ZGram - 1/31/2004 - "Canadian Journalist Caught in 'Post-9/11 Witch Hunt'

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

January 31, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

The Canadian papers are full of write-ups about a female journalist 
who reported on the Maher Arar case - the young Syrian computer 
specialist who was nabbed in a similar fashion as Ernst Zundel was 
arrested - that is, with the collusion of two and possibly three or 
even four governments.  I have no idea why he was singled out - 
possibly to set a precedent by which other victims could be illegally 
deported?

What is interesting is that that there is an absolute refusal by the 
Canadian media to write about the parallels in the two cases - the 
Arar case and the Zundel case - but of course that will not stop us 
from pursuing identical clues.

Below is a typical write-up.  As you read it, pay attention to the 
fact that both the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and Canadian 
Amnesty International washed their hands of Ernst's situation even 
though hundreds of letters were sent to them from all over the world 
pleading for intervention.


[START]

January 24, 2004

Canadian Journalist Caught in 'Post-9/11 Witch Hunt'

by Marty Logan

When police raided an Ottawa journalist's office and home this week 
because of an article she wrote about a Canadian deported from the 
United States to face torture in Syria, it was a reminder how closely 
this country has followed the U.S. lead in the "war on terrorism."

Just four months after Sep. 11, 2001, Canada's Parliament passed 
sweeping legislation, the Anti-Terrorism Act (Bill C-36), which 
amended 19 existing laws and allowed authorities to suspend long-held 
judicial rights to combat vague threats.

But aside from that new law, 9/11 ushered in a climate that has 
emboldened security agencies to make use of extraordinary powers that 
were already part of the legal system but seldom employed, according 
to experts.

Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill had her office and home 
searched and her computer and notes seized Wednesday by officers of 
the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) searching to discover who 
"leaked" information to her about the case of Maher Arar.

Arar is the Syrian-born Canadian who was stopped in New York in June 
2002 on his way home following a holiday in Tunisia. Nine days later 
US officials deported him to Damascus, where he was jailed and 
tortured for 10 months.

On Thursday, Arar filed a lawsuit against US Attorney General John 
Ashcroft for deporting him to a country that US officials knew 
practiced torture. He wants an apology and unspecified damages from 
Washington.

Canadian security agencies have denied they were involved in Arar's 
deportation, although US officials, including Secretary of State 
Colin Powell, have suggested otherwise.

In her article, O'Neill included details about Arar's alleged stay in 
a "terrorist training" camp, information the RCMP says could only 
have come from a document protected by the post-9/11 Security of 
Information Act.

If O'Neill is charged with breaching that law, she faces up to 14 
years in jail. The Security of Information Act is basically the 
former Official Secrets Act, revamped in the fear-filled months that 
followed 9/11.

Neither this nor other measures in the anti-terrorism laws have been 
used often by authorities to target suspected terrorists. Late last 
year the Supreme Court heard the appeal of a man who was forced to 
testify in a secret hearing, a process created by Bill C-36, about a 
plane bombing in the 1980s.

It is the only known instance of the Anti-Terrorism Act being used to 
date. Yet judicial rights continue to be violated in the name of 
security, say experts.

"Canada's anti-terrorism legislation is broader than the 
anti-terrorism act. It plays out in a number of different pieces (of 
legislation)," says Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty 
International Canada.

For instance, authorities are beginning to employ a rarely used 
measure in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, called the 
security certificate, says Neve in an interview.

"There are at least five cases of individuals who have been arrested 
under the (Immigration Act), who are facing deportation from Canada 
on allegations that they have some sort of link or are involved in 
terrorism activities," he says.

"In most of the cases there's serious reasons to believe that torture 
awaits them at the other end. And the security certificate is 
profoundly flawed. There's no opportunity to know the extent of the 
accusations against you."

At the same time, the Arar case suggests that security agencies might 
be acting beyond the scope of any laws, says Neve.

"His case points to the fact that there may be very serious things 
being done by law enforcement and security agencies outside the 
rubric of even C- 36, which are not regulated and are not subject to 
any kind of legal framework."

Prime Minister Paul Martin on Thursday denied that the O'Neill raid 
signaled Canada has become a "police state."

"Freedom of the press is an essential condition to protect our 
democratic freedoms," said Martin, in Davos, Switzerland to attend 
the World Economic Forum.

"The reason any kind of security legislation is put in place is so we 
can continue to protect those democratic freedoms," he added, 
reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). "We're not 
going to do something that will go against those basic values."

But Alan Borovoy says legal experts protested the Official Secrets 
Act, the forerunner of the law used to arrest O'Neill, 25 years ago, 
for inadequately safeguarding legal rights. Their advice was not 
followed.

When the government announced new measures to fight terrorism after 
Sep. 11, "we said, 'the existing powers are broader than you need, 
why do you want new powers?''' said Borovoy, general counsel of the 
Canadian Civil Liberties Association, in an interview.

He feels that Bill C-36 helped to "embolden the authorities, and 
makes them a little more likely to resort to these (long-standing) 
powers."

Other experts say measures in the new bill themselves threaten the 
balance between the state maintaining rights while protecting 
security.

In a paper delivered to a June 2003 conference, Canadian Senator 
Raynell Andreychuk wrote that Bill C-36 "gave itself very wide 
ministerial discretion in a number of areas, void of any scrutiny in 
some cases, and without the possibility for appeal in others."

The former judge added that "most troubling was the curtailment of 
the Access to Information Act (in some cases unlimited in time), the 
Privacy Act and the reduction of due process."

After her materials were seized in the police raid, O'Neill told CBC, 
"I'll always remember what happened to me as part of the post-9/11 
witch hunts. We know many Canadians of Muslim faith and Middle East 
origin have had a knock on the door from the RCMP. And as a 
journalist, I've now experienced that first-hand."

(Inter Press Service / Posted at 
http://antiwar.com/orig/logan.php?articleid=1759)