Spy watch

In his letter [Letters, April 12] response to Stefan Christoff’s article [“Spies at work,” April 5], John Dunn, CSIS’s General Director Communications, made a number of factually inaccurate statements about the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN).

Mr. Dunn alleges that CAIR-CAN advises the community not to cooperate with the spy agency. In fact, we simply advise community members of their rights under Canadian law, and insist that meetings with CSIS only be arranged when a lawyer is present. This ensures that abuse, misunderstanding and intimidation are minimized. Unfortunately, CSIS operatives oftentimes discourage people from contacting lawyers. In a number of cases, CSIS has actually cancelled meetings when a lawyer’s presence is insisted upon.

Additionally, Mr. Dunn states that CAIR-CAN has never directly confronted CSIS on their dubious practices; this again is false. On several occasions, CAIR-CAN has directly communicated concerns about workplace visitations, discouraging legal counsel and community intimidation to CSIS’s top levels.

As a result, instances of abuse and insensitivity have been reduced; nevertheless, there is still much room for improvement.

CAIR-CAN holds that protecting our country’s national security is paramount; however, its pursuit is not above the law, nor can it disregard the fundamental rights of people. By acting as a watchdog, and insisting on public accountability over CSIS, a powerful state apparatus, CAIR-CAN is simply contributing to the democratic process.

Like the People’s Commission on Immigration Security Measures, CAIR-CAN has also published a report on CSIS. This document is available at the publications section of our Web site, www.caircan.ca.

>> Sameer Zuberi

[Re: “Spies at work,” April 5]: I guess I should start by thanking the Mirror editors for deciding to publish this article about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service—Canada’s spy agency—questioning Canadian Muslims at their workplaces. This has not been reported anywhere else and you should be applauded for doing so. Bravo to the writer of the article, and more importantly, to those who give their full names in the article, because it can be scary to publicly criticize a spy agency. Spies can be dangerous and intrusive, right?!

CSIS needs to be reminded—and publicly—that it cannot abuse its role of “protecting the national security interests of Canada” by harassing people at work. CSIS is also supposed to be “guided by the rule of law and the protection of human rights.” Is the right to work without harassment not a human right?

Hopefully, the Mirror’s attention to this inappropriate behaviour by CSIS will get its “workplace visits” reviewed by the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which “ensures that (CSIS) powers are used legally and appropriately, in order to protect Canadians’ rights and freedoms.” Since SIRC does not oversee CSIS, but “examines CSIS’s performance on a retrospective basis,” this type of reporting is crucial to prevent further inappropriate behaviour, which can only lead to abuse of power and corruption.

And we certainly don’t want a post-9/11 trend of increased institutionalized racism in Canada towards Arabs and Muslims to lead this country to an East German-style Stasi protecting our security and interests. That’s for sure!

>> David Widgington

This is really scary. Are we turning into a country like any other where people’s rights are affected? People will start living in fear and many immigrants leave their countries to come to Canada to find peace and freedom.

This is sad.

Thanks.

>> Jehad

Pot for the people

[Re: “Insect: Pot gouging,” April 19]: Marijuana has many beneficial medicinal uses. Medical marijuana patients rely on their medicine in order to live and have better lives.

It is unfortunate that Health Canada feels the need to “pot gouge” sick people by charging exorbitant prices for a poor quality product.

That is not the Canadian way of helping others.

Instead, our federal government should legalize and regulate marijuana and support local compassion clubs, which are able to deliver safe, organic, medicinal marijuana to patients.

Someone needs to tell Health Canada that bullying sick people is the wrong message to send to our young people.

>> Herb Couch, Western Canada Director, Educators For Sensible Drug Policy

Palestinian plight

Ken Frankel seems blind to the glaring hypocrisy in his letter [Letters, April 19] that condemns historical revisionism, when it comes to Holocaust-denial, but engages in it by referring to the “fictitious” right of return of Palestinians.

Denying the Jewish Shoah or the Palestinian Naqba (catastrophe) is equally revolting and a hateful distortion of history. The difference is that while one only hurts the feelings of Jews, the other is used to dispossess and starve Palestinians today.

>> John Dirlik