ZGram - 5/20/2003 - "Canada: Stalinism in a so-called "democratic" country!"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

May 20, 2003

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I am beside myself about the complacency of some of my friends and 
acquaintances about what has happened to Ernst Zundel with his 
transfer to the Metro Toronto West Detention Center.  and how I know 
his safety is imperiled.  This is no time to sit back and hope for 
the best!

LISTEN UP:  I AM NOT EXAGGERATING!  MY HUSBAND IS IN DANGER OF HIS LIFE!

You have to realize that Canadians have been poisoned about Ernst via 
a virulent mainstream media campaign against him for decades.  The 
simple person on the street has never heard a kind word about him - 
nothing but hate, hate, hate against Zundel!  For decades!  That such 
a propaganda-poisoned person - whether guard or inmate - might take 
out his own frustrations and rages against Ernst, in a situation 
where Ernst cannot defend himself, does not take a rocket scientist 
mind to conclude. 

How much more is this situation aggravated when an agency, namely 
CSIS, that KNEW about a parcel bomb sent to him from Vancouver to 
Toronto via passenger plane, warned their own agents not to handle 
it, and yet did not see fit to tell Ernst, holds secret hearings 
about him and against him on ridiculous grounds of "national 
security"!

I am telling you that Ernst is in very grave danger!  He needs to get 
out of that hellhole!

Here is what I found out about that place.  I don't know when it was written:

[START]

                             An estimated 100-125 refugee claimants and
others being detained on immigration matters at the Metro Toronto West
Detention Centre (MTWDC) went on a hunger strike for a week in July.
Other prisoners, those awaiting trial on criminal offences, joined  in
the protest, because of the overcrowding and forced transfers Canada's
Immigration detention policy is creating. The refugees, who alone
account for 20% of the Metro West's adult male prisoner population and
others facing deportation were hoping that the strike would bring local
and international attention to the following concerns:

                             1. Indefinite detention

                             2. Poor living conditions

                             3. Lack of access to community

                             resources and legal services

                             4. Arbitrary deportations

                             5. Human rights abuses & brutality by staff

                             6. Racism and discrimination

                             Many of those awaiting deportation are kept
languishing in jail for 2-3 years at a time  (more time than some
federal sentences), with many never even being accused of committing any
criminal offences in Canada and many others never seeing any more of
Canada than the inside of a jail cell. Many were previously detained at
the Celebrity Inn, a private detention centre run by Immigration Canada
and Metropol private security firm, which was built to hold some 80
inmates but which usually ends up holding more like 150. A large number
have refuted their refugee claims, preferring to face potentially deadly
fates in their home countries than to die of abuse and neglect in a
foreign jail.
                             Such was the case with Michael Akhimen, a
Nigerian man who had been sick with diabetes, who died from medical
neglect and physical abuse at the Celebrity Inn in December 1995, after
he was thrown into solitary confinement with no food and water for more
than one week, after he complained about the lack of medical attention.

                             The Metro West Detention Centre is one of
the only Toronto area jails without a Streetlink centre, making it
especially difficult for prisoners to get in contact with legal clinics,
community organisations, and other agencies that provide services to
refugees. Since the provincial cutbacks to legal aid, access is severely
limited for everyone, doubly so for people who are not recognised as
Canadian citizens.

                             All prisoners at the MTWDC are double and
triple-bunked in single person cells, further adding to an already tense
situation where people have zero personal space or privacy. In a setting
where health care is virtually non-existent, this makes people extremely
vulnerable to illness and disease.

                             The criteria on which they are kept in
detention is extremely arbitrary, the most commonly cited pretence being
that immigration thinks it has reason to believe a person won't show up
to their hearing, with alternative arrangements for supervision very
rarely being tried. People with claims in more than one country are
frequently detained, with no consideration paid to the fact that many of
the refugees - the majority of whom are continental Africans - went to
Europe first, where many encountered neo-nazi violence and racist
immigration policies identical to Canada's, where many found themselves
detained under identical circumstances.

                             Improper travel documents are another
commonly used justification, an especially frustrating situation for
Africans from nations such as Rwanda, Liberia, or Nigeria (which lack
either governments or diplomatic relations with Canada), and
Palestinians, who are not allowed to return home because of the Israeli
government's genocidal expulsion policies.

                             Physical abuse, brutality, and racist
insults and provocations from the mostly white staff is very common,
with many people citing an incident June this year, when Steve Williams,
a failed refugee claimant from Nigeria, was beaten severely both at the
jail and at the airport on the eve of his deportation, and citing
attempts by certain guards to deliberately  incite tensions between
different ethnic groups when they don't exist, and exploit them when
they do.

                             The Metro West Detention Brothers are urging
the public to get involved in making their demands and their situation
an international issue, to shed light on Canada's hypocritical and
racist policies and practices. Struggling in obscurity and isolation is
no longer an option; as Kashif Ali, a man from Ghana who has been in
detention for the past 28 months has put it, "I have nothing to lose, I
have lost everything already."

                  NATIVE AFRICAN INMATES & FAMILIES ASSOCIATION

http://www.ncadc.org.uk/letters/news8/can.html

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