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News Release
For Immediate Release
Ottawa, September 14, 2005 – The National Council on Canada-Arab Relations (NCCAR), the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), supported by a coalition of organisations and community leaders, are alarmed over allegations that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) discriminates against people who associate with Arab causes. A leaked report written by the former chairperson of the Security Intelligence Review Committee following a complaint by a diplomatic appointee who was denied top-security status faults CSIS for leaping to the “unqualified” conclusion that a person who would support Arab causes would be deemed suspicious. The report also says that CSIS attempted to mislead SIRC to save the spy agency from embarrassment. This new information comes one day after CAF and CAIR-CAN read a closing submission to the Arar inquiry regarding the actions of Canadian officials engaged in racial profiling, which Arab- and Muslim-Canadian organisations denounce. “It has been a long held view by many in Canada that taking up ‘Arab causes' is dangerous and can lead to unnecessary scrutiny by Canadian security officials,” said NCCAR President Hussein Amery. “In the past, many members of the Arab-Canadian community complained that CSIS agents targeted them by ‘inviting' them to meet at local hotels and coffee shops and that the activities of Arab-Canadian students on campus were under surveillance.” While the coalition recognises the need for Canadian security agencies to ensure the safety and security of Canadians, we are extremely concerned with what appears to be an automatic suspicion levelled at those associated with Arab issues. “Canadians provide security agencies with extraordinary powers to enable them to do their job, and it's only reasonable to expect and demand for the installation of safeguards to protect against mistakes and biases,” said Omar Alghabra, CAF President. “Recent patterns increase the level of urgency in ensuring that the upcoming Anti-Terrorism Act Review is taken seriously where new safety measures are enacted,” he added. “Both CSIS and the RCMP have now been accused by their respective review agencies of attempting to hinder efforts to examine their actions,” says Riad Saloojee, CAIR-CAN's executive director. “This leaves all Canadians, including Canadian Muslims, without any effective recourse when their rights are violated. This is extremely alarming given the extensive powers that CSIS and the RCMP have over the lives of Canadian Muslims, as had been seen with Maher Arar and security certificate cases.”
Arab- and
Muslim-Canadian groups call for an open discussion of the policy espoused by
CSIS vis-à-vis Canadian supporters of Arab issues and urge Public Safety and
Emergency Preparedness Minister McLellan and Prime Minister Paul Martin to
take a closer look at the chilling effect such policies have on Canadians
and on Arab Canadians in particular. The organisations also call on the
minister to improve the training of our security services, and review
closely CSIS' rules and procedures as well other security agencies entrusted
with protecting Canadians. Coalition Members:
National
Council on Canada-Arab Relations -End-
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