Protests greet opening of "Guantanamo North"

[struggle4progress]

MONTREAL, April 24 /CNW Telbec/ - Groups in six cities are responding
with protests to news that four 'security certificate' detainees have been
transferred to a new facility in Kingston. Dubbed "Guantanamo North", the new
six-cell prison attached to Millhaven Federal Penitentiary was built for non-
citizens detained without charge or trial on secret information. Guantanamo
North establishes a precedent in Canada and signals the government's intention
to keep refugees in indefinite, arbitrary detention. The move to the new
prison will mean that detainees are far from their families and lawyers.

The government is currently presenting three options for security
certificate detainees, none of which meet requirements of international law or
justice: deportation to torture; indefinite, arbitrary detention; or arbitrary
house arrest. Family members and protesting groups are calling on the
government to immediately release all five men, abolish the security
certificate and stop deportations to torture.

Ottawa
Rally outside the Canada Immigration office, 365 Laurier St W
(Laurier & Kent) Tuesday, 25 April at 12pm (noon)

Montreal
Rally on Saturday, 13 May, at 12pm (noon)

Halifax
Rally on Tuesday, 9 May at 12 pm (noon)

http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/April2006/24/c0243.html

[tuvor]

1. Who's behind the protests?

How credible is their message?

[struggle4progress]

2. Further info at link

[tuvor]

3. I had already checked the link. Just a bunch of personal names.

No actual organization is behind this, I guess. Just seems odd.

EDIT: FWIW, Googling shows that one media contact is the wife of a detained Algerian, another is affiliated with HomesNotBombs, another I can't tell who they are, and the remaining three or four media contacts don't seem interested in providing their names.

[struggle4progress]

4. Prison switch spurs protest

... The Algerian national, who'd been living in Ottawa before his arrest, has been held without charge on a security certificate for alleged links to terrorism for more than three years ... Harkat is scheduled to appear in Supreme Court in June to argue that the security certificate process is unconstitutional ... http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/OttawaAndRegion/2006/04/26/1550540-sun.html

'Guantanamo North' opens for terror suspects
... The Canadian government is trying to deport all five to their homelands, employing a rare procedure called a national security certificate that allows them to be held without charge in administrative detention while all evidence is reviewed behind closed doors by a Federal Court judge. The four suspects are fighting expulsion on the grounds that they will be tortured, imprisoned or executed if they return to their countries of origin. They are also challenging the legality of their confinement ... http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=53f5d080-6ac8-4c78-804a-993aaf775b66&k=8574

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. "deportation to torture; indefinite, arbitrary detention; or . . . "

.
.
.

" The government is currently presenting three options for security
certificate detainees, none of which meet requirements of international law or justice: deportation to torture; indefinite, arbitrary detention; or arbitrary house arrest"

Gitmo North indeed

This is NOT the way I want my country to behave

shame on us

(sigh)