Justice group set to discuss Canada’s security policies

The citizen’s group Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui (CJAC) hopes to sensitize Canadians to the fact that the government practice of extraordinary rendition is happening more frequently than many believe.
At its discussion and strategy forum, slated for Oct. 21, the group aims to challenge any belief that cases like Maher Arar’s – a Canadian citizen subjected to torture in Syria due to allegations of terrorism – are an exception.
The case of Arar opened the eyes of many Canadians to the government’s practice of extraordinary rendition – of transfering people under suspicion of terrorist activities to a foreign state, often to the threat of torture and prolonged imprisonment.
Panelists for the CJAC’s discussion include Abdullah Almalki and Adil Charkaoui, two men who have faced similar situations to Arar’s.
“These practices exist because authorities are relying on people not to challenge them,” said Mary Foster, spokesperson for CJAC. “Hopefully an event like this will be a step towards changing that.”
Almalki, a Syrian-born Canadian visiting family in his native country in 2002, was detained by authorities and held captive and tortured in a Syrian jail for a period of 22 months. He was arrested under suspicion of terrorist activities based on information sent to the Syrian government by the RCMP. Released in 2004 and acquitted of all charges in Syrian State Supreme Security Court, he is now at the center of a Canadian Federal inquiry examining what role the Canadian Government played in his detention.
Charkaoui, a French teacher living in Montreal, was detained without charge or trial in May 2003 in the Rivi

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