Lawyers Rights Watch Canada
Contact: Siobhán Airey
Tel: 1-604 733 3561
Email: s.airey@telus.net

Widespread Disintegration of Canadian Human Rights Norms By Stealth

Canada’s acquiescence to U.S. post-9/11 demands to integrate Canadian police, intelligence and military with U.S. security policy has increased the risk to Canadians of arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, torture and mass surveillance. “We are witnessing a rapid disintegration of the web of laws and norms that has protected human rights in the past,” says Maureen Webb, human rights lawyer and author of Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post 9-11 World (2007). A chilling example is the story of Maher Arar. A law-abiding Canadian citizen, he was detained in New York in late 2002, and subsequently ‘rendered’ to Syria where he was illegally imprisoned for over 10 months and tortured.

“Much of what is being put into place is being done under the radar screen of the public and outside ordinary democratic processes – through operational agreements, bilateral working groups, administrative agreements, regulations and international forums – so that our democratic institutions themselves are being undermined.”

“One of the more insidious developments has been the incremental construction of a new infrastructure for mass surveillance,” says Ms. Webb. “The Smart Border Agreement signed in 2001 between Canada and the U.S., is in many ways the blueprint for this infrastructure. It is not a treaty. It has never been debated in Parliament.  And yet it calls for unprecedented integration of Canadian security policy with that of the U.S., including common biometric standards for identity cards that can be used across different modes of travel, coordinated visa and refugee policy, coordinated risk assessment of travelers, integrated national security intelligence teams, coordinated watch lists, new counterterrorism legislation along the lines of the USA Patriot Act, and increased intelligence sharing.”

“People might think that the new surveillance systems represent a minor erosion of privacy rights. But these measures roll back fundamental rights to due process in administrative and criminal law, as well as freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of expression. These are cornerstones of any democracy. And once these systems are fully implemented, they will be difficult to unravel. Our democratic societies are in danger of being turned into surveillance societies over time.”

Maureen Webb is giving a free lecture;

‘Security Integration and Rights Disintegration in the War on Terror’

Date: Saturday March 15th, 
Time: 7 - 9pm (doors open at 6:00pm)  
Venue: Robson Square Theatre, 800 Robson St., Vancouver.

She will examine how measures such as Project AO Canada (which left Maher Arar and other Canadians exposed to torture), the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Smart Border Agreement, the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the Safe Third Country Agreement, the security certificates system, global surveillance initiatives and the military mission in Afghanistan have resulted in Canada violating international legal obligations to refugees, immigrants, criminal suspects, prisoners of war and Canadian citizens.

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