Adil Charkaoui

cecily — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:23:08 +0000

June 26th, 2009 Adil Charkaoui speaks in Vancouver about his experience being arrested, detained, harassed and surveilled for the last six years, under a Canadian Security Certificate -- his CSIS-issued GPS tracking device on the table within arms reach.

What is a security certificate?
A security certificate,
It’s the right to be treated outside the law
It’s two-speed justice
It’s precedent for secret trials…
It’s contact visits with no contact
It’s the glass that separates you from loved ones,
It’s deadlock, solitude; it’s breathing corruption…
It’s the guilt of being born elsewhere…
It’s human folly clothed as wisdom.
It’s me today, maybe you tomorrow!
(Excerpt of poem by Adil Charkaoui, translated from French)

Security Certificates, a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, allows for the preventive arrest and detention of non-citizens, without charge, under secret evidence that can lead to indefinite detention and possible deportation to torture.

Hosted by No One Is Illegal-Vancouver, BC Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Muslim Union, Council of Canadians - BC / Yukon Region, Canadian Islamic Congress, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Cecily Nicholson

Adil Charkaoui