SHUT DOWN GUANTANAMO NORTH!

Canada-wide Day of Action on the International Day Against Torture. Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal. Monday, 26 June 2006

IN VANCOUVER: MONDAY JUNE 26TH FROM NOON – 6 PM JOIN US FOR AN INFORMATION TABLE OUTSIDE OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION CANADA OFFICES AT 300 WEST GEORGIA. 

On 24 April 2006 the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) inaugurated a new detention facility at the Millhaven Penitentiary in Ontario by welcoming its first inmates – three men who are currently being detained indefinitely without charge or trial on secret evidence that neither the detainees nor their lawyers can access. The CBSA-run prison, dubbed “Guantanamo North”, was built at a cost of $3.5 million with the express purpose of holding those being incarcerated under Canada’s ‘Security Certificate’ legislation, which allows for the indefinite imprisonment of immigrants and refugees on the basis of secret evidence and trial proceedings. Described by Amnesty International as “fundamentally flawed and unfair,” Security Certificates allow for detainees to be deported to their country of origin, even when there is a substantial threat of torture or death.

The three detainees at Guantanamo North – part of the ‘Secret Trial Five’– currently include Mohammad Mahjoub, a refugee from Egypt who has now been detained for over six years, Mahmoud Jaballah, also an Egyptian refugee in detention since August 2001, and Hassan Almrei, a refugee who has been facing deportation to Syria since October 2001. None of these men have been charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime.

These detainees have been on hunger strike in Guantanamo North for over a month now, demanding improved conditions in the prison. As their health deteriorates, we are calling on people to affirm their support for the hunger strike and join the Canada-wide day of Action to shut down Guantanamo North. We demand that the Security Certificate detainees be
unconditionally released, and if any case against them in fact exists, that they be provided with a fair trial and full disclosure of any evidence used against them.

==> Please make phone calls and send faxes and emails to Stockwell Day, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (responsible for CBSA), on June 26th and 27th stating your support for the hunger strike and the closure of Guantanamo North.