallery.cmaq.net/radio-sanctuaire

Pour plus de renseignements, contactez news (at) ckut.ca, appelez
514-448-4041 poste 6788, ou visitez www.soutienpourkader.net

Read More......

Tyendinaga Update: The Fight for Return of Culberston Tract Lands

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The Culberston Land Tract

The Culberston is a tract of land, 923 acres in size that runs along the
eastern boundary of Tyendinaga today. In 1837 the Federal Government
changed the status of the land from Indian land to white land.

All agreements with the Mohawk Nation predate the existence of Canada.
While the Mohawk Chiefs immediately registered their people's dissent in
1837 when the land was stolen, no formal legal process existed to pursue
its return. Despite a fundamental obligation to uphold previous
agreements between the Mohawks and the crown, the Federal Government only
created such a process in 1991.

Tyendinaga filed a formal claim for the land with the Feds in 1995. The
claim seeks the restoration of lands to the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

In November 2003, Tyendinaga received a letter from the Federal Government
acknowledging what the people of Tyendinaga have always known: That the
Culberston Tract was never surrendered and is Mohawk Land.

Since then the Federal Government has been trying to get Tyendinaga to
take a buy-out for the land. Mohawk people know the value of land cannot
have a dollar sign attached and that the future generations of our growing
population will depend on this land. Tyendinaga will accept nothing less
than the full and unfettered return of these lands to Mohawk control and
use.

Deseronto

The Mayor of Deseronto has said that the town's economic viability and
survival depends on the development of Culbertson tract lands.
Tyendinaga's Rotiskenhrakehte have twice ensured that deadlines to begin
development of these lands have not been realized. "If they cannot find a
way to survive without our land then they simply cannot continue to
exist," said Tyendinaga Mohawk, Shawn Brant.

The Rotiskenhrakehte have also been mandated to close a Deseronto quarry,
situated on Culberston Tract lands, that literally digs up, sells off and
ships out Mohawk land by the truckload. This obscene state of affairs can
no longer be tolerated.

Land Claim Arrests

The Government struck back last Friday in a failed attempt to slow the
momentum in the reclamation of 923 acres of Mohawk Nation Lands in
Tyendinaga.

Friday's attempt to target and remove Tyendinaga leadership with a clear
embellishment of events surrounding the charges of Shawn Brant and Mario
Baptiste has done nothing more than inflame the situation and anger the
community.

Shawn and Mario would likely still be in jail if Tyendinaga community
members had not responded immediately with imminent plans to shut down
Deseronto completely.

The motive for the charges was made clear when the Crown pushed
(unsuccessfully) for conditions barring the accused from Deseronto and the
Culberston Land Claim Tract entirely.

"We have been denied our land for 170 years. That's not going to fly
anymore. There is no level of Government or police force that will keep a
Mohawk off their own land," said Tyendinaga, Mohawk Nation citizen, Jay
Maracle.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON LAST FRIDAY'S ARRESTS:

Mohawk protesters charged

Jeremy Ashley
Local News - Friday, January 12, 2007

Two native protesters who were at the centre of the most recent dispute
near Deseronto Wednesday have been arrested on criminal charges in
connection to a Nov. 15 demonstration.

On that date, they had been protesting a disputed land claim in Deseronto,
15 km east of Belleville, which continues to be at the centre of a dispute
and led to a demonstration at a gravel quarry this week.

Warrants were issued for the pair following an investigation into a
confrontation between members of the Canadian army who were stopped en
route to a training exercise on Nov.
15 at the site of a native protest on Highway 2.

Friday, an officer with the Napanee detachment of the Ontario Provincial
Police pulled over a vehicle on Deseronto Road, just north of County Road
2, for a traffic violation, explained OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae.

During the course of the traffic stop, the individual in the vehicle made
a cell phone call, Rae said, and the two accused showed up at the scene
moments later.

"The officer was aware of the two warrants for the individuals and (after
he identified the men) their arrests were made without incident," Rae
said,

"Officers want to ensure that everyone is aware that the OPP respects
lawful protests, but will not
tolerate criminal activity."

Charged with three counts of uttering death threats are Shawn Michael
Brant, 42, of Tyendinaga.

Charged with two counts of assault and one count of mischief is Mario
Michael Baptiste Jr., 21, also of Tyendinaga.

Both are scheduled to appear for a bail hearing Friday in Napanee.

[info by Friends in Tyendinaga]

Read More......

Reflections from Iran

[An excerpt from a message from No One Is Illegal member Poya, who has been in Iran for the past two months ...]

I wanted to share a few reflections and observations, drawing mostly
on conversations I had with people:

-The current Islamic regime attempts to control everything it can.
This apparatus of control is shaped by two factors: 1) the fact that
the fragile life of the regime is dependant upon the repression it
hands down, and 2) the laws in place are shaped by Islamic beliefs.
A few examples of things the government tries to control; satellite
dish's are illegal, internet connection speeds are restricted to
128kbps; a whole plethora of websites are censored, including
resist.ca and tao.ca as I discovered; men who don't complete mandatory
military service cannot get married, obtain loans, leave the country,
or buy property, their are no dissenting newspapers allowed in
circulation, and the list goes on and on. Essentially, they try to
control everything which helps them maintain their power, but
fortunately the population is just too large and the regime just
doesn't have the resources to be everywhere at all times. During the
reformist period, which ended with the election of Ahmadinejad in
August 2005, many laws or at least the enforcement of many laws where
relaxed. When Ahmadinejad first came to power he tried to step-up
enforcement, but as one person told me "now that the flood-gates have
been opened the government cannot close them again. Every once in a
while they try to round up satellite dishes, but they can't get them
all. They try to force women to wear the hejab in such a way as to not
show any hair, but their are just too many women."

-Something one of my aunts told me demonstrated to me how Islam
provides the underpinnings for the control sought after by the
government. In a discussion about the restrictions imposed by the
government, my aunt told be that a society with too much freedom ends
up producing leaders like Sadam and that good Islamic laws are what
keep everything together.

-The main concern in peoples lives is economic. With inflation on the
rise, prices keep going up, but wages have stayed low. For example the
cost of a new low-end car is around 10 000 USD, while my cousin who
has a degree in computer science and works as a programmer in the
government gets paid the equivalent of 10 USD a day. Interest rates on
loans are around 20% and property is crazy expensive, around the same
as in Canada. When Ahmadinejad came to power he made all kinds of
promises ("show-ars", as people refer them here) targeted mostly at
the poor, but most of the people I talked to (both from the
middle-class and from "paheen-e shar," the slums) told me they feel
that things have only gotten worse.

-During the time I spent with my family I got a glimpse of what Islam
looks like in Iran. From what I was able to gather, my family is among
the 20-30% of the population that is extremely Muslim and follows a
strict Islamic life-style. Everything from who you can interact with,
to how you must interact with others, to who you must take direction
from in life, to what you wear, to what you drink and eat, to how you
make money, is informed by Islamic beliefs. As one of my cousins said
"Islam has an answer for any question you might have," or as my aunt
told me, "everything in the universe can be found in the Quran, you
have to look not further."

-many people mentioned how they are disgruntled at the fact that Iran
gives so much money to Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, when so many of its
own people are starving. This seems to be a widely shared view.

-Many youth (around three quarters of the population is under the age
of 30) told me how they feel totally hopeless about any change
occurring in Iran. Some of them told me that at times they look
forward to a US attack, as they see no other way of change coming
about. Many youth seem desperate for change. When I asked one of these
youth if he didn't think it was better that Iranians themselves create
this change rather then having one imposed on them, he told me: "since
I can remember the government as told me what I can and cannot do.
When their is no criticism let alone opposition allowed, when their is
not even a single dissenting newspaper permitted, when they control
all the media, when any real protest is silenced, when they have tanks
and we don't, what can we do."

-Out of the many people who told me they want to leave Iran
(especially young people) and go to a western country I found it
interesting that almost all mentioned Australia as the place that
seems easiest to get into legally.

-In my discussions with young people, many told me they feel culture
(one that is highly influenced by Islam) goes a lot further in
controlling their lives than the government. As one women told me
"every time I come to shake a man's hand in public i'm not worried
about the police seeing me, but rather about people on the street."

Anyways there's much more to say, but I think this e-mail is long enough.

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"Imaginary Lines" Canada-US-Mexico

“IMAGINARY LINE” ISSUE FOR ALL ONKWEHONWE OF NORTH AND SOUTH TURTLE ISLAND

MNN. Jan. 9th 2007. The international situation between Canada, U.S. and Mexico is not very complicated. There are two peoples involved. It is us (the Onkwehonwe) and them (the colonists).

We Onkwehonwe, also known as “Indigenous” people, have an inherent right to traverse Turtle Island. When human beings first appeared, Creation gave us the original instructions to be respectful, to live in harmony with the rest of the natural environment and to always adhere to the original ways.

The Haudenosaunee Task Force on Border Crossing [made up of Curtis Nelson, Oren Lyons, Leo Henry, Paul Williams, Darwin Hill and others] was set up without consultation with us. They appear to be cooperating with the colonists who want to issue “smart cards”, something like a credit card. Everything about us will be on that card. This is another straw to try to break the back of the Onkwehonwe.

Many of us who have been active and concerned for a long time found out for the first time this past weekend this committee was set up. They’ve already met with U.S. Homeland Security and Canada Customs and Immigration to work out compliance with colonial terms. We have not been allowed to question this committee. We resist their attempts to pressure us into accepting the colonial timelines and the proposed card which is a de facto recognition of the “imaginary line”.

Preamble

We Onkwehonwe face the US-Canada-Mexico border almost every day. Our nation-to-nation relationship with the colonists is through the U.S. President and the Her Majesty the Queen of Canada. It is governed by the principles of the Two Row Wampum Agreement. One condition of tolerating the presence of the colonists was that we would continue our pre-contact right to conduct trade and commerce and travel anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Jay Treaty (proviso)

The Jay Treaty of 1794 is a third party agreement and can have no binding effect on us. Traveling around on our homeland is a birthright, not a “privilege”. Colonists cannot interfere with our crossing of their imaginary line they call the Canada-U.S. and U.S.-Mexico borders. The Jay Treaty created the imaginary line on the 49th parallel. The Iroquois Confederacy said at the time, “It is for you, not for us”. The Confederacy would not agree to this as we were looking out for all Onkwehonwe, our friends and allies. The line between the colonies of Mexico and the U.S. was created by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. These lines allowed the colonists to illegally implement privileges and tariffs.

Article III of the Jay Treaty is a violation of international law.
“the right of aboriginal peoples (people indigenous to Canada and/or the US) to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain. This right was restated in section 289 of the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act: Nothing in this title shall be construed to affect the right of American Indians born in Canada to pass the borders of the United States, but such right shall extend only to persons who possess at least 50 per centum of blood of the American Indian race.

The Jay Treaty was made between two colonial corporations, Britain and the United States, to provide privileges for the colonial subjects. It did not include our political position. It contradicts itself when it stipulates that it would not be “construed” to affect who is and who is not an Onkwehonwe. In fact, it stipulates that this article applies to those who are “naturalized”. So an immigrant who becomes an American, Canadian or British is subject to the rules and privileges of the ‘corporation’.

Colonists and their “Indian” representatives speaking to band or tribal councils or incorporated “Indian” entities is not consultation. Once they thought they had pacified us and diminished our population, the colonists put these restrictions in place without informing, consulting or getting our consent. Now new restrictions are being imposed according to their “might makes right” paradigm.

We will tell the colonizers what we want, not what they want us to do. It tells us we can travel with personal belongings, not with “bales”. They wanted to extinguish trade and commerce between all Onkwehonwe. “Bales” referred to the fur trade. It meant anything that is more than one, and could not be resold. They set up a system of extortion to interfere with our ancient rights to sustain ourselves. It was similar to the killing off of all the Buffalo on the Plains.

The colonists have demonstrated their disregard for universal human law. Every human has the right to their existence, their own nationality, their land and their government.

The colonizers are trying to blackmail us into recognizing their borders between Canada, U.S. and Mexico. We have our own territories, our own understandings and respect for each other. We did not need standing armies to protect the borders of our territories because we practiced respect for those who inhabited the particular area. We still do.

Passports and Citizenship
Canada and the U.S. are trying to push us into getting Canadian or US passports to restrict and control our movements. We have a right to maintain a connection to our Onkwehone people throughout the Western Hemisphere. The colonizers are trying to class us as American or Canadian or Mexican “Indians” by illegally and violently forcing us to alienate ourselves from our birthright. They cannot make us something we are not. Today they tell us we need a card. Next they will tell us we need a mark on our forehead.
We are not members of any of these colonial entities. We cannot carry passports of foreign corporations of which we refuse to be members. These colonists are trying to make us commit an illegal act. As independent Indigenous peoples we have a right to deal with such issues based on our own laws. The colonizers are bound by agreements they have entered into such as the UN Charter of 1948 and the International Covenant on Cultural and Political Rights.

The concept of “citizenship” does not exist for us. We are Kanion’ke:haka, not citizens. A “city” is a corporation which one becomes a part of with privileges that can be taken away by the hierarchical governing body. No nation has a right to denationalize another nation.
ID Cards
There is no consistency as to what ID the colonists want. When we produce ID they punch our name into the computer and information comes up on that screen. Now they are pushing for us to have a specific ID which they will decide on and authorize. The advisors of the colonists are conforming and misleading our people. The colonists have already made a decision and are relying on the ignorance of our people to implement it. This violates international law because we were not genuinely consulted. Our laws do not allow us to give away the birthright of our children and future generations.

We have a right to decide how we will be identified. Phil Fontaine of the AFN [Assembly of First Nations] has suggested that we use their government-issued “Indian status cards”. Many Onkwehonwe don’t have such a card. A lot of imposters do.

The colonists want the micro chip in the card to contain our DNA, retina scan and finger prints. They will put this into a data base where a satellite GPS tracking system will know our whereabouts at all times. The European countries have rejected this and still require paper passports because the U.S. recommendations violate human rights.

Today the colonial governments are forcing us to shoulder the burden of threats to their national security by bringing us under their rules. Why should we? We’ve never carried out terrorist threats or acts of violence anywhere in the world.

More and more these border guards are bullying our people, trying to ensnare and control us. Intimidating tactics are being used to entrap our people into doing something that will give them a reason to detain or charge us. Cavity searches are being carried out by the customs goons which violates human rights.

Jurisdiction

The Two Row addresses the jurisdiction issue. We never surrendered our jurisdiction over ourselves or our land. Legality requires proper procedures. If they have cause to stop one of our people they can do so according to the Two Row Wampum Agreement. They can turn them over to us. It is our responsibility to deal with those who are in violation or committing a wrong and to restore the peace between our peoples.

The colonists have no right to order us to have these pass ports or anything by January 2008 or anytime. We will tell them whether we will do something or not. To follow the rule of law, the protocol is for them to meet with us. We must polish the Silver Covenant Chain and dust the Two Row Wampum. The Two Row Agreement governs our nation-to-nation relationships with the colonizers through their heads of state.

Conclusion

We Onkwehone are here to fulfill our duties and responsibilities as the Indigenous sovereigns of Turtle Island. The colonists are trying to kidnap our people from our canoe and force us to row their boat. We are being held hostage against our will in violation of the Two Row Wampum Agreement. We can only leave our canoe by our own free will. Those being forced to live under the illegal Indian Act and federal Indian law system are hostages forced to live under an alien social, economic, political system.

When times get rough the colonizers use these violent tactics to try to control us and make us lose confidence in ourselves and our traditional system. In the past when they could not defeat our people, they destroyed the things we needed to sustain us. They disconnected us from our mother, the earth. She is always there to sustain us. We continue to stand by her to protect her.

We are not afraid to defend our birthright and to protect the next generations. Onkwehonwe throughout the world are presently fighting to protect our children, our people and our land. This entire process to undermine us is a continuation of the genocide that the colonists initiated 500 years ago. Only the names and faces in the corporation have changed.

Kahentinetha Horn kahentinetha2@yahoo.com
MNN Mohawk Nation News
www.mohawknationnews.com

**Send your comments to anyone or any entity that you think is affected or should be concerned. Ask them about the action they are taking or know is being taken to protect Onkwehonwe independence:

Canada-US line: Haudenosaunee % haudenosaunee_online@yahoogroups.com;
Onondaga nosneaks2@msn.com;
Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force joyceking@westelcom.com
Ganienkeh Territory info@ganienkeh.net
On the US-Mexico line: International Indian Treaty Council www.treatycouncil.org
B.Norrell b_norrell@yahoo.com

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Siraj family of NYC arrested as an intimidation tactic

PRESS RELEASE
January 13, 2007

Bond Hearing Set for Entire Queens Family Arrested as Intimidation
For questions, contact: Fahd Ahmed, DRUM (940) 391-2660

MEDIA IS INVITED TO ATTEND A COMMUNITY SUPPORT DEMONSTRATION FOR THE FAMILY IN ELIZABETH, NJ ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 16TH, AT 1PM

One week after their home was raided, and they were arrested, two members of the Siraj family have an immigration bond hearing set for Tuesday, January 16th, at 1pm at Elizabeth Detention Center.

At 5am on the morning of January 9th, 2007, upwards of ten ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers raided the Queens home of and arrested three members (father, mother, and daughter) of the Siraj family, a tight-knit Pakistani family that has been caught up in the U.S. "War on Terror's" most recent act of racial and religious profiling. Tuesday's deplorable raid on the home of an innocent family is amongst dozens of other targeted, prejudiced sweeps across the country that are tearing Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities apart. The arrests occurred less than 12 hours after their young son, Shahawar Matin Siraj, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for alleged terrorism-related charges emerging from a clandestine NYPD-paid informant's entrapment. The father said that after the sentence was given, they "went to sleep at night and woke to this nightmare."

ICE officials are currently falsely reporting that the family was arrested on immigration-related charges and that the father's appeal for an asylum case was "denied." The reality is that the father's appeal is still pending in the Second Circuit Court and has not been decided, and that the mother and teenage daughter do not have any immigration cases or deportation orders pending against them. Given the high-profile media attention on their son's case, in which there were many underhanded legal irregularities and rights violations, these arrests are being seen by the community as an attempt to silence and make an example of the family through harassment. The family maintains that their son was ensnared by an NYPD informant, evidence of which the court did not properly consider, resulting in an unfair trial and sentencing. The family has filed a notice of appeal for their son's case. The mother said that "this is a systematic targeting of Muslims, a political attack on a peaceful family—and we have been caught in the middle of it. We have not gotten any justice and will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to struggle with patience and courage."

Both the father and the mother have ongoing and severe medical conditions, and require medical care in a safe and healthy environment. All three family members are currently being held at Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, NJ , where the mother and daughter have not been allowed to see or talk to the father. By separating the family in three different places, "they are breaking our family apart," said the mother from the Detention Center.

DRUM, as a community based organization that works with Muslim and South Asian immigrants and has seen the targeting of this community before and especially after 9/11, is calling on all concerned individuals and organizations to support the immediate release of the Siraj family. DRUM, alongside countless civil and human-rights organizations and concerned citizens will continue to expose the ongoing injustices of the "War on Terror" against this family and all targeted communities.


Desis Rising Up & Moving
72-26 Broadway, 4th Fl., Jackson Heights, NY 11372
Tel. (718) 205-3036 |Fax (718) 205-3037 | info@drumnation.org |www.drumnation.org

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Justice pour Anas! Un appel à votre solidarité et soutien

Chers ami-e-s et allié-e-s –

Comme vous le savez peut-être, MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS, 25 ans, a été tué par
la police de Montréal tôt le matin du 1er décembre 2005, après avoir
assisté à la prière dans une mosquée de quartier près du coin
Côte-des-Neiges et Kent, à quelques minutes de chez lui. Anas, né au
Maroc, habitait à Montréal depuis 1991 et était citoyen canadien.

Pour plus de détails et une mise en contexte au sujet de ce cas troublant
de bavure policière, visitez l'adresse suivante :

http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html

Plus d'un an après cette bavure policière qui demeure mystérieuse, la
famille Bennis tente toujours d'obtenir des réponses au questions
entourant la mort par balles d'Anas. Les membres de la famille n'ont reçu
aucune réponse adéquate ou significative de la part de la police ou du
procureur. La famille Bennis a été traitée avec arrogance et manque de
respect.

Dans les mots de Khadija Bennis, la soeur jumelle d'Anas: "Nous avons le
sentiment qu'on nous ment et qu'on nous cache quelque chose... C'est dur
de croire que le système nous dira la vérité de plein gré. On nous
insulte, on insulte notre intelligence. Il y a eu une injustice et nous
cherchons la justice."

Afin de renouveler les efforts pour conscientiser les gens sur ce cas très
important et qui nous affecte tous et toutes en tant que membres de la
communauté montréalaise, le "Collectif Justice pour Anas" a été formé
suite à la demande de la famille Bennis.

Le Collectif Justice pour Anas a trois revendications principales :

1) l'accès immédiat à tous les rapports, preuves et informations
concernant la mort de Mohamed Anas Bennis pour la famille Bennis et le
public;
2) une enquête publique et indépendante complète sur la mort de Mohamed
Anas Bennis;
3) la fin du profilage racial, de la brutalité policière et de l'impunité.

Nous écrivons pour demander votre soutien de quelques façons simples :

-- Nous recherchons le SOUTIEN de groupes pour la campagne Justice pour
Anas. Si votre groupe, collectif ou organisation soutient les trois
revendications de notre campagne, veuillez nous contacter par e-mail afin
que nous vous ajoutions à notre liste.

-- Envisagez vous IMPLIQUER – en tant que groupe ou individu – dans cette
campagne. Nous prévoyons organiser plusieurs activités de conscientisation
du public dans les mois à venir pour satisfaire nos revendications et nous
avons besoin de votre soutien organisationnel. Pour vous impliquer,
appelez-nous au 514-342-2111 ou par e-mail justicepouranas@gmail.com

-- Envisagez faire un DON, pour aider nos efforts de mobilisation. Nous
sommes présentement en train de mettre sur pied notre compte financier,
donc contactez-nous par e-mail ou téléphone pour faire des dons.

-- Finalement, RESTEZ EN CONTACT. Nous avons une liste d'annonces courriel
pour que vous puissiez rester informé-e-s ainsi qu'une liste de contacts
téléphoniques. Vous pouvez vous joindre ces listes en nous contactant au
514-342-2111 et justicepouranas@gmail.com

S'il-vous-plaît, partagez cet appel e-mail avec d'autres groupes et individus!

En solidarité,
Le Collectif Justice pour Anas

INFO: 514-342-2111 – justicepouranas@gmail.com

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Justice for Anas! A call for your solidarity and support

Dear friends and allies --

As you might know, MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS, 25, was killed by Montreal
police on the early morning of December 1, 2005, after prayers at a
neighborhood mosque near the corner of Cote-des-Neiges and Kent, just
minutes from his home. Anas was born in Morocco, was a resident of
Montreal since 1991, and a Canadian citizen.

You can read more details and background information about this
disturbing police killing at the following link:

http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html

More than one year after the still mysterious police shooting, the
Bennis family is still seeking basic answers about Anas' death, and
have not been provided with any adequate or meaningful response by the
police or prosecutor. The Bennis family has been treated with
arrogance and disrespect.

In the words of Khadija Bennis, Anas' twin sister: "We have the
feeling that we're being lied to and something is being hidden from us
... It's hard to believe that willingly the system will give us the
truth. We're being insulted and our intelligence is being insulted.
There was an injustice and we're looking for justice."

To renew efforts to raise awareness about this very important case,
which ultimately affects all of us as members of the Montreal
community, the "Collectif Justice pour Anas", led by the Bennis
family, has formed.

The Justice For Anas Collective has three main demands:
1) the immediate release of all reports, evidence and information
concerning the death of Mohamed Anas Bennis to the Bennis family and
to the public;
2) a full public and independent inquiry into the death of Mohamed Anas Bennis;
3) an end to racial profiling, police brutality and police impunity.

We are writing to ask for you support in some basic ways:

-- We are seeking group ENDORSEMENTS of the Justice for Anas campaign.
If your group, collective or organization supports the three demands of
our campaign, please contact us by e-mail so that we can add you to
our support list.

-- Consider getting INVOLVED -- as a group, or as an individual -- in
this campaign. We are planning many public awareness activities in the
coming months, to achieve our demands, and we need your organizing
support. To get involved, phone us at 514-342-2111 or e-mail
justicepouranas@gmail.com

-- Consider making a DONATION, to help our mobilization efforts. We
are currently setting up our financial account, so contact us by
e-mail or phone to make a donation.

-- Finally, STAY IN TOUCH. We have an e-mail announcements list
so that you can stay informed, and a telephone contact list. You can
join either list by contacting us at 514-342-2111 and
justicepouranas@gmail.com

Please share this e-mail callout with other groups and individuals.

In solidarity,
The Justice for Anas Collective

INFO: 514-342-2111 – justicepouranas@gmail.com

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Lettre ouverte de Guantanamo Canadien

LETTRE OUVERTE À LA POPULATION DU CANADA, de la part des DÉTENUS du
GUANTANAMO CANADIEN
Lundi le 8 janvier 2007

Nous vous écrivons aujourd'hui parce que le gouvernement du Canada refuse de nous parler. Nous sommes trois hommes musulmans et sommes détenus en vertu d'un certificat de sécurité, sans accusation depuis de 5 à 6 ans et demi, et ce, sans avoir bénéficié d'une libération sous caution.

Plusieurs groupes, incluant Amnistie Internationale, ont décrit les certificats de sécurité comme étant fondamentalement injustes et déficients. Les Nations unies ont critiqué cette pratique. Présentement, la Cour suprême du Canada tente de déterminer ce que le Canada doit en faire.

Nous sommes détenus dans un endroit qui se nomme le Centre de surveillance de l'immigration de Kingston (CSIK), qui se trouve sur le terrain du pénitencier de Millhaven. Certaines personnes ont rebaptisé cet endroit le « Guantanamo du Nord ». Comme les captifs de la prison de Guantanamo à Cuba, nous sommes détenus indéfiniment. Cela constitue une forme de torture psychologique qui est quasi inimaginable. Nous ne savons pas à quel moment, ni même, si un jour nous en serons relâchés.

Nous avons encore plusieurs mois, voire plusieurs années, de prison devant nous, en attendant que nos dossiers cheminent à travers les différentes procédures judiciaires.

Nous avons été très patients et avons fait de notre mieux pour faire face à un processus contre lequel il est impossible de se défendre. Nous resterons patients et espérons qu'au bout du compte nous soyons libérés, car nous sommes des hommes innocents.

Mais il y a cependant une limite à ce que des êtres humains peuvent tolérer. Au-delà de celle-ci, les voix se lèvent et les gens se tournent vers des actes de dénonciation pacifique.

Nous sommes présentement en grève de la faim (nous ingérons uniquement des liquides) pour protester contre nos conditions de détention. Pour Mohammad Mahjoub, ça fait 45 jours. Pour Mahmoud Jaballah et Hassan Almrei, ça fait 34 jours. Nous ne voulions pas être en grève de la faim. C'est une expérience difficile pour nous et nos familles, mais c'est notre seule voix.

Lorsque nous étions détenus à Toronto, il y a eu plusieurs grèves de la faim pour protester contre nos conditions de détention. À cause de cela, la nouvelle prison à Millhaven a été construite, ce qui a fait en sorte que nous soyons maintenant à trois heures de route de nos proches. Plusieurs promesses - telles que la mise en place de programmes de formation et d'une bibliothèque - n'ont pas été remplies. Nous n'avons pas les mêmes droits que les criminels condamnés, comme les visites privées avec nos familles. Et maintenant, comble de malheur, on nous refuse l'accès aux soins médicaux. Dans un cas, les injections contre l'hépatite C n'ont pas été administrées depuis le 2 septembre 2006. Aucune date de chirurgie nécessaire à guérir une blessure au genou et traiter une double hernie n'a encore été fixée, bien que nous soyons ici depuis le mois d'avril 2006.

Nos revendications sont très simples.

Nous demandons qu'un surveillant soit à nos côtés pour tous nos déplacements dans l'établissement. Ceci est particulièrement important pour nos allées et venues entre l'unité de vie et l'autre pavillon, et lorsque nous allons à l'édifice Millhaven pour nos soins de santé. Sans la présence de ce surveillant, un gardien pourrait formuler de fausses accusations à notre égard. Comme nous l'avons trop souvent constaté ici, lorsque notre parole est confrontée à celle d'un gardien, le personnel prend la défense du gardien.

Dans le cas où nous ne serions pas accompagnés par un surveillant dans nos déplacements vers l'édifice administratif, les soins médicaux doivent être prodigués dans l'unité de vie même. Nous n'avons pas refusé l'offre de soins médicaux. Au contraire, nous voulons recevoir des soins médicaux. Des soins nous étaient donnés dans cet endroit avant le 10 septembre 2006, mais maintenant que nous refusons de nous rendre à l'édifice administratif sans la présence d'un surveillant - une décision que nous avons prise pour notre propre sécurité - on utilise cet argument pour nous priver de soins médicaux.

Nous aimerions pouvoir contacter les médias sans que les gardiens soient présents pendant les entrevues. À Metro West, nous avions un accès privé aux médias, et ce, sans nécessiter la permission de la prison.

Nous voulons que le décompte quotidien des prisonniers cesse. Nous ne sommes que trois détenus, et cet exercice est humiliant et inutile.

Nous aimerions utiliser des cartes d'appel pour contacter nos familles à l'étranger. Le KIHC nous oblige à utiliser le plan interurbain le plus dispendieux, celui que nos familles n'arrivent pas à s'offrir parce qu'elles vivent de l'assistance sociale. Puisque nos appels sont de toute façon surveillés, il est absurde que nous ne puissions utiliser des cartes d'appel moins chères.

Nous voulons les mêmes droits que les autres détenus fédéraux : l'accès à une bibliothèque, la possibilité de suivre un programme de formation ainsi que des visites privées avec nos familles, où nous pouvons vivre ensemble pendant trois jours chaque mois.

Notre « cour » est un petit coin de béton. Trois mètres plus loin, il y a un grand espace vert, mais nous ne pouvons pas en profiter. Il est présentement entouré de deux clôtures, et personne ne l'utilise. Il n'y a aucune raison qui justifie le fait de nous empêcher de profiter de cet espace l'extérieur.

Parce que les désagréments persistent ici, nous nous voyons dans l'obligation d'aller à la racine du problème : l'absence d'un corps indépendant ou d'un médiateur neutre et l'absence de traduction lors des réunions avec le personnel (l'anglais n'est pas notre langue maternelle). Toutes nos plaintes au sujet du personnel sont traitées par le personnel lui-même. Ces personnes ne sont pas objectives et par conséquent nos plaintes sont toujours rejetées, sans possibilité de faire appel. C'est une injustice. Il n'y a pas non plus d'ombudsman avec lequel nous pourrions parler. On nous a dit de faire parvenir nos plaintes à la Croix Rouge, mais nous n'avons pas le droit de les appeler. Par ailleurs, la Croix Rouge n' exerce de toute façon aucune autorité sur cette prison.

Finalement, ce que nous voulons, c'est d'être traités comme des humains. Tous les êtres humains ont des droits. Nous désirons retrouver nos proches, mais en attendant ce moment, nous désirons vivre avec dignité, même ici, au Guantanamo Nord. Il n'y a aucun motif lié à la sécurité pour lequel cela ne peut être possible.

Nos cours pleurent en réaction à la souffrance que nous voyons en ce monde. Nous tentons chaque jour de faire face à des vies qui nous ont été volées sur la base de secrets. Dans cette situation, nos familles sont, elles aussi, confinées en prison. Nos enfants veulent que nous soyons à la maison avec eux, pour jouer, pour aider aux devoirs et nous souhaitons les voir grandir. Nous espérons que ce jour viendra bientôt.

À plusieurs reprises déjà, des gens de partout au pays se sont mobilisés pour nos droits et nous aimerions les remercier du fond de nos cours. Nous nous trouvons présentement dans une situation très difficile. Si le gouvernement ne veut pas nous parler, nous espérons au moins qu'il vous entendra, vous.

Contactez vos députés, écrivez aux journaux et appelez Stockwell Day pour lui demander de régler les problèmes au KIHC. La douleur que nous ressentons à cause de cette longue grève de la faim est aussi vécue par nos familles et nos amis. Tous se préoccupent vivement de notre état de santé. Les procès secrets, comme ceux que nous subissons, blessent la démocratie canadienne. Il n'y a que la justice qui pourra guérir les plaies.

Mahmoud Jaballah
Mohammad Mahjoub
Hassan Almrei

--------------------------------

VOTRE APPUI

1. Veuillez envoyer des lettres et appeler à Stockwell Day. Day est ministre
responsable de l'Agence des services frontaliers du Canada (qui dirige le
CSIK). Demand that he meet immediately or appoint a neutral party to
immediately resolve the crisis at
KIHC.

Stockwell Day, Ministre de la Securité publique
Chambre des Communes
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6
Tél.: (613) 995-1702
Fax : (613) 995-1154
day.s@parl.gc.ca
communications@psepc.gc.ca

2. Contactez la nouvelle ministre de l'immigration, Diane Finley au tél.
(866) 496-3400. Ask that she meet with the families of the detainees (who
have requested a meeting) and that she also take action to meet the
reasonable demands of the detainees.

3. Envoyez une carte d'appui aux détenus (si vous en envoyez une,
faites-nous
le savoir à tasc@web.ca pour que nous puissions vérifier que le courrier se
rend bien) : Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah et Hassan Almrei :

Centre de surveillance de l'immigration de Kingston
a/s CSC RHQ Ontario Region
440 King Street West
PO Box 1174
Kingston, Ontario, K7L 4Y8

4. Participez aux journées d'action pan-canadiennes « Fermez Guantanamo Nord
et Sud ! » du 11 au 15 janvier 2007. Nous demandons aux groupes à travers le
Canada d'organiser une vigile ou tout autre événement public en appui à la
fermeture des Guantanamo Nord et Sud. Les bureaux de députés, les édifices
du gouvernement fédéral, les bureaux du SCRS ou de la GRC ou de l'Agence des
services frontaliers du Canada sont tous d'excellents lieux d'expression
publique! Les événements auront lieu de Vancouver à Halifax, y compris le
Millhaven. Tenez-nous au courant de ce que vous préparer au tasc@web.ca ou
(416) 651-5800. Les revendications :
a. Ferme immédiatement son «Centre de surveillance de l'immigration de
Kingston» (Guantanamo Nord);
b. Relâche immédiatement les détenus des certificats de sécurité ou qu'il
leur donne droit à un procès juste et équitable;
c. Arrête toutes les procédures de déportation contre les «cinq procès
secrets» (Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat,
Adil Charkaoui);
d. Abolisse les certificats de sécurité et les déportations vers la torture;
et qu'il
e. Condamne immédiatement la prison illégale Guantanamo Bay à Cuba.

-------------------------

Plus d'informations :
Campagne pour la fin des procès secrets au Canada
tél. : 1 416 651 5800

Read More......

No One Is Illegal Radio : January 2007

No One Is Illegal-Montreal Radio
part of CKUT's Open Conspiracy for Social Change

::::::::::
On this month's show: the re-opening of the Confederacy Council at Six
Nations; the hunger strike at Guantanamo North; a message from Amir
Hodhod in Jersey City
::::::::::

LISTEN to our January 9, 2007 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21252

* The Struggle at SIX NATIONS: We replay a telephone interview with
Kahntinehta of Mohawk Nation News from January 1, 2007. She reports on
historic events at the Grand River Territory of Six Nations, where a
traditional Confederacy House, shut down by the Canadian government in
1924, was re-opened.

More info about the struggle at Six Nations is available at:
http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/2012


* Hunger Strike at GUANTANAMO NORTH: Ahmad Jaballah is the 20-year old
eldest son of Mahmoud Jaballah, one of the three detainees at the
"Guantanamo North" prison near Kingston, Ontario. Jaballah has been
detained without charge, on secret evidence, for more than five years;
he is one of the Secret Trial Five. Ahmad was interviewed by phone on
January 9, 2007 about the hunger strike currently being undertaken by
the three inmates at Guantanamo North.

For more information: http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/secrettrials.htm


* An Open Letter from Guantanamo North: On the uploaded version of our
show, Ahmad Jaballah reads the "Open Letter from Guantanamo North" by
his father Mahmoud Jaballah as well as Mohamed Mahjoub and Hassan
Almrei.

You can read the open letter HERE.



* AMIR HODHOD: Amir was an immigrant justice and workers rights
activist with groups like Solidarity Across Borders and the Workers
Solidarity Network in Montreal. On December 27, 2006, after several
months living without legal status in Canada, he was deported to the
United States and spent 7 days in the Buffalo Federal Detention
Facility. Amir was recently released on payment of an expensive bond,
and speaks about his experience from the streets of Jersey City where
he currently lives and continues his struggle for status.

Background info to Amir's case is available at:
http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/node/124


Listen to our January 2007 show online at:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21252

-----
No One Is Illegal Radio is a monthly news and current affairs show on
CKUT community radio in Montreal, produced and hosted by members of
the No One Is Illegal collective.

No One Is Illegal-Montreal is part of a worldwide movement of
resistance, fighting for justice and dignity, and the right to
self-determination for migrants, refugees and indigenous people. Our
campaign is in public confrontation with the Canadian state,
denouncing and taking action to combat racial profiling, police
brutality, detentions and deportations, exploitation and wage-slave
conditions, as well as opposing the displacement and genocide of
indigenous peoples on Turtle Island.

514-848-7583 -- noii-montreal@resist.ca
http://montreal.nooneisillegal.org

Previous NO ONE IS ILLEGAL RADIO shows are archived HERE.

Read More......

Repas Communautaire :: Community Dinner

[English below ...]

REPAS COMMUNAUTAIRE DE SOLIDARITÉ SANS FRONTIÈRES!

*****

Ami-e-s et allié-e-s,

Joignez-vous aux membres de Solidarité sans frontières pour une soirée de
bouffe et de communauté! Préparons-nous à une autre année de lutte pour la
justice, la dignité et Un statut pour tous et toutes!

-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-
QUAND: 13 janvier, à 18h
OÙ: Café TocToc, 6091 avenue du Parc - Métro Place-des-Arts, autobus 80
direction Nord / Métro Parc, autobus 80 direction Sud
-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-

Apportez un plat à partager si vous le pouvez. Un service de garderie
gratuit et du transport aller-retour est offert; téléphonez au (514)
848-783 pour confirmer.


----------
Solidarité sans frontières est un réseau montréalais engagé dans la
lutte pour la justice et la dignité pour les immigrant-e-s et les
réfugié-e-s. Les membres de notre réseau, migrant-e-s, immigrant-e-s,
réfugié-e-s et allié-e-s, se rassemblent autour de nos principales
revendications: la régularisation de toutes les personnes sans-statut (Un
statut pour tous et toutes!); l'arrêt des déportations et des détentions
et l'abolition des certificats de sécurité.

Contactez-nous au (514) 848-7583, sansfrontieres@resist.ca, et
http://www.solidaritesansfrontieres.org

::::::::::
::::::::::

SOLIDARITY ACROSS BORDERS COMMUNITY DINNER!

**********
Friends and supporters,

Join Solidarity Across Borders for an evening of food and community, as we
prepare for another year of struggle for justice, dignity, and Status for
All!

-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-
WHEN: 6pm, Saturday, January 13th
WHERE: Cafe TocToc, 6091 avenue du Parc - Metro Place-des-Arts and #80 bus
north, Metro Parc and #80 bus south
-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-<>-

Please bring a dish to share if you can. Free childcare and
transportation to and from the dinner will be provided; please call us at
514-848-7583 to confirm.

----------
Solidarity Across Borders is a Montreal-based network engaged in the
struggle for justice and dignity of immigrants and refugees. We are
comprised of migrants, immigrants, refugees and allies, and come together
in support of our main demands: the regularization of all non-status
people (Status for All!), an end to deportations and detentions, and the
abolition of security certificates.

Contact us at 514-848-7583, sansfrontieres@resist.ca, and
http://solidarityacrossborders.org

Read More......

Solidarity Statement with Six Nations

*No One Is Illegal Montreal - In Solidarity with The Six Nations*

As a collective of individuals from racialized/migrant backgrounds, in
occupied Kanien'keha:ka territory, we stand in solidarity with the
people in Six Nations and denounce the violent actions of the government
of canada and the province of Ontario in attempting to quell the
resistance and struggle for self-determination of a sovereign nation.
These actions are the mere extension of a colonial ideology that forms
the historical legacy of canada.

As a collective fighting for the right to self-determinaton of migrants,
refugees and Indigenous Peoples, we affirm the clear link between
colonial -- and neo-colonial forces, capitalist globalization and the
displacement of people throughout the world. These same forces operate
to displace Indigenous peoples here on Turtle Island and in the Global
South.

We reject and denounce the canadian government's right to label entire
communities as "illegals", "undocumented" or "status Indian" and
reaffirm that such practices aim at reinforcing an apartheid system
built on the genocide and dispossession of Indigenous Peoples.

We denounce the systematic criminalization of Indigenous and Migrant
communities, under the cover of the so-called "war on terror", which
justifies the militarization and occupation of sovereign nations
globally and here on Turtle Island.

We assert that canada's direct attempts at annihilating Indigenous
Peoples via the the use of overt military violence and the forced
displacement of entire communities have been enforced and sustained by
institutionalized systems of oppression : bureaucratic mechanisms,
racist political constructs and economic rationalizations.

As such, we denounce the current structures put in place by the
government of kanada as illegitimate and mere attempts at continuing the
century-old practice of dictating the form, style and parameters of
"Indian" government, and we recognize the legitimate right for the Six
Nations to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis.

We assert that the situations portrayed as "confrontations" between
Indigenous communities and the state, cast by the media and
policy-makers as ahistorical incidences of civil disobedience and social
breakdown are the inevitable consequence of a struggle against external
domination, and for sovereignty and self-determination.


We affirm our solidarity with the Six Nations community in calling for :
- a withdrawal of OPP and other colonial forces from the Six Nations territory
- an immediate end to construction by Henco Industries
- a just resolution, based on a nation-to-nation process, as demanded by the Clan Mothers.


We endorse and support the demands of the Six Nations Clan Mothers :

1. The Six Nations are distinct original nations. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis by the Crown and all other nations.

2. The Crown must respect our original relationship as set out in the Two Row Wampum, our jurisdiction as provided in our constitution, the Kaiannereh'ko:wa, and as respected by Sections 109 and 132 of the BNA Act, 1867 and according to international covenants that Canada has signed.

3. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis, as was the custom before Canada separated from the British Empire. Respect for the independent international status of the Six Nations by Canada was established before Canada achieved recognition as a state or gained the ability to sign treaties on its own. The independent international identity of the Six Nations identity has never been legally extinguished.

4. The band councils were established with procedures that violated international law. They continue to function as colonizing institutions. We have never consented to their establishment nor their representing us.

5. Canada and all its politicians, bureaucrats, agents, assignees and appointees should cease and desist immediately their attempt to criminalize and apprehend our people for defending what is rightfully ours, the land to which we hold title. Any further action by Canada, Ontario and their agents shall be viewed as being a direct violation of the Two Row Wampum, the constitutional accord between the Ratino'shon:ni and Canada and international law.

6. The claims of Canada and the province of Ontario to have a right to
legislate for the Rotino'shon:ni Six Nations and to grant private title to our land has no foundation in law.


********
No One Is Illegal/Personne n'est illégal-MONTREAL
tel: 514-859-9023 -- noii-montreal@resist.ca
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.org
********

Read More......

Open Letter from Guantanamo North

TEXT OF THE OPEN LETTER
Monday, January 8, 2007

Open Letter to the People of Canada from the Detainees at Canada's
Guantanamo Bay

We are writing to you because the government of Canada will not speak with
us. We are three Muslim men who have been detained under a security
certificate, without charge or bail, for between 5 and 6 and a half years.
We are not allowed to know the evidence against us.

Many groups such as Amnesty International have called security certificates
fundamentally flawed and unfair. The United Nations has criticized Canada
for this practice. Right now, the Supreme Court is deciding what Canada
should do about them.

We are held at a place called the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre
(KIHC), located on the grounds of Millhaven Penitentiary. Some people have
called this place Guantanamo Bay North. Like the detainees in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, we are held indefinitely. This is a kind of psychological
torture that is almost unimaginable. We do not know when, or if, we will be
released from jail.

We still have many months, and possibly years, of jail before us while our
cases go through different court proceedings.

We have been very patient and done our best to deal with a process where it
is impossible to defend yourself. And we will remain patient, because we
know that ultimately, we will be let out, because we are innocent men.

But sometimes there is only so much human beings should be required to
accept before they raise their voice in peaceful protest.

Right now we are on a liquid-only hunger strike protesting the conditions
of our detention. For Mohammad Mahjoub, it is day 45, for Mahmoud Jaballah
and Hassan Almrei, it is day 34. We do not want to be on hunger strike. It
is hard on us and our families. But it is the only voice we have.

When we were detained in Toronto, there were many hunger strikes protesting
our conditions of detention. Because of this, the new facility at Millhaven
was built, and now we are three hours away from our loved ones. Many of the
things promised to us, such as educational programs and a library, have not
happened. We do not have the same rights as convicted criminals to trailer
visits with our families. And now we are faced with the denial of medical
care. In one case, shots for Hepatitis C have not been given since
September 2, 2006. Surgery for a knee injury and a double hernia have not
been scheduled, even though we have been here since April, 2006.

Our demands are very simple.

There must be a supervisor to be present with us when we move anywhere
within the facility. In particular, this is important if we move from the
living unit to the next building or to the Millhaven building for health
care. Without a supervisor present, the possibility remains of a guard
making a false accusation against us. As we have seen too often here, when
it comes down to our word against a guard's, the staff will side with the
guards.

Medical care must be delivered to us in the living unit if we are not
accompanied by a supervisor to the administration building. We have not
refused the offer of medical care. We want medical care. Medical care was
given to us in this area before September 10, 2006, and now our refusal to
go to the administration building without a supervisor -- a choice we have
made for our own safety -- is being used as an excuse to deny us medical
care.

We would like to have access to the media without guards present during an
interview. We had private access to the media at Metro West, without
needing approval from the jail.

We want an end to daily head counts, since there are only three of us, and
they are humiliating and unnecessary.

We would like to use phone cards to call family overseas. The KIHC makes us
use the most expensive plan available, which our families can't afford
because they are on social assistance. Since calls are monitored, it makes
no sense why a cheaper calling card cannot be used.

We want the same rights as other federal inmates: access to a library,
educational programs, and trailer visits with our families where we can
stay together for three days every month.

Our "yard" is a small concrete area. Just three metres from this is a huge
grassy area, but we are not allowed to enjoy it. It is surrounded by two
huge fences, but nobody currently uses it. We see no reason why we cannot
enjoy the outdoors.

Because problems keep happening here, we need to get at the root of the
issue: there is no independent body or neutral mediator and there is no
translator for meetings with staff (English is not our first language). All
our complaints about staff are dealt with by staff. They are not objective,
so the complaints are always dismissed, with no appeal. This is not fair.
There is no ombudsperson that we can speak with. We have been told we can
send complaints to the Red Cross, but we are not allowed to phone them.
Besides, the Red Cross has no authority here.

Ultimately, we wish to be treated as human beings, and all human beings
have rights. We wish to be reunited with our loved ones, but until that
time comes, we want to live with as much dignity as is possible while we
are at Guantanamo North. There is no security-related reason why this is
not possible.

Our hearts cry from the suffering we see in the world, and we ourselves try
to cope day to day with lives that have been stolen from us based on
secrets. Our families are in prison, too. The children long for us to be
home with them to play, to help with the schoolwork, to be there as they
grow up. And we know that day will hopefully come soon.

Many times before, people across this country have spoken up for our
rights, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Right now, we face
a very difficult situation, and if the government will not speak with us,
we hope they will listen to you.

Please contact your Member of Parliament, write a letter to the newspaper,
and call Stockwell Day, and ask him that he fix the problems at KIHC. The
pain we feel from a lengthy hunger strike is also felt by our families and
friends, who worry so much about us. Secret trials are a wound to Canadian
democracy. Justice for our situation can help heal that wound.

Mahmoud Jaballah
Mohammad Mahjoub
Hassan Almrei

TAKING ACTION
1. Write and Call Stockwell Day, Minister responsible for the Canadian
Border Services Agency (which runs the KIHC). Demand that he meet
immediately or appoint a neutral party to immediately resolve the crisis at
KIHC.

Stockwell Day, MP,
House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: (613) 995.1154
day.s@parl.gc.ca
communications@psepc.gc.ca

2. Contact the new immigration minister, Diane Finley, at (866) 496-3400.
This is her Simcoe constituency office. Ask that she meet with the families
of the detainees (who have requested a meeting) and that she also take
action to meet the reasonable demands of the detainees.

3. Write a support card to the detainees (let us know at tasc@web.ca if you
have so we can monitor if mail is getting through): Mohammad Mahjoub,
Mahmoud Jaballah, and Hassan Almrei can be reached:

Kingston Immigration Holding Centre
c/o CSC RHQ Ontario Region
440 King Street West
PO Box 1174
Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y8

4. Join the National Days to Close Guantanamo North and South, January
11-15, 2007. Consider organizing a vigil in your community at the office of
an MP, CSIS, RCMP, or federal building. Events are already being planned
coast-to-coast, including at Millhaven. To join the national day of action
with a vigil or public event in your community please contact tasc@web.ca

Read More......

Un statut pour Kader: Faxez, écrivez et appelez la Ministre de l'Immigration

UN APPEL À L'ACTION POUR EXIGER UN STATUT POUR KADER
Faxez, écrivez et appelez la Ministre de l'Immigration

Abdelkader (« Kader ») Belaouni est maintenant en sanctuaire religieux
depuis plus d'un an (voir l'historique et la mise-à-jour ci-dessous).
L'église est devenue sa prison et le gouvernement continue à rejeter
du revers de la main ses demandes en vue d'obtenir le statut de
résident permanent au Canada.

Il est à l'heure actuelle très important de rappeler aux autorités
gouvernementales que : la situation de Kader n'a pas encore été
résolue ; plusieurs individus et organismes appuient activement la
lutte de Kader et ; ces personnes sont très insatisfaites de l'absence
de réponse du gouvernement.

==> FAXEZ, ÉCRIVEZ et APPELEZ :

** Mme DIANE FINLEY, Ministre de l'Immigration. Demandez-lui de faire
usage de son pouvoir discrétionnaire afin qu'elle accorde à Kader le
statut de résident permanent, et ce dans les plus brefs délais. Mettez
l'accent sur le fait qu'il est inacceptable que Kader ait déjà
gaspillé une année entière de sa vie. (Un historique et des
mises-à-jour se trouvent ci-dessous. Un modèle de lettre se trouve sur
notre site Internet, www.soutienpourkader.net).

Diane Finley, Ministre de la Citoyenneté et de l'Immigration du Canada
Téléphone : (613) 996-4974
Fax: (613) 996-9749
Courriel : minister@cic.gc.ca

** Mme NATALINA RANAUDO, Directrice des services intérieurs,
Immigration Canada. Appelez-la et dites-lui que vous êtes en faveur de
l'octroi d'un statut à Kader. Envoyez-lui également une copie de votre
fax et/ou courriel à la Ministre.

Natalina Ranaudo, Directrice des services internes, CIC Montréal
Téléphone : (514) 283-0243
Fax : (514) 496-1881
Courriel : natalina.ranaudo@cic.gc.ca

** M. THIERRY ST-CYR, Député fédéral dans le comté de Kader. Thierry
St-Cyr appuie déjà Kader. Dites-lui que vous croyez que la lutte de
Kader constitue un enjeu important pour tout le quartier. Demandez-lui
s'il peut en faire encore plus pour s'assurer que justice soit rendue
dans le cas de Kader.

Thierry St-Cyr, Député fédéral (Bloc) dans Jeanne-LeBer

Téléphone : (514) 496-4885
Fax : (514) 496-8097
Courriel : St-Cyr.T@parl.gc.ca


UN HISTORIQUE ET QUELQUES MISES-À-JOUR

Le 1er janvier 2006, il y a de cela plus d'un an maintenant, M.
Belaouni a pris sanctuaire dans une église de son quartier,
Pointe-Saint-Charles, après que sa demande de résidence permanente
pour des motifs d'ordre humanitaires ait été refusée par Immigration
Canada.

La Ligue des droits et libertés a étudié le dossier et en a conclu que
le refus – qui n'a pas tenu compte des obstacles structurels auxquels
fait face M. Belaouni (qui est aveugle) dans ses démarches pour
trouver un emploi ou un programme de formation – était discriminatoire
et allait à l'encontre de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés.

Ce refus plaçait Kader devant la perspective, pour la troisième fois
de sa vie, d'un exil forcé. La première fois, il a été contraint de
quitter le chaos et la violence de la guerre civile en Algérie. La
deuxième fois, c'est l'hystérie raciste des États-Unis après le 11
septembre que Kader a quittée. Plutôt que de laisser sa vie être
bouleversée de nouveau, Kader a pris la décision difficile de défendre
la justice et la dignité en refusant le refus du Canada. Il sentait
qu'il n'en avait pas le choix.

M. Belaouni jouit de nombreux appuis au sein de la communauté. Un
groupe de cinq personnes est prêt à le parrainer. Plusieurs organismes
et habitants de son quartier l'appuient activement, notamment la Table
de concertation Action Gardien (une coalition de groupes
communautaires), la clinique de santé communautaire, les Services
juridiques communautaires de Pointe-Saint-Charles et Petite-Bourgogne,
la Maison Saint Colomba et le député fédéral de son comté, M. Thierry
St-Cyr. Des organismes de défense des droits humains tels que Amnistie
Internationale, le Comité d'aide aux réfugiés, la Confédération des
organismes de personnes handicapées du Québec (COPHAN) et la Ligue des
droits et libertés, ainsi que la Fédération canado-arabe le
soutiennent également. Plusieurs députés fédéraux, incluant le
Président du Comité permanent de la citoyenneté et de l'immigration M.
Norman Doyle (un Conservateur) et les porte-paroles du Bloc et du NPD
en matière d'immigration, sont aussi intervenus en faveur de M.
Belaouni. Au total, plus de soixante organismes et des centaines
d'individus ont interpellé le Ministre de l'Immigration en signant des
pétitions, en envoyant lettres et cartes postales, en participant à
des réunions avec des parlementaires et à des délégations à Ottawa
ainsi qu'en organisant des conférences de presse, rassemblements et,
dernièrement, une marche communautaire.

Mais le Ministre Solberg, qui cette semaine a perdu son poste à
l'Immigration, n'a pas répondu.. Ni le Ministre ni aucun-e de ses
délégué-e ne s'est montré disponible pour rencontrer les
représentant-e-s de Kader. M. Belaouni a plutôt essuyé un second refus
de la part d'Immigration Canada, dans le cadre d'une décision encore
une fois déficiente et présentant plusieurs irrégularités au niveau
procédural. Selon des groupes de défense des droits des réfugiés, ce
refus indique que le gouvernement cherche potentiellement à éliminer
l'option du sanctuaire en tant que dernier recours pour les milliers
de personnes qui fuient la violence, l'oppression et la pauvreté
caractéristiques de l'apartheid global, à la recherche de la sécurité,
de la dignité et d'une nouvelle vie au Canada. Angela Portnoy et ses
cinq enfants, en sanctuaire à Terre-Neuve depuis plus d'un an, ont
aussi vu leur demande humanitaire être rejetée. Un autre homme, en
sanctuaire à Toronto depuis 2004, a quant à lui été arrêté en octobre
2006 à l'extérieur de l'église où il avait trouvé refuge et a été
sommairement déporté par la suite.

Bien que Kader ait tenté de s'adapter à la vie à temps plein dans une
église (il diffuse sa propre émission de radio une fois par mois,
donne des cours d'arabe, apprend le piano et la massothérapie et
commence à utiliser un ordinateur pour personnes aveugles), les
journées restent longues et il hâte de retrouver sa liberté afin de
recommencer à participer pleinement aux activités de son quartier.

AUTRES FORMES D'AIDE

==> Impliquez-vous dans le Comité de Soutien. Appelez ou écrivez-nous
pour nous dire si vous pouvez aider et combien de temps vous êtes en
mesure de consacrer. Il y a plusieurs façons utiles de vous impliquer,
et plusieurs types d'action à mettre en œuvre, lesquels exigent des
investissements de temps différents. On a besoin d'aide pour toutes
sortes de choses, que ce soit un coup de main pour l'ordinateur de
Kader, pour lui apporter des repas à l'église ou pour le ménage.

==> Faites un don au Comité. Tous les montants sont les bienvenus.
Veuillez nous contacter pour plus de détails.

---------------
Comité de soutien à Abdelkader Belaouni
Tél. : 514 859-9023
soutienkader@gmail.com
www.soutienpourkader.net

Read More......

Status for Kader: Fax, Email and Phone Campaign

CALL TO ACTION IN SUPPORT OF STATUS FOR KADER
Fax, Email and Call the Minister of Immigration

Abdelkader ("Kader") Belaouni has now been in church sanctuary for one
year (see background and update below). The church has become a prison
to him as the government continues to stonewall his appeals for
Permanent Resident status in Canada.

It is very important at this time that government officials be
reminded that Kader's situation has not been resolved and that many
individuals and organizations are actively supporting Kader's struggle
for status and are unhappy with the government's lack of response.

== > FAX, EMAIL and CALL:

** Ms. DIANE FINLEY, Minister of Immigration. Ask her to use her
discretionary power to grant Permanent Resident status to Kader
without delay. Stress that it is unacceptable that Kader has already
lost an entire year of his life. (A background and update are below
and sample letters can be found on our website:
www.soutienpourkader.net.)

Diane Finley, Minister of Immigration and Citizenship Canada
Telephone: (613) 996-4974
Fax: (613) 996-9749
Email: minister@cic.gc.ca

** Ms. NATALINA RANAUDO, Inland Services, Immigration Canada. Let her
know by phone that you are supporting status for Kader and send a copy
of your fax and email to the Minister to her.

Natalina Ranaudo, Director of Inland Services Director, CIC Montreal
Telephone: (514) 283-0243
Fax: (514) 496-1881
Email: natalina.ranaudo@cic.gc.ca

** Mr. THIERRY ST-CYR, the Member of Parliament for Kader's
neighbourhood. Thierry St. Cyr already supports Kader. Let him know
that you consider Kader's struggle for status to be an important issue
for the entire neighbourhood and ask him if there is more that he can
do to ensure that Kader receives justice soon.

Thierry St. Cyr, Member of Parliament (Bloc), Jeanne-Le Ber
Telephone: (514) 496-4885
Fax: (514) 496-8097
Email: St-Cyr.T@parl.gc.ca


BACKGROUND AND UPDATE

On 1 January 2006 – over one year ago - Kader entered church sanctuary
in his own neighbourhood of Point St. Charles after his request to
remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds was rejected by Immigration
Canada.

The Ligue des droits et libertés (Quebec Civil Liberties Union)
studied the refusal and concluded that its failure to consider the
structural barriers that Kader, who is blind, faces in finding
employment and accessing training programmes is discriminatory and a
violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Kader found himself about to be uprooted for the third time in his
life; the first time, by the chaos and violence of Algeria's civil
war, the second time, by the racist hysteria of post September 11th
United States. Instead of allowing his life to be torn up once again,
Kader made a difficult decision to take a stand for dignity and
justice by refusing Canada's refusal. He felt he had no choice.

Kader has considerable support for his struggle. A group of five
people are prepared to sponsor him. He has the active support of many
organizations and individuals in his neighbourhood, including the
Table de concertation Action Gardien (a coalition of community
organizations), the community health clinic, the legal aid clinic of
Point St. Charles and Little Burgundy, Saint Colomba House, and his
Member of Parliament, Mr. Thierry St-Cyr. He also has the support of
human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, the
Committee to Aid Refugees, the Confederation of Organisations of
Handicapped People in Quebec (COPHAN), and the Ligue des droits et
libertés, as well as the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF). Several
Members of Parliament, including the Chair of the Immigration Standing
Committee, Mr. Norman Doyle (a Conservative member), and the Bloc and
NDP immigration critics, have also lent their support. In all, over
sixty organisations and hundreds of individuals have intervened with
the Minister of Immigration in support of Kader's claim: signing
petitions; sending postcards; writing letters; participating in
meetings with Parliamentarians, delegations to Ottawa, press
conferences, and pickets; and organizing a community march.

But Minister Solberg, who was replaced by Diane Finley last week,
never responded. Neither the Minister nor any delegate has ever been
available to meet with Kader's representatives. Instead, Kader
received a second refusal from Immigration Canada, in another flawed
decision involving several procedural irregularities. This may
indicate that the current government is closing the door on sanctuary
as a last resort for the many thousands who are fleeing the violence,
oppression and impoverishment associated with global apartheid, to
seek basic security, dignity and opportunity in Canada. Angela Portnoy
and her family of 5, who have been in sanctuary in Newfoundland for
over a year, have also seen their humanitarian application rejected in
recent months. Another man, who had been in sanctuary in Toronto since
2004, was arrested outside church grounds in October 2006 and
summarily deported.

Although Kader has tried to adapt to living full-time in a church, and
is now broadcasting his own monthly radio show live from the church,
giving Arabic lessons, taking piano lessons, learning massage therapy
and beginning to use a blind-assisted computer, the days remain very
long and he is eager for the freedom to return to full participation
in his community.

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN HELP

== > Volunteer with the Support Committee. Call or email to let us
know whether you can help, and how much time you have. There are many
useful ways in which you can get involved which require different
levels of time commitment and different types of action: everything
from help with Kader's computer to bringing meals to the church and
cleaning.

== > Donate to the Committee. All amounts are welcome. Get in touch to
find out details.

--------------------------------------------------
Comittee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni
Tel. 514 859 9023
soutienkader@gmail.com
www.soutienpourkader.net

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Toronto Star: Inside Gitmo North

EXCLUSIVE: After being held without charge for five years, terrorism suspect Mahmoud Jaballah speaks out from the special, high-security facility built just for him and two others near Kingston.

Read the article HERE.

http://www.thestar.com/article/168467

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La Presse: Deux millions pour surveiller trois présumés terroristes

Trois présumés terroristes. Une prison spéciale de 3,2 millions de dollars qui a coûté trois fois plus cher que prévu. Et des frais d’exploitation de 2 millions par an, dont 1,6 million en salaires. C’est ce que révèlent des documents du ministère fédéral de la Sécurité publique, obtenus par La Presse à la suite d’une demande d’accès à l’information.

Article ICI.

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Globe and Mail: A Tale of Two Men (Mohamed Anas Bennis and Ian Bush)

No One Is Illegal-Montreal has compiled more info about the Mohamed Anas Bennis case HERE.

A tale of two young men

SHEEMA KHAN

Globe and Mail Update

About a year ago, I visited my father's grave at a Muslim cemetery in Laval, Quebec. On leaving, I noticed a freshly dug grave.

It haunted me for a brief moment. I then realized why. It was the final resting place of Mohammed-Anas Bennis, 25, who was shot and killed by Montreal police a few days earlier on Dec. 1, 2005.

The circumstances surrounding Mr. Bennis's death were shrouded in mystery. The young man had performed his dawn prayers at a local mosque, and was walking home in the Côte des Neiges district of Montreal. Unbeknown (and unrelated) to him, provincial and municipal police had a warrant to conduct a fraud investigation in the vicinity. According to police accounts, Mr. Bennis approached two officers, and attacked one for “no apparent reason” with a knife. The officer fired back twice, killing him instantly. The police also confirmed the existence of a video recording of the event. Its quality, however, was “too poor” to be of any use.

Mr. Bennis had no criminal record, nor, according to his family, did he have a history of mental illness. He was a “regular Quebecker” who played hockey, joined the marine cadets and did well in school. He was known to be polite, generous, and always smiling. Furthermore, the family found it totally out of character for Mr. Bennis to have carried a knife, let alone attack an officer.

The incident touched a nerve among Quebec's visible minorities.

Mr. Bennis was bearded and wore a Muslim headdress and traditional robe when he was shot — raising the spectre of racial profiling. A month later, a public protest was held in the bitter cold outside Montreal City Hall.

Former immigration minister Denis Coderre joined local activists and community groups demanding an independent inquiry into the death of Mr. Bennis.

In keeping with provincial law, the shooting death was investigated by an outside police force. On April 13, the Quebec City police force concluded its investigation, and submitted its report to the Crown prosecutor. In a terse press release on Nov. 4 — almost seven months later, and almost 11 months after the incident — the Crown announced no charges would be laid. The police had acted in self-defence and the officers were exonerated of any wrong-doing.

Further, the Quebec Minister of Public Security refused to release the police report to the family.

Needless to say, the Bennis family has gone through much heartache in trying to find the truth of what happened. All they have to go on is the original coroner's report that cites Montreal police alleging that Mr. Bennis attacked the police “for no apparent reason.” The family wonders how it is that Mr. Bennis was shot twice at close range, with each bullet entering from above the shoulder and lodging in his vital organs. They wonder about the role of the second officer. The ensuing secrecy has made the ordeal even more painful, fuelling suspicion of a cover-up. Khadija Bennis, Mohammed's twin sister, recently told a Montreal radio station: “We have the feeling that we're being lied to and something is being hidden from us ... It's hard to believe that the system will give us the truth.”

The case bears striking resemblance to that of Ian Bush, who was killed onOct. 29, 2005, in British Columbia while in RCMP custody. Mr. Bush, 22, was arrested for having an open beer outside a local hockey game and giving police officers a false name. Twenty minutes after his arrest, the RCMP allege the young man “became very violent and attacked [an] officer.” The coroner's report shows that Mr. Bush received a bullet in the back of the head. Audio and video recording equipment in the police station had been turned off. Like Mr. Bennis, Mr. Bush has been described as a nice kid with no history of violence.

The RCMP investigated itself, and asked a local police force to review its results. On Sept. 5 (10 months after the shooting), the B.C. Criminal Justice Branch announced that no charges would be laid. The RCMP officer was exonerated for acting in self-defence. In spite of requests, the investigative report has not been released to the family.

Needless to say, the Bush family is less than satisfied with the results. Like the Bennis family, they, too, want to know what happened to their son. They don't believe the official story, and have been stymied at every step by police secrecy. According to Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, “this case is receiving an extraordinary high level of secrecy. We ... are at a loss to explain why. But what we can say is the underlying fact pattern — the bullet in the back of the head — reeks to high heaven.”

The Bush family has decided to pursue the truth by launching a lawsuit against the RCMP, the B.C. Attorney-General and Solicitor-General. In addition, the RCMP Commission for Public Complaints is investigating the case.

In Montreal, the Bennis family is weighing its options. While there is a civilian-run police-review apparatus, it does not investigate police shootings. And while Mr. Bush's death has been raised in the B.C. Legislative Assembly, no Quebec MNA has yet raised the Bennis case in the National Assembly. On Dec. 19, Montreal City Councillor Richard Bergeron, questioning police conduct, demanded release of the police report.

If there is a common thread between the two cases, it is the lack of police accountability in the death of two young men. Two families are grieving, frustrated by police secrecy. In both cases, no independent investigation has been conducted. While Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor has recommended robust oversight of the RCMP, police unions in Quebec have repeatedly rejected calls for the establishment of powerful independent review bodies.

During the Bush investigation, RCMP Staff Sergeant John Ward told The Globe and Mail that “the public doesn't have a right to know anything.” In a democracy, we sure do. It's the system of checks and balances that ensures that all of us — including the police — are acting within the law.

sheema.khan@globeandmail.com

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Rally :: Close Guantanamo North :: February 17

CLOSE GUANTANAMO NORTH
End Indefinite and Arbitrary Detention
End Deportation to Torture

RALLY
Saturday, 17 February 2007, 1pm
Berri Square (parc Émilie-Gamelin, in front of Berri Metro)

***2ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE 'LIBERATION' OF ADIL CHARKAOUI***

18 February marks two years since Adil Charkaoui was released from 21 months
of detention without charge or trial in Montreal only to be placed under
equally arbitrary conditions which severely restrict his liberty and that of
his entire family. He also remains under an active threat of deportation to
torture, which takes its toll, day-by-day, on him and his family.

Meanwhile, in Canada's 'Guantanamo North' prison, located in Millhaven
Penitentiary in Ontario, three other "security certificate" detainees have
been held up to 6.5 years on secret evidence, without charge, all under
threat of deportation to torture. The six-cell, multi-million dollar prison,
which opened in April 2006, was built specifically for non-citizens detained
without charge or trial on secret information. Guantanamo North established
a precedent in Canada and signalled the government's intention to continue
its unjust policy of "security certificates", over the objections of tens of
thousands of Canadians and Quebeckers, against the recommendations of major
human rights organizations and three UN committees, and despite a pending
Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of security certificates and
an unfinished parliamentary review.

As this call is issued, all three in Guantanamo North - Mohammad Mahjoub,
Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei - are on hungerstrike, protesting
conditions of detention, including denial of medical treatment.

One other man, Mohamed Harkat, held for three and a half years, is currently
"out" on some of the most severe restrictions on human liberty ever imposed
in a Canadian bail release. He too has never been charged or provided with a
fair trial; he too continues to live under the threat of deportation to
torture.

On 17 February, join us in the streets of Montreal to demand that the
Canadian government:

1. Immediately close its 'Kingston Immigration Holding Centre' (Guantanamo
Bay North);
2. Immediately release 'security certificate' detainees or provide them with
a fair trial;
3. End all proceedings to deport the five victims of security certificates;
4. Abolish security certificates; and
5. End deportations to torture.

Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui
www.adilinfo.org
tel. 514 859 9023
justiceforadil@riseup.net

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Manifestation :: Fermez Guantanamo du nord :: 17 février

Fermez « Guantanamo du Nord » !
Arrêtez la détention indéfinie et arbitraire
Arrêtez la déportation vers la torture

Rassemblement
Samedi 17 février 2007, à 13h
Square Berri (parc Émilie-Gamelin, métro Berri)

***Deuxième anniversaire de la «libération» d'Adil Charkaoui***

Le 18 février prochain, cela fera deux ans qu'Adil Charkaoui a été libéré
après 21 mois de détention à Montréal, sans accusations ni procès pour
finalement se retrouver avec des conditions tout aussi arbitraires qui
limitent sérieusement sa liberté et celle de toute sa famille. Il demeure
également sous la menace constante d'une déportation vers la torture, un
lourd tribut que lui et sa famille doivent payer, jour après jour.

Pendant ce temps au Canada, dans la prison de « Guantanamo du Nord », située
au pénitencier de Millhaven en Ontario, trois autres victimes des certificats de sécurité sont détenues, dont une depuis près de sept ans, en vertu de preuves secrètes, sans accusations, tous sous la menace constante d'une déportation vers la torture. Les six cellules de cette prison de plusieurs millions de dollars, ouverte en avril 2006, ont été construites spécifiquement pour détenir des non-citoyens, sans accusations ni procès, sur la base d'information secrète. Guantanamo Nord a ainsi créé un précédent au Canada, signe de l'intention du gouvernement de maintenir sa politique injuste des «certificats de sécurité», allant à l'encontre de l'objection de dizaines de milliers de Canadiens et de Québécois et des recommandations d'importantes organisations de défense des droits humains et de trois comités de l'ONU. Sans compter que la Cour Suprême n'a pas encore rendu sa décision quant à la constitutionnalité des certificats de sécurité et que ces derniers font toujours l'objet d'un examen parlementaire.

Au moment d'écrire ces lignes, les trois prisonniers à Guantanamo Nord - Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah et Hassan Almrei - font une grève de la faim pour protester contre leurs conditions de détention, dont le fait de se voir refuser l'accès à des traitements médicaux.

Un autre homme, Mohamed Harkat, détenu pendant trois ans et demi, est actuellement en «liberté» avec des restrictions parmi les plus sévères jamais imposées dans un cas de libération conditionnelle au Canada. Tout comme les autres hommes, il n'a jamais été accusé, n'a pas eu droit à un procès juste et équitable et vit également sous la menace d'une déportation vers la torture.

Le 17 février, joignez-vous à nous dans les rues de Montréal pour exiger que le gouvernement canadien:

1. Ferme immédiatement son «Centre de surveillance de l'immigration de Kingston» (Guantanamo du Nord);
2. Relâche immédiatement les cinq détenus des certificats de sécurité (Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat et Adil Charkaoui) ou qu'il leur donne droit à un procès juste et équitable;
3. Arrête toutes les procédures de déportation contre les cinq victimes des «procès secrets»;
4. Abolisse les certificats de sécurité; et
5. Mette fin aux déportations vers la torture.

Coalition Justice pour Adil Charkaoui
www.adilinfo.org
tél. : 514.859.9023
justiceforadil@riseup.net

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No One Is Illegal Radio 2006 ARCHIVE

NO ONE IS ILLEGAL RADIO – 2006 ARCHIVE

[Re-broadcast of previous segments of NO ONE IS ILLEGAL RADIO is welcome and encouraged; just let us know by e-mail if you're rebroadcasting: nooneisillegal@gmail.com]

#001: MAY 9, 2006

--> Listen to our May 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21172

Our first show! Excerpts include:

LATIFA CHARKAOUI: Latifa is the mother of Adil Charkaoui, who was arrested and detained without trial on a security certificate in 2003. This excerpt is her testimony at the People's Commission into Immigration "Security" Measures in Montreal. (3:13)

ARNOLDO GARCIA: Arnoldo is an organizer with the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights in Oakland, California. In this live phone interview, he speaks about the immigrant justice mobilizations in the USA. (7:35)

KAHEHTI:IO: Kahedio is a Mohawk youth activist from Kahnawake. He was arrested and detained at the Six Nations Land Reclamation, after a police raid on April 20, 2006. He refused to recognize the authority of the colonial courts and was eventually released from custody without charge after several days of detention. (7:44)

--> Listen to our May 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21172


#002: JUNE 13, 2006

--> Listen to our June 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21173

This month's No One Is Illegal radio show focusses on the struggle against security certificates and secret trials. Excerpts include:

SHERENE RAZACK: Sherene is the author of "Looking White People in the Eye: Gender, Race, and Culture in Courtrooms and Classrooms" and "Dark threats and white knights: The Somalia affair, peacekeeping and the new imperialism." We play her testimony from the People's Commission into Immigration "Security" Measures. (11:01)

HASSAN ALMREI: Hassan has been detained without charge since October 2001, one of the Secret Trial Five. For almost four years he was held in solidarity confinement, and he has undertaken several long-term hunger strikes to obtain basic rights while in prison. (9:17)

KAREN COQ: Karen is an organizer with No One Is Illegal-Kingston, and is active in mobilizing against the "Guantanamo North" prison at Millhaven, near Kingston, Ontario. (8:48)

AMIR HODHOD: Amir is a refugee from Egypt, active with the Worker's Solidarity Network and Solidarity Across Borders in Montreal. We play an excerpt of a speech by Amir outside the offices of Immigration Canada, just three days before a scheduled deportation on April 3, 2006.

--> Listen to our June 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21173


#003: JULY 11, 2006

--> Listen to our July 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21174

July 11 marks the anniversary of the 1990 police invasion of the Kanehsatake Mohawk Territory. The July No One Is Illegal radio show highlights indigenous resistance across "Canada". The show includes:

- An interview with HAZEL HILL of Six Nations, spokesperson for the Land Reclamation near Caledonia, Ontario. Since February 28, 2006, Six Nations people and their supporters have blocked further construction by Henco Industries on their land, saying they will stay until jurisdiction and title over the land is properly restored to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. (19:42)

The Land Reclamation continues; for more
information: http://www.reclamationinfo.com or
http://sisis.nativeweb.org/index.html

- An interview with KAHENTINETHA HORN of Mohawk Nation News (MNN), and an elder from the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. Kahentinetha reflects on the July 11 anniversary of the police invasion at Kanehsatake in 1990 (the so-called Oka Crisis). Kahentinetha, with her daughters, was directly involved in the resistance at Kanehsatake. (20:17)

For background to the events of 1990, consult:
http://www.kanesatake.com/heritage/crisis/index.html

- An interview with ROBERTA KEESICK of the Grassy Narrows indigenous community in Northwestern Ontario. Roberta is a trapper and grandmother, as well as a blockader against the clear-cut logging of Grassy Narrows territory. The blockade began in December 2002, and is the longest standing indigenous blockade in Canadian history. (20:50)

For background to the struggle at Grassy Narrows, consult: http://freegrassy.org or http://friendsofgrassynarrows.com/

Music on the July 2006 show by BLACKFIRE: http://www.blackfire.net

--> Listen to our July 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21174


#004: August 8, 2006

--> Listen to our August 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21175

This month, No One Is Illegal Radio contributes to CKUT's special programming for Prisoner Justice Day, with a focus on immigration and detention. This month's show includes recorded presentations and interviews with:

ARASH ASLANI: Arash, a refugee from Iran, was a detainee at the Laval Immigration Prevention Center near Montreal for 10 months. He speaks out about the conditions at the detention center, and his experiences as a migrant in Europe and Canada. At any one time, there can be upwards of 100 detainees at the Laval Immigration Prevention Center. Arash continues his struggle for status in Canada. (14:04)

TERESA HAYTER: Teresa is an activist and writer based in England. She is the author of "Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls" (Pluto Press 2004), and has been an organizer of the Campaign to Close Campsfield (an immigration detention center near Oxford, England) for over a decade. Teresa speaks about current campaigns against detention in Britain, and the case for abolishing all detentions centers (as well as the inherently racist nature of all immigration controls). (16:27)

More info about the Campaign to Close Campsfield, and anti-detention struggles in Britain is available at:
http://www.closecampsfield.org.uk and
http://www.barbedwirebritain.org.uk

AARTI SHAHANI: Aarti is an immigrant rights organizer based in New York City. She is the co-founder of Families for Freedom, a multi-ethnic defence network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation, comprised of immigrant prisoners, former immigrant prisoners, their loved ones and individuals at risk of deportation. Aarti speaks about current campaigns against detentions and deportations in the United States. (21:31)

More info about Families for Freedom is available at:
http://www.familiesforfreedom.org

--> Listen to our August 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21175


#005: October 10, 2006

--> Listen to our October show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21176

The October 2006 edition of No One Is Illegal Radio focuses on the struggles of queer and LGBT people in the Middle East, as well as efforts to launch a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.

On this month's show, you will hear from:
-> RASHA MOUMNEH of Helem; Helem is a LGBT group based in Beirut, Lebanon. (7:39)
-> NAY of Aswat in Palestine; Aswat is a Palestinian Lesbian group. (25:49)

Both Rasha and Nay were speakers at "Out Against the Occupation" events in Montreal. Out Against the Occupation is a Montreal-based queer and LGBT response to the recent Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the ongoing occupation of Palestine.

Also, we hear from:
-> RAFEEF ZIADAH, of the Sumoud Political Prisoner Solidarity Group and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Toronto (22:26)

Rafeef speaks at the opening of the "Boycotting Israeli Apartheid: The Struggle
Continues" conference (October 6-8 in Toronto) dedicated to promoting the growing anti-apartheid movement in Palestine and abroad through a comprehensive boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israeli apartheid.

For more info:
Helem: http://www.helem.net
Aswat: http://www.aswatgroup.org
Sumoud: http://sumoud.tao.ca
Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid: http://www.caiaweb.org

--> Listen to our October show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=21176


#006: November 14, 2006

Listen to our November 2006 show online at:
--> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20530

On this month's edition of No One Is Illegal Radio, we hear from two organizers and activists based in the New York City area, Ashanti Alston and Biju Mathew:

-> ASHANTI ALSTON OMOWALI: Ashanti is an anarchist activist, a former political prisoner, and member of the Black Panther Party; he is the former
northeast coordinator for Critical Resistance, a current co-chair of the National Jericho Movement to free U.S. political prisoners and a member of pro-Zapatista people-of-color U.S.-based Estación Libre. (31:39)

For more info:
http://www.anarchistpanther.net/
http://www.criticalresistance.org/
http://www.illegalvoices.org/

-> BIJU MATHEW: Biju is originally from Hyderabad, India. For the past decade, he has been an organizer with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents thousands of predominantly immigrant taxi drivers. He is also the author of "Taxi: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City" and active with the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate. (29:41)

For more info:
http://www.nytwa.org/
http://www.samarmagazine.org/
http://stopfundinghate.org/

Listen to the November 2006 edition of No One Is Illegal Radio online at:
--> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20530


#007: December 12, 2006

Listen to our December 2006 show online at:
--> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20889

On this month's edition of No One Is Illegal Radio, we hear directly from the voices of supporters fighting against injustice on behalf of their family members.

-> We speak with both TRUDY MILLER and ANGEL SMITH, mother and cousin of indigenous political prisoner Trevor Miller. (29:53)

Trevor has been in preventive custody for more than four months, since August when he was arrested at a blockade at Grassy Narrows. Trevor has been referred to as the "Forgotten Warrior" because his situation was not publicly known for several months, until a letter he wrote his mother was published in a local Six Nations newspaper.

-> We also speak with KHADIJA BENNIS, the twin sister of Mohamed Anas Bennis who was killed by Montreal police last December 2005. (29:09)

Mohamed Anas Bennis left a neighbourhood mosque, just minutes from his home, after early morning prayers on December 1, 2005. He was shot by Montreal police. Bennis is alleged to have tried to stab a cop and was shot twice and killed. Bennis' family is adamant that the allegations against
Mohamed are ludicrous. In the words of one sister: "The idea of Mohamed Anas walking around with a kitchen knife as he left mosque on the morning on
December 1, there is no way we're going to swallow a story like that. We'd do better to believe in Santa Claus!" The mystery and secrecy surrounding this Anas killing reinforces the belief by many in the Montreal community that Mohamed Anas Bennis was killed by police in a case of racial profiling.

For more information about SIX NATIONS, please consult the resource site by Autonomy and Solidarity for background and more links:
http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/2012

For information about the MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS case: http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2006/12/le-cas-de-mohamed-anas-bennis.html

Listen to our December 2006 show online at:
--> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20889

Read More......

MNN: Six Nations Makes History

6 NATIONS MAKES HISTORY TODAY – 11:00 AM JANUARY 1, 2007, TO BE EXACT!

MNN. Jan. 1, 2007. It was a beautiful sight. Over two miles of cars bearing Iroquois Confederacy and Unity flags. When everyone arrived at the Old Confederacy Council House in Ohsweken, the padlocks were already off. The Indian Act cops were no where in sight. [Maybe they were having donuts with the OPP]. This was followed by speeches and a celebration.

Today the Iroquois Confederacy took back its Council House that was stolen in October 1924. We proved once again that Canada’s 1924 Order-in-Council PC 1629 signed by Prime Minister McKenzie King and approved by Governor General Lord Byng of Vimy was illegal from the get-go.

Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, had plotted for years to get rid of the Six Nations Confederacy Council. He even got Parliament to introduce an amendment to the Indian Act which would allow Indian Affairs to take away Indian rights from any “pesky” Indian, like his arch rival, Fred Loft, a well-qualified Indian accountant of Six Nations. He was always asking too many questions. By the 1920’s Scott had illegally gotten rid of traditional governments of most of the Indigenous people throughout Canada. Six Nations was the toughest and the last to go.

The Six Nations tried to prove that the Indian Act was “ultra vires” [illegal] the British North America Act 1867 and that it did not apply to us. On Scott’s advice, we could not present our case in the Supreme Court of Canada. He was afraid that his horrific extermination policies would be exposed to the light of day.

The people chose Levi General, the Deskahe, to go overseas to bring our problems before the newly formed League of Nations. They were supposed to stop large nations from dominating small nations. The Netherlands, Persia [Iran], Estonia, Panama and Ireland supported him. The British, the dominant world power at the time, pressured them to drop their support. The Six Nations could then never present our case to a neutral tribunal after that.

Once Scott knew the coast was clear, he got the Prime Minister and Governor General to sign the secret illegal Order-in-Council. It violated Six Nations and international law.

The Council House had been closed for repairs. After the illegal Order in Council, it was opened up again. The first illegal Indian Act election was held there on October 21, 1924. This fake council made it possible for Canada to claim that Deskahe no longer represented the people.

Deskahe left Europe in January 1925. He always wanted to return to Canada. Tough Border controls were put in place. They would not even allow his family members and his doctors to visit him in Tuscarora near Buffalo New York. On March 10 he made his famous last radio broadcast which is available on the internet. He died on June 27, 1925. Canada refused to let him be buried in Six Nations.

This is not the only time the Confederacy attempted to take back the Council House. In March 1959 the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration said it was up to the Six Nations to decide which council was their proper representative. We took him at his word. The people decided to take over control and remove the band council.

On March 5, 1,300 people marched on the Council House while the Indian act band council was in session. This was more than double the number of people that voted in the government’s band council elections. The Indian Act band council locked the front door. The marchers removed it from its hinges and took possession. John Maracle [now deceased] said, “We went in the front door and they ran out the back”. He was helped by such activists as Mad Bear Anderson, Clinton Rickard, Richard Maracle, Melvin Squires, Art Anderson, Mark Maracle, Dick Hill and people from other Indigenous communities. [Some are still around and took part in today’s takeover].

They issued a proclamation nullifying the Indian Act and declaring Iroquoia a nation and that they were reestablishing its traditional government. 133 police were appointed to replace the RCMP. They announced an economic program designed to make the territory self-sufficient by pooling farming equipment.

Canada did not respect these plans. On March 12th 1959 at 3 a.m. over 300 well armed RCMP invaded. There was a scuffle, attack and the women were beaten up. This roused the people. To this day it has distanced the band council system from the traditionals. Meanwhile Prime Minister John Diefenbaker had cut off all services to the people, which is a violation of human rights. Today that cannot happen. The Indian Act council was then forced back in, just like they did in 1924.

It wouldn’t take much to install the Confederacy Council today. All illegal corporate entities have to be removed. Six Nations jurisdiction can now be respected. The legitimate nation-to-nation relationship can resume as it was at the beginning of the colonial period, through the formative years of British North America and the formation of Canada.

No state has a right to make orders to dissolve anyone else’s government. Canada must acknowledge its error and make reparations. We can now assert our right to self-government that existed before they came here and is now acknowledged under international law. As President Wilson said in 1914, “They day of conquest and aggrandizement is gone”. Almost a century later, it’s time for Canada to wake up and get on board. Even the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People acknowledges that we have a right to self-determination.

Canada can never use padlocks again to exclude us from our sovereign governments and our public buildings. Now that international law supports Indigenous self-determination, there is nothing to stop all of us from asserting our jurisdiction to our lands and resources through our traditional governments.

Canada, you have to keep the peace and butt out of our business. It’s time for you to learn how to obey the laws. It’s important to make sure there is an orderly and smooth transition back to the way things were and always should have been. The Confederacy Council shall be fully reinstated.

You undermined us before by holding our vast trust funds. You can’t keep this from us anymore by deposing us.

Canada, you have to deal with us as equals. If you don’t, just remember what your own Supreme Court says in the Quebec Secession Reference, “Just because you can do something doesn’t make it legal”.

If you believe in the rule of law, let’s see it. Admit you’re wrong. Give us our finances. Give us the accounting we’ve been asking for since 1920 and before. In other words, face up to the ugly truth and leave corruption behind. We want to do business on a decent and honest nation-to-nation basis.

Canada is a foreign colony. Colonialism is just so yesterday! Everywhere else in the world, if you don’t want to decolonize, you leave. Indigenous people everywhere have the same rights as we do at Six Nations. Our monies and resources have been and continue to be used to build all of corporate Canada. It’s all ours.

Canada, get used to the new relationship with your landlords. Have a Happy New Year and a great big bowl of “hangover” soup!

[Send congratulations thebasketcase@on.aibn.com or call Hazel at 519-445-1351, 519-865-7722, Chief Arnie General 519-445-2624]

Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
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The Gambian Front: More on Euro-African border enforcement

[A follow-up post to the Border Enforcement is State Terrorism post earlier ...]

Spain pressures Morocco to clamp down on migration, so migrants move further south to Mauritania and Senegal to make more risky sea journeys. The EU pressures Mauritania and Senegal to clamp down too, so African migrants move further south to Gambia for an even riskier voyage to Europe.

More at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5383080.stm

The article also has some basic information about EU military deployment against migration, which involves ships, helicopters and other aircraft.

To reiterate some basic points that are the foundation of groups like No One Is Illegal:

* don't criminalize or blame migrants for exercising the completely understandable choice that migrants have exercised throughout history: moving away from poverty and underdevelopment to zones of apparent economic opportunity;

* the decision to migrate is a valid and courageous act of self-determination;

* recognize that the causes for the generalized poverty in the global South are colonialism and imperialism -- and modern-day neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism;

* the economic and foreign policies of Western powers create the conditions for the displacement of migrants from the Third World while at the same time exploiting as cheap labour the huge pool of exploitable and desperate migrants;

* those Italian, Portuguese and Spanish boats that today patrol the West African coast today-- with the help of "Uncle Tom" African states and Finland -- are directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of African migrants who are trying to exercise a free choice to migrate, as their historical predecessors were responsible for the deaths of millions in forcing Africans to be slaves hundreds of years ago; the parallels are obvious.


Anyways, just some quick angry thoughts. This issue needs to be on the front pages, like the situation at the US-Mexican border has received a certain amount of important and long-overdue attention.

-- JBS.

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