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The initiative was
necessary. The speakers were superb. The attendance was small. On-going
work remains urgent .. as each day's news makes clearer and clearer.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) was the
organization that initiated a public demonstration in Vancouver Saturday January 17 to protest the deportation and torture of Maher Arar. (It was the first BCLAA demonstration organized in 40 years).
The BCCLA is supporting the call for a public enquiry into the mistreatment of Mr.
Arar, as well as a review of the "security certificate" process that
allows the Canadian government to hold prisoners indefinitely without
revealing the charges against them. More broadly the BCCLA is calling for
a review of all post-9/11 "security" legislation. Their slogan is: The
war on terror should not be an excuse for a war on civil liberties.
Speaking on behalf of the BCCLA was the organization's past president John Dixon.
He pinpointed questions about the actions of various Canadian government
agencies that a full, transparent, public enquiry alone can answer. He
castigated the Martin government for back-tracking on an earlier promise
for such an enquiry, and he was particularly critical of Justice Minister
Cotler who now suddenly claims "lawyer confidentiality" to remove himself
from taking any position on a public enquiry, though before his
appointment to Cabinet he had called for exactly
that.
John Dixon contrasted this with the
public stand of Minister Stephen Owen expressed in a letter
to the Vancouver Sun. But a reading of Owen's
letter shows he is not calling for a public enquiry into Canadian
government involvement in the horrible mistreatment of our fellow-citizen,
Maher Arar. Rather, indistinguishable from Minister Cotler, Owen
side-steps the urgency for such an enquiry. Both politicians claim a
reputation as ardent defenders of human rights, when they are anything but
on the Maher Arar issue and, it needs be said, on the broader issue of the
anti-democratic "anti-terrorism" legislation.
Harsha Walia spoke as a
representative of No One Is Illegal (NOII). She outlined
Canada's historic abuse of immigrants and the current attacks on refugee rights in particular. She pointed out how
broad-based community action had won victories to stave off deportations.
The examples were from
Quebec, where the Algerian and Palestinian and South Asian immigrant and refugee communities have acted
with considerable courage and determination.
Itrath Sayed , in a compelling
speech, made clear the stakes of the "anti-terrorism" legislation
for every resident of
Canada: citizen, refugee and
immigrant. Her words were prescient given the raids only a few days later,
under "anti-terrorism" legislation, of the home and office of a reporter
for the Ottawa Citizen, because of what she has revealed about the
Canadian security services concerning the mistreatment of Mr. Arar. (see
link for a full text of Itrath Sayed's speech).
The concluding speaker was Sister Elizabeth Kelleher, an 80 year old social
activist of the Catholic Sister Association. She spoke passionately of the
actions of the Canadian government in the case of Maher Arar, carried
forth in "our name" she emphasized with indigation. Indignation because
these actions violate the ethic of seeking people's well-being, an ethic
she held up for all to be guided by.
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