A Biannual Publication of the Canadian Centre for VictimsVictims of Torture (CCVT)

Winter 2007

Accredited member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) First Light

First Light, which is published semi-annually, Mandate is intended to inform the interested reader about torture, its effects and what we can do in The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture aids survivors in aiding survivors to overcome their experience overcoming the lasting effects of torture and war. In partner- of torture and war. CCVT views itself as part of ship with the community, the Centre supports survivors in the a larger global community and is committed to process of successful integration into Canadian society, works the struggle for human rights, justice and the for their protection and integrity, and raises awareness of the end of the practice of torture. continuing effects of torture and war on survivors and their families. We chose to call this publication First Light because as the first light before true dawn, it The CCVT gives hope after the horror. symbolizes the first ray of hope for survivors of torture.

Issue Editor In This Issue... Ezat Mossallanejad CCVT Clients: Saintly Victims or Complex Layout Design Layout Design Individuals? Chizuru Nobe Torture, Its Effect Public Education Committee Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Refugees in Limbo: Manuals for Best Prac- Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator tices Susan McGrath, Committee Chair Ezat Mossallanejad, Policy Analyst Reflection on the Death of Tyrant

Editorial Committee Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Torture Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator Susan McGrath, Committee Chair Canadian Security Certificate Ezat Mossallanejad, Policy Analyst Chizuru Nobe, Volunteer Coordinator Photo Gallery

Special thanks to: Hari Lalla, Prof. Fred An Interview with Thilaga Jeganathan Case, Claudia Ramirez, Christopher Oates, Mellissa Jones- Prus, Nazanin Rassouli, Ed Hosam Tarter, Thomas Foster, Mansoor Shams, and Reza Sepahdari CCVT Intake Statistics

Published by Saddam’s Hanging: Metamorphosis of The Canadian Centre for Justice and a Mockery of Human Rights Victims of Torture 194 Jarvis St. 2nd Floor Thank you CCVT Toronto, ON M5B 2B7 Canada The War Prayer Tel: 416-363-1066 Fax: 416-363-2122 The U. S. Military: Commissions Act of 2006 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ccvt.org Regional Report

Editor’s Note: The information provided in this Darfur: Seeing Past the Smoke publication is not controlled by the CCVT and therefore may not reflect the Centre's views. Afghanistan: An ongoing struggle for sur- vival © Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture.. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced in Book Reviews any form without permission from the publisher. 25 Years Rebuilding Lives: United Nations Subscriptions Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture 2 issues per year Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar Canada: Individuals 1 year (plus GST or HST) — CAD $15 - Factual Background United States and International: Individuals 1 year — CAD $25 Torture in the Age of Fear Payment may be made by VISA, MasterCard, certified cheque or money Reflections from a friend order

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CCVT Clients: Saintly Victims or Complex Individuals?

By Catherine Raine

One misconception that I’ve overcome is the ex- Watch a person’s face when you tell them you pectation that survivors of torture will always say nice things. I believed that intense suffering had teach English at the Canadian Centre for Victims of somehow made them more than human, magically Torture. Eyebrows raise with surprise and the eyes transforming them into pious models of compas- crinkle in concern. Often the head moves forward, sion and political correctness. That’s why I was as if the name of my workplace is a magnet that shocked when a student once joked about Christo- draws them closer to me, so close that I can see pher Reeve’s paralysis: “Superman used to fly but their curiosity, embarrassment, pity, and fear. With now he’s stuck in a wheelchair.” A few of the the exception of one person who laughed when I learners laughed at the unfeeling comment, but the said the T-word, most become very quiet, perhaps rest of us just gaped in horror. The same student burdened by questions they’d like to ask, their who lacked empathy for Reeve also got irritated imaginations aroused by the taboo images of with me during a class discussion of Princess “torture” and “victim”. However, I don’t want to Diana’s biography. When I said it was sad that she judge my auditors too harshly for their reaction to died so young, the student replied matter-of- an ordinary inquiry about my job. Before I started factly: “That’s life, teacher. Children die all the teaching at CCVT in the fall of 2004, I tried to time and who is feeling sad for them?” Maybe the imagine the particularities of suffering just barely learner didn’t like precious sympathy being conveyed by the phrase “victims of torture.” I may wasted on rich women who romp on yachts with never be able to understand the depth and scope of playboys. More disturbingly, another client started the pain my students have experienced, but I’d like laughing when she suddenly related an anecdote to reflect on what I’ve learned about their coping about two men in her building beating each other methods. Whether they have responded with emo- up in a lover’s quarrel. A classmate said, tional numbness or extreme sensitivity to others’ “Teacher, she’s laughing about somebody getting suffering, I believe they both inhabit and transcend hurt?” I agreed that it wasn’t at all funny, just as it the limiting label of ‘victims’. Two-dimensional wasn’t funny when a different student expressed saints they are not, but the courage of CCVT cli- anger at Inuit seal-hunts with the words “Let them ents shines in their willingness to start again in eat snow! Why can’t they find a job in the city Canada and find a new voice in a new language. like everybody else?”

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Was torture responsible for these lapses in compas- On another occasion, I asked a student what her sion? If so, I think the most tragic effect of brutali- favourite colour was. I thought it was a fairly zation is a lost capacity to feel for other victims, es- neutral topic, but her answer was heart-rending. pecially when they seem different in regards to dis- She said, “I used to really love red. It was my ability, wealth, sexual orientation, or culture. If favourite until the day I saw a wounded cow in trauma has cost some students their willingness to my village. Something had cut its thigh and there acknowledge others’ tragedies and hurts, then that’s was so much blood. The smell of it made me the biggest loss of all; here, the inhumanity of tor- sick. But what I couldn’t stand was that the cow ture has turned victims into the executioners of their was crying because it was in so much pain. I own humanity so that they no longer know what is think a farmer had done this cruel thing because funny and what is sad. From this perspective, I can the cow had wandered into his garden and was see how empathy could become a luxury and hurtful eating his vegetables. But I felt so awful about laughter a way to mask overwhelming sadness and the poor cow, and even now I can’t stand to wear fear. It’s emotionally costly to invest in the suffering red-coloured clothes because they remind me of that’s available for our consumption every night on the blood from the cow’s thigh.” Hearing about TV. Insensitivity, distance, and emotional numbness the wounded cow made me want to cry, too, for I is safer than facing the pain lurking in the body’s could picture its agony from the vividness of her memory, locked into every thought. I can under- description. At risk of reading too much into the stand why it might be difficult for some of my stu- story, I think the cow’s suffering spoke to the dents to “waste” emotion on Christopher Reeve, depths of the storyteller’s own innocence and Princess Diana, a gay neighbour, or the Inuit, but I outrageous pain. This same student cried when feel part of the rehabilitative work that happens at we read a Metro news article about an American CCVT is encouraging the clients to see that they’re woman whose son died in Iraq and who protested not beyond the circle of human compassion, even if for peace in Washington on Mother’s Day. I have it must have felt that way when no Superman res- learned to limit our newspaper readings because cued them at their darkest hour, no Princess came to the articles most clients choose to discuss are hold their hand and tell them everything would be about topics such as the trial of Cecilia Zhang’s OK. killer, a boy who murdered his brother, and the kidnapping and murder of three Canadian broth- At the opposite extreme of emotional withdrawal ers in Venezuela. from pain is over-identification with accounts of suffering. One morning in class, I read aloud a few Between the extremes of avoidance and overex- paragraphs about Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope as posure to the morbid lies the more ordinary sub- part of a grammar exercise. To my surprise, one of jects we cover, for our class is about much more the students started sobbing loudly when I reached than coping with tragic stories. We also speculate the end of the passage. The rest of the class looked on the love life of Prince Charles and Camilla, extremely uncomfortable, and I felt terrible, for I discuss the different ways to ask, had hoped Fox’s story would be inspirational. How- “Teacher, is it break-time?”, share cake at birth- ever, for the crying student it was just too unbeara- day celebrations, read short plays, chant jazz bly sad to read of a young man who lost a leg and chants like “Mama Knows Best,” and tease each then his life to cancer. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I other about owning imaginary helicopters and stopped reading, patted the upset learner on the limousines. Outside the classroom, we explore shoulder, and gave the class their journals to write Toronto together, outings which comprise some in. I had planned to show a TV movie about Terry of my best memories of CCVT. For example, on Fox after the break, but I changed my mind because a trip to the Toronto Reference Library, I loved I was worried about the effect it might have on the the way the students just plunked down at the student who cried. We watched You’ve Got Mail wooden tables and started to read books in Swa- instead. hili, Tamil, Tigrinya, Somali, English, Amharic,

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Family Day - Dancing on the Patio

Spanish, Arabic, and Albanian. I sat down with my that remains. We still have dreams” (407). ESL books and joined the scholarly communion; it felt peaceful and happy to be reading silently to- I believe it is my job at CCVT to be a gentle wit- gether in the middle of our noisy city. There was ness to both the dreams and the tragic experi- also the trip to Toronto Islands where we swung on ences of our clients. If the pain is never far from beach-side swings and others to the CN Tower, St. the surface, neither is the beauty. For instance, Lawrence Market, Allan Gardens, the Beaches, beauty was wonderfully present at the Family Parliament Street Library, Kensington Market, the Day party last May when we danced on the back- Art Gallery of Ontario, and the National Film yard patio as the sun warmed the tops of our Board. heads. As the group of dancers grew larger, the joy got even more contagious. Looking at the It is the very ordinariness of these activities -- find- women smiling, playfully shaking their shoul- ing the right subway platform, examining a paint- ders, it was hard to understand why anybody ing together, sharing coffee and a box of Timbits at would have ever wanted to hurt them instead of Tim Horton’s -- that seems to ease the burden of celebrate them. Their joyous dance was fierce extraordinary suffering our students stagger under. evidence that whoever tortured them did not win, For the day-tripper is more than a Victim of Tor- did not extinguish their spirit. Moments like the ture; he or she is a student, a tourist, a classmate, a patio-dance make me appreciate with greater friend, a provider of bread and sweets, a host who clarity the rehabilitation CCVT encourages. We insists on buying the teacher’s coffee. When I read are mutual witnesses of movement towards the Camilla Gibb’s novel Sweetness in the Belly, her sunlight, towards togetherness, benediction. As I description of refugees reminded me of my stu- threw my head back to accept more sun on my dents’ kindness and generosity: “For all the brutal- face, I wished I could show the world these vic- ity that is inflicted upon us, we still possess the de- tims who aren’t afraid to dance, saints who sire to be polite to strangers . . . . We may have had mildly flirt with each other, and students who our toes shot off by a nine-year old, but we still teach me to cherish my freedom. believe in the innocence of children. We may have been raped . . . but we still open ourselves to the *Catherine Raine is a LINC teacher at Canadian ones we love. We may have lost everything, but we Centre for Victims of Torture still insist on being generous and sharing the little

Winter 2007 5 First Light

Torture, Its Effect

By Benamar Benatta

The word “torture” is commonly used to mean the cal knowledge are also quite common. The pris- infliction of pain to break the will of the victim or oner—suitably bound to deter the expected range victims. Any act by which severe pain, whether of reactive motion—may be connected to an physical or psychological, is intentionally inflicted electrical apparatus, where wires are wound on a person as a means of intimidation, deterrence, around his fingers and toes and an electric probe revenge, punishment, sadism, information gather- is used to deliver current to his genitals. A signal ing, to extract confessions during interrogation, or generator and attached voltmeter precisely con- to obtain false confessions for propaganda or po- trol the intensity of the pain so inflicted. Modern litical purposes may be called torture. Torture is torturers also avail themselves of pharmacologi- also used as a method of coercion or as a tool to cal techniques that were unavailable in the past: control groups seen as a threat an example is the injection of drugs by governments. Throughout that heighten the human brain's per- history, it has often been used ception of, and reaction to, pain be- as a method of effecting reli- fore any physical torture is actually gious conversion or political employed. “re-education.” Torture is uni- Torture includes more than the versally considered to be an physical act itself. As Philip Lim- extreme violation of human borch, a preacher and able annotator, rights. quotes in his History of the Inquisi- Some medieval techniques of tion, a writer by the name of Julius torture remain in wide use today. Clarus, as saying, "Know that there For example, tearing out the are five degrees of torture, videlicet, nails of the fingers and toes with first, the torture of being threatened pliers — sometimes after first to be tortured; secondly, the torture driving sharp needles into the extremely tender of being conveyed to the place of torture; thirdly, flesh underneath — is still in common use. Slowly the torture of being, and bound for torture; roasting the soles of the bare feet over hot coals fourthly, the torture of being hoisted on the tor- was updated by the Russian KGB by using the flat, turing rack; and fifthly, and lastly, the torture of hot surface of an everyday clothes iron. Methods of squassation." confinement that take advantage of modern medi- The survivors of torture usually come from coun-

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tries around the world that practice torture to periences, sometimes maintain social control, suppress political opposi- in ways that may pro- tion, enforce ethnic cleansing or induce terror in long pain and suffer- the population. Those victims who manage to es- ing. Connecting and cape do so with few resources and many needs. being very attentive For those survivors, torture often leads to lasting with survivors of tor- physical and mental health problems. Physical ture may free up fixed problems can be wide-ranging, e.g. sexually trans- ways of experiencing mitted diseases, musculo-skeletal problems, brain the world, and may injury, post-traumatic epilepsy and dementia or allow survivors to chronic pain syndromes. Mental health problems place past and present are equally wide-ranging; common are post- experience within traumatic stress, depression and anxiety disorder. more helpful and healing frameworks. Our mission at CCVT is to alleviate the suffering of those who have experienced the trauma of tor- ture, by offering the specific kinds of treatments Helping the survivors and social services that bring torture survivors of torture cope with their tragedy and begin new hope and social adjustment services to begin new lives is a response of the heart and the spirit to the lives in the Canadian society. injustice in the world, and may change the course of your life and give you a new perspective re- As someone who was subjected to torture myself, garding your own existence. When I was in the I believe that, In addition of providing linguisti- United States, I was helping refugees with their cally and culturally appropriate psychotherapy, asylum applications and Immigration proceedings, social work services that help survivors find hous- and when some of the refugees were granted a ing, employment, language services, schools, and protection status, they wrote me a letter of thanks medical and legal help, we need to connect more and appreciation. Even though it may be a simple emotionally with survivors of torture. The survi- letter in their eyes, such letters touched me deeply vors of torture tend to build a kind of virtual wall, and changed the course of my life. I still keep their subconscious tends to block past events in those letters to this day, and every time I read order to protect their sanity and to shield them them again, it energizes and strengthens my com- from further suffering. Therefore, we need to be mitment to help others. very patient with them, befriend them and build a

certain trust with them, as it’s very hard for them In short, you will find much satisfaction and peace to trust and connect to other persons after their of mind when you see the survivors you have experience, and to talk about their tragedy. The helped cope with their past experience, find new healing process may take a long time for certain meaning in their lives, and begin a new life in Ca- survivors, but once the survivors trust you, they nadian society. In no-time, they will be productive will open up to you and seek your help and assis- members of society. You need to celebrate and tance. More importantly, we need to supervise the honor such achievement. It may be small in your survivor’s body language closely since it may en- eyes, but by the achievement of you, me, and able us to notice discrepancies between verbal and commitment of others who are doing their very non-verbal behaviors as well as other unspoken best, we can accomplish some good and try to cor- indicators, which may help us in the prevention of rect some of the injustices in this World. tragedies such as suicide. * Benamar Benatta is a survivor of Torture volun- We all make our own representations of our ex- teering at CCVT

Winter 2007 7 First Light Refugees in Limbo Manual of Best Practices

By Mulugeta Abai & Ezat Mossallanejad

Since early 1990s, the CCVT has been continuing assisting people who have fallen between the cracks of Immigration limbo. In the year 1999, we secured a project grant from the May- tree Foundation to address this urgent and agonizing problem. The Maytree-funded project ended in 2003, but the CCVT continued with helping refugee survivors in limbo by utilizing its own scarce resources. What will follow is the outcome of our front-line practical experi- ence helping people in limbo.

Introduction: surviving initial forms of torture, prisoners For refugees, immigration limbo is accompanied by have been told that they will be subject to feelings of anxiety, uncertainty about the future and similar treatment in the future. By refusing to alienation. For survivors of torture, the psychologi- say when the torture will occur, torturers in- cal impact of limbo can be magnified to the point duce a perpetual state of fear and uncertainty where retraumatization becomes a real possibility. in their victims. Other torturers use a practice Survivors of torture are particularly vulnerable to called “rations” where a prisoner receives a the emotional and psychological effects of limbo. set number of beatings or lashings each day. Many suffer from symptoms of posttraumatic stress The prisoner never knows when the physical disorder, and are emotionally and physically vul- torture will take place, only that it will happen nerable due to the trauma they have survived. The at some point during the 24-hour period. The added anxiety and stress of limbo can compound uncertainty throws prisoners into limbo; such this suffering. waiting is a cruel form of psychological tor- ture. Torturers are known to use forms of limbo as a technique of torture. The Canadian Centre for Vic- Mock executions also serve the purpose of tims of Torture monitors techniques inflicted on terrorizing and breaking the morale of prison- political activists and victims of war in various ers. Survivors have reported cases where pris- countries. Survivors report being brought outside of oners are told they have been sentenced to torture chambers to witness the screams and sounds death before they ever appear before a court. of torture inflicted inside. They are told that this They are taken to an alleged member of the will also be inflicted on them, and are left not clergy, who is usually a member of the police knowing when they will be taken inside. This pro- or military intelligence. Prisoners are pre- longed waiting period is used to terrorize victims pared for execution, and then subjected to an and break down their powers of resistance. After agonizing waiting period of days or even months. Survivors describe being taken to the

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tion due to insufficient or missing information. The resulting delay can be lengthy, and is avoid- able if careful attention is given to the application at the outset.

If an interpreter is used, someone who is familiar with the cultural background of the client and who is familiar with immigration vocabulary would be ideal. The complexities of the immigration can be very difficult to grasp, and counselors may need to de- execution site, where shots are fired in the air. vote significant amounts of time to answering While the survivor remains alive, they are often questions and clarifying terminology for their cli- highly traumatized and emotionally shattered. ents. Given Canada’s reputation as a compassion- ate country, many refugees arrive expecting to Repeatedly deferring trial or sentencing is also an encounter a rational system that pays attention to effective tool of psychological torture through their individual situations. When faced with the limbo. A survivor from Nigeria recounts being prospect of a lengthy landing process, clients will sent to prison, with no prospect of a trial and no often ask about short cuts or means of accelerating way of knowing how long he would be held. He the application. It is important to emphasize the languished in prison for 7 years, until eventually need for patience, and to dispel any expectations being sentenced to 21 years. He ultimately served of quick resolution of the landing process. 18 years, but has said that the 7 years he spent liv- ing in uncertainty were the worst of his imprison- Explain the process of landing carefully and work ment. to develop a strategy for the case. If the client agrees, have them sign a letter of consent enabling It is important that those working with torture sur- the worker to get information from Immigration vivors on issues of immigration limbo be aware of Canada (see attached example). the possible emotional and psychological effects of this limbo. In order to minimize the impact, every Arrange for regular counseling and debriefing for effort should be made to shorten the process. How- the client, because as time goes on and frustration ever, experience has taught us that it is not always levels build, this will provide the client with much easy to avoid lengthy limbo periods. For this rea- needed support. Regular counseling will also help son, counselors and settlement workers need to the worker keep in touch with the client, and allow monitor carefully their clients for signs of retrau- them to monitor their well-being. matization or emotional stress. People assisting torture survivors in limbo need to come to terms Make your position and role clear to the client. It with the effects of torture so that they can offer the is important that the client understand that you best possible assistance to their clients. have only limited contact with Immigration and that you are not a government representative. Be Best practices throughout the process: clear that you have no decision-making power, Enable the client to speak in his or her own lan- and that your role is to facilitate the process and guage, unless they can fluently speak the language provide information where needed. If clients un- used by the worker. This is particularly important derstand that you are working for their best inter- during meetings where the application process is ests and that you are not an Immigration officer, it being explained and where forms are being filled may help ease the frustration that can result as the out. Many applications are returned by Immigra- application proceeds.

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day limit for filing a landing application. Appli- cants must submit a processing fee with their appli- cation ($500.00 per adult and $100.00 per child). If necessary, you may need to work with the client to develop a strategy for saving this money.

Everything must be filled out completely and in detail. Gaps in information or vague answers will slow the process down. Explain to the client that Explain all correspondence with Immigration to you will work with them to help ensure that the the client, and make sure that they understand the forms are filled out correctly, while emphasizing content of the letters and the reasons for sending that they need to provide complete information so them. Verify all facts and the spelling of ad- that you can help to the best of your abilities. Re- dresses/family members’ names etc. with the cli- member that there is no face-to-face contact with ent. Immigration officials. If incomplete information is All information must be kept current as the appli- submitted it can take up to 3 months to hear back cation proceeds. Emphasize the importance of about what is needed (please see attached exam- having current information by explaining that this ple). Many avoidable delays occur at the initial facilitates communication and background checks. application stage because of missing or vague in- Many avoidable delays are caused by returned formation. mail. If Immigration states a deadline that proves im- Explain that it is a lengthy process. Be direct about possible to meet, contact Immigration, request an the waiting periods involved. For young people it extension and provide an explanation of your re- usually takes between 10-12 months, though we quest. In some cases, there may be delays in re- have seen periods as short as 3 months. For fami- ceiving documentation due to postal systems or lies and older people, the process usually takes 18 internal communications problems in the country months. of origin of the client. At the CCVT we have never been refused an extension where the cir- Once the landing application is received, the appli- cumstances were reasonable. cant will receive a letter of eligibility, explaining that they have fulfilled the eligibility requirements Create a record by leaving a copy of all letters in and that a final decision will be made after the re- the client’s files. quirements for landing are met. If a letter of eligi- bility is not received within four to six weeks of the Provide the client with copies of all correspon- initial application, contact immigration and request dence. Encourage clients to create a file for them- an update of the case. Always attach a letter of selves. This will help clients understand the sys- consent from the client. Immigration will contact tem, and feel less alienated by the process. It will you and either inform you that they are simply also facilitate the client’s work with others, should backlogged and all the information has been re- their worker or organization be temporarily un- ceived, or that something is missing. If you don’t available. write after four to six weeks, it could take several months for them to contact the client and explain Get copies of all relevant documents from the cli- what is missing. ent’s lawyer and keep them in the client’s file. Encourage active involvement in rehabilitation and Best practices at the outset: in the community. Rehabilitation initiatives will File the landing application on time. Once Con- provide clients with a focus during the waiting pe- vention refugee status is granted, there is a 180- riod, and can provide much needed support and

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learning opportunities. Suggest the possibility of that once a client is landed, it is difficult to spon- volunteering, studying, improving language skills sor family members because financial require- and seeking employment where possible. By fa- ments must be met. However, if a client chooses cilitating rehabilitation and community involve- to sponsor family members who are disappeared, ment, workers will also have the advantage of no one will receive landing until they can be lo- regular contact with the client, so as to ensure that cated. This can place everyone in limbo for a all information remains current. very long time. Similar situations can arise in cases where there are potential criminality or se- Discuss the issue of criminality and its effects on curity issues. the process. Carefully explain the consequences of involvement with the law. Clients need to un- If the client is sponsoring family members who derstand that any charge, even if the person is not are disappeared, involve the Red Cross and the found guilty, can result in long delays in the land- UNHCR as soon as possible so that they can as- ing process. If you are charged, the process is sist in locating the family. If this is the route stopped until the close of the trial. If the person is taken, wait until the last possible point to file. convicted and sentenced, the application is Remember that it is easier to separate the files stopped until the completion of the sentence. later than it is to add new members. Even once the sentence is completed, it can take Emphasize the importance of a permanent ad- months to get the file re-activated. Point out that dress where family members overseas can be they should be vigilant even about routine things contacted. If there is no permanent address like driving, and aware of the possible conse- (because of financial or safety concerns) arrange quences of drug use or public intoxication. How- for a place where messages can be left. The fam- ever, at the same time, emphasize that other non- ily’s own address is preferable to that of a rela- criminal interactions with police will not affect tive or friend. their applications. Explain that if they are hurt, in danger or if they are a witness to a crime this will Keep the following structural barriers in mind: not have an impact. Urge clients to bring any in- visa post distribution, locating and paying trans- teraction with the law to your attention so that as- lators, traveling times and costs. These limita- sistance can be provided if necessary. For addi- tions may be important to the strategy you de- tional Best Practices concerning criminality, see velop with the client below. In the case of vulnerable family members or chil- Family Re-unification: dren separated from their parents, requesting a Discuss the issue of Minister’s Permit is an option. The Minister of family re- Immigration has the prerogative to admit a per- unification and the son to Canada who has not completed the normal timing of sponsor- immigration process. Minister’s Permits are usu- ship in detail. Con- ally only granted in cases of emergency or grave sider carefully risk. They need to be renewed after a specified when to sponsor. length of time, and typically individuals in Can- Convention refu- ada on a Minister’s Permit must wait five years gees can sponsor before they can become landed. their families with- out having to meet financial requirements. Typi- The issue of ID: cally, the Convention refugee in Canada, and all Clients often express frustration with Immigra- the family members they sponsor will apply for tion over the issue of ID. The central source of and receive landed status together. Bear in mind frustration is that forms of identification rou-

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tinely accepted in many countries of origin are not Throughout the process, ensure that the informa- recognized by Immigration. It is important to ex- tion provided about documentation is consistent plain to clients that the application process will not with the information provided in the Personal move forward until a form of ID acceptable to Im- Information Form (PIF). Inconsistencies could migration is submitted. affect the way that Immigration officers view the credibility of the affidavits. Where necessary, Wherever possible, submit a birth certificate or explain any inconsistencies. passport. While technically, all that is required is

“valid ID”, it is our experience that Immigration Proving the identification of children. Be aware typically wants to see a valid birth certificate or a that in some countries, births are not registered, passport issued prior to the application for landing. particularly if children are from targeted ethnic Where a passport or birth certificate is not avail- groups, born into poor families or born out of able, submit 2 or 3 pieces of other ID and a letter wedlock. If this is the case, provide an explana- explaining the situation. At this stage it can be use- tion of the situation. Be aware that Immigration ful to refer to earlier cases where documentation may require DNA testing if identity cannot be other than a passport or birth certificate was ac- established through a birth certificate, passport or cepted as ID. affidavit. The DNA testing process is costly (up

to $1000.00), and it is advisable to make costs If there is no ID at all, write an affidavit from the known to the client in advance so that they can client about her/ his ID plus affidavits from two save or make arrangements if necessary. other people, attesting to the client’s identity. Im-

migration has stated that one type of affidavit is not superior to others, but it has been our experience Filling out the applications that it is best if those submitting affidavits in sup- employment: port of the client are Canadian citizens or landed In the application for landing (currently section immigrants who knew the client prior to their arri- G), there is a section requiring a complete history val in Canada. It is important to note that an Op- of the applicant’s employment for the past 10 erations Memorandum issued to Immigration Offi- years. cers in 1998 states that statutory declarations should be considered and cannot be summarily dis- 1. All time must missed as proof of ID. be accounted for, even if the client If the client is from a designated country (currently was a student, a only Somalia or Afghanistan), and they have not displaced person, a been processed for landing because they lack satis- resident of a refu- factory identification, they can apply to become a gee camp or a resi- member of the Undocumented Convention Refugee dent in a first coun- in Canada Class (UCRCC) two and a half years try of asylum. Of- after their refugee determination date. Landing can ficers will focus on consistency, and the fact that be granted after a period of three years. The all time is accounted for. UCRCC is open to people who have applied for landing, but have not been approved solely because Addresses: they lack ID. Clients are not eligible under this As is the case with employment, applicants are class if they have been convicted of a crime in Can- required to list all addresses during the past 10 ada, for which a prison term of more than 6 months years (currently section H). has been imposed, or if they are deemed to be a

security risk. 1. Be aware that about 25% of applications get

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sent back because people don’t respond properly to terviews that could be retraumatizing. It is vital to this section. Gaps will be viewed with suspicion provide counseling or in rare cases accompani- by Immigration and they will require clarification. ment in order to assist the client. In cases of se- Explain to the client that they must account for all vere traumatization it can be useful to contact Im- their time, including the time they spend as stu- migration before the interview and advise them of dents, periods when they were displaced in their the client’s condition. Bear in mind that while we own country or in refugee camps and time spent in can contact Immigration and advise them of the a first country of asylum. situation, we have no access to CSIS interviewers Be aware that in some countries the addressing sys- or staff and it could be counter productive to at- tem is totally different from ours and that this could tempt to contact CSIS. cause problems for Immigration. If necessary at- tach an explanation about the addressing system A situation may develop where limbo persists be- used. yond several years on security grounds. If you can find no reason for ongoing delays, access the Security and affiliation with file through an Access to Information request. organizations: This may take some time but it can help you deter- mine the major obstacle to landing. In one case of Applicants will be required to list all organizations a CCVT client, we learned that he had been ruled with which they were affiliated in their country of inadmissible. Learning this sort of information origin as well as all current affiliations (currently can help you make decisions about strategy and section I). There have been instances where clients family re-unification. are held in limbo because they are considered secu- Consider having a lawyer file a mandamus motion rity risks or suspected of affiliation with a terrorist with the Federal Court if limbo continues and a organization. decision does not appear forthcoming. A manda- Advise the client to list all organizations with mus motion, if successful, forces Immigration to which they were affiliated, including professional render a decision about eligibility on security organizations and unions. grounds. A successful motion does not guarantee landing, but it does force the department to make a There can be a lot of misunderstanding about the decision. meaning of affiliation and it is important to clarify how the client understands this. It is important to Background checks: keep what is said in the PIF in mind. Some clients Once all the information is submitted, Immigra- think that affiliation means sympathy or support tion will conduct a background check on the appli- without actual membership or tangible participation cant and all children over the age of 18. Back- in particular activities. Affiliation typically re- ground checks typically take approximately one quires something like actively working for the year, though in certain cases and for certain coun- group, handing out pamphlets, attending meetings tries, they can take much longer. No one is acces- etc. sible during the background check and there is nothing that can be done but to wait. If Immigra- It may be necessary to get information from experts tion requires clarification, they will contact the to back up clients’ testimonies. There are cases client. Should this occur, advise the client to re- where clients were affiliated with groups that were spond immediately and clarify the details. It may violent at one time but by the time the client joined be helpful to explain that the government wants a were peaceful. Immigration Canada and CSIS society free from violence and because newcom- work from limited sources and it can be necessary ers have always lived outside of Canada, it takes to provide additional detailed information. time for the government to be sure they are not a risk. In addition, consider explaining that Canada Clients could be required to go through several in- must be sure that it is not being used as a safe ha-

Winter 2007 13 First Light

ven for war criminals. This is a very sensitive and problematic area. If a client is convicted of a crime punishable by a If family is overseas, emphasize the need for a minimum of 10 years in prison, they can be or- permanent address. Some clients may be reluctant dered removed. If they are convicted of any crime for security reasons, or there simply may not be an more than once they can be posed as a danger to address available. Explain that these addresses public security and denied landed status. The facilitate background checks, and urge the client usual process in such situations is to simply keep to make this clear to the family if this is possible. the individual in limbo, as it is very difficult to As previously mentioned, the family’s own ad- remove someone to a country of origin from dress is preferable to that of friends or extended which they have been determined to be a refugee. relatives. If after careful consideration you determine that If no news is given after 18 months, Immigration the situation warrants it, work with the client's should be contacted. Normally, nothing can be lawyer to draft a letter of support for the client. done by the officers you contact via the automated You could provide background information on the telephone system, but occasionally these officers client's case, the impact of torture, and the poten- can mark a file urgent and press for action. Once tial immigration ramifications if the charge pro- the location of the file is determined, the CCVT ceeds. Such a letter could be used by the lawyer writes to Immigration, explaining the special con- to help persuade the court to drop the charges. dition of the client as a survivor of torture and re- questing that the landing process be expiditied in In order to protect the client's chances of receiving order assist with rehabilitation. landed status in the future, it will be necessary to work closely with the lawyer and the client In cases where a family has children who are close throughout the process. If the client must attend to turning 18, they should be instructed to apply as court dates, ensure that they understand the proc- soon as possible after receiving refugee status in ess and what they will be required to do. Given order to avoid prolonging limbo. Remember that the fear and suspicion with which many torture every child who is eighteen or over during the survivors view the police, it may be necessary to landing process must undergo a background arrange for someone to accompany the individual check. A family at the CCVT had been in Canada to court appearances. During these interactions for 6 years, when one of their children turned 18 with the police and the legal system in general it during the background checks of the parents. The may be necessary to provide for additional coun- family was required to wait while the background seling and support, in order to reduce the chances of the child was carried out. By the time his check of re-traumatization. was completed, the checks of the parents had ex- pired and had to be done again. The family now If the charges are not dropped, and the person is has another child about to turn 18, and risks an- convicted, assess the situation and where appro- other prolonged period of limbo. priate write a letter suggesting probation instead of imprisonment. If the client is successful and is If the background check goes beyond 2 years, given probation, you can work with the probation send the client to his or her MP and ask for sup- officer to continue rehabilitation and work to- port. Also write again to Immigration requesting wards a time when the client can re-start the land- action on the file. ing application process.

What to do if your client is charged Mulugeta Abai is an Executive Director at Cana- with an offense while they are in dian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) and Ezat Mossallanejad is a Settlement Counsellor, limbo: Policy Analyst and Researcher at CCVT.

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Reflections on the Death of a Tyrant

The recent death of Augusto Pinochet provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the horror of his crimes, and the legal ramifications of the attempts to prosecute him. General Pinochet instituted a mili- tary regime in Chile known for its horrific abuse of fundamental human rights following the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. This regime was responsible for killing of over 3,000 of Chileans, while thousands of others suffered torture. In order to escape these abuses, over 30,000 people were forced to flee their country.

Pinochet was able to escape justice for his actions by retaining influence in the Chilean government after leaving power. His later arrest in Britain under a Spanish warrant marked the first time that a living for- mer head of state was formally charged with the crimes against humanity which occurred during their rule. This has had the important effect of creating a legal precedent eliminating executive immunity for these crimes, and served as a precursor for the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. This provides hope that other despots may yet be brought to justice.

The arrest of general Pinochet has also had important implications for international law. His arrest in a foreign country for crimes committed in his own country marked an expansion of the concept of univer- sal jurisdiction, whereby some crimes are of such magnitude that any court in the world may prosecute them. Combined with the removal of executive immunity it appears that a new era has begun in which all dictators must fear facing international justice for the crimes they commit against their own people.

A POET'S UTOPIA

I tell you: As long as someone suffers, the rose cannot be beautiful. As long as someone looks longingly at some bread, the wheat cannot sleep. As long as beggars cry in the night's cold, My heart will not smile. Poets, let us kill all sadness. Let us kill sadness with a stick. There are more worthwhile things to do than cry about love on lost afternoons. The sound of people when they awake, that is more splendid than the dew. The fiery metal of their rage, that is more beautiful than the moon. A person who is truly free, that is more magnificent than a diamond. People have awakened and the fire has fled from its jail of ashes to burn the world where sadness was.

Winter 2007 15 First Light

Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture

The following letter was sent by CCVT to the Government of Canada in December 2006. It out- lines the history and importance of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). It provides an overview of the position that Canada has taken with regard to the OPCAT, emphasiz- ing the support that Canada provided during the early stages of the Protocol’s development and adoption. The letter then goes on to urge the Government to take action to overcome the im- passe between the federal and provincial governments that has impeded Canada’s ratification of the Optional Protocol.

CCVT would like to urge its volunteers and sister organizations to exert similar pressure upon the Government to ratify this essential Protocol. Please feel free to use our letter as a model for any communications you may have with your Member of Parliament regarding the OPCAT. To- gether, we can make our voices heard and put the ratification of the OPCAT back on the agenda of our government.

December 1, 2006

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

I am writing to you to urge that your esteemed government sign and seek ratification of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Optional Protocol or OPCAT). In December 2002 the United Nations adopted the OPCAT, an international instrument that stands to make an important contribution to pre- venting torture and ill-treatment worldwide. The OPCAT lays out a framework for regular national and international level inspections of detention centres, with a view to identifying and remedying the condi- tions that encourage and allow torture and ill-treatment to take place.

Based on our experience as an organization involved in the rehabilitation of torture survivors, we strongly believe that an effective inspection mechanism can make a significant difference in reducing and preventing the crimes of torture at a global level. It is disheartening that in the first decade the new millennium, the practice of torture appears to be more widespread than ever. All over the world, torture is used by tyrannical governments as a means of extracting information or confessions, as well as a tool of mass intimidation and political repression. The struggle to eradicate torture and ill-treatment remains one of the most serious human rights chal- lenges the world faces today. It is a global struggle, with important implications for Canadians. Recent cases such as Zahra Kazemi in Iran, William Sampson in Saudi Arabia, and Maher Arar in Syria are stark reminders that Canadian citizens themselves may be subjected to torture abroad. There have also been domestic concerns, such as the disturbing abuses that took place in the 1990s at the Prison for

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Women in Kingston and at the Robert-Giffard Psychiatric Hospital in Quebec City in 2003, which un- derscore that other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment can occur in Canada as well.

The Optional Protocol represents an important step in the campaign to eliminate torture worldwide. It is therefore encouraging that international support for the Protocol has been steadily building. Fifty-five countries have signed it. Twenty-nine governments have formally ratified it, among them, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The OPCAT entered into force on 22 June 2006, and the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture will be established on 18 December 2006 to oversee its imple- mentation. The Subcommittee will be the first international expert body with jurisdiction to carry out inspections of detention centres with the express objective of preventing torture.

Canada is not among those states represented on the Subcommittee, nor is it currently involved in defin- ing the Subcommittee’s working methods and practices. Indeed, as a non-signatory to the Optional Pro- tocol, Canada has very little role to play. This is in stark contrast to the leadership that Canada showed during the early stages of the Protocol’s development and adoption. Canada played a very progressive role in the UN working group on the Optional Protocol, and voted in favor of it at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 22 April 2002, and at the UN General Assembly, on 18 December 2002.

We understand that Canada’s delay in ratification of the Optional Protocol has been largely related to problems of implementation. The focus of the OPCAT is the regular inspection of prisons and detention centres that are predominantly under provincial jurisdiction, and ratification of the Protocol accordingly requires the approval of all of the provinces and territories. The negotiations between federal and pro- vincial governments however do not appear to have reached any positive outcome. Nearly four years have passed since Canada voted in favor of the Optional Protocol at the UN General Assembly. It is time to break the deadlock between the federal government and the provinces, and to come to an agree- ment, as was done with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Canada cannot play an effective global leadership role in the prevention of torture without ratification of this crucial international instru- ment.

We urge you to stand by Canada’s commitment to the global promotion of human rights, and to revive the deliberations on Canada’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The matter cannot be delayed any longer.

Thank you for your consideration of this fundamental international human rights problem. We would welcome an opportunity to discuss the issue further with you or with your respected representatives.

With warm regards and in the hope of hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Mulugeta Abai Executive Director

Winter 2007 17 First Light

Canadian Security Certificate

February 12, 2007

Re: Canadian security certificate detainees ; Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Hassan Almrei

Dear Hon. Stockwell Day,

We at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture are writing to you out of growing concern about the detention of Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei, who are being held at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre. Mr. Jaballah, Mr. Mahjoub and Mr. Almrei have been accused of having terrorist links, but under the national security certificate system, they have been denied access to the evidence upon which they have been detained for over five years.

As a result of desperation and powerlessness, the men have resorted to hunger strikes on numerous occa- sions. In November of 2006, they began another hunger strike, which, as of today, they have maintained for 70 days.

Mr. Jaballah, Mr. Mahjoub and Mr. Almrei have described their indefinite detention as a form of psy- chological torture. They do not know if, or when, they will be released from jail. Nor do they have any means of responding to the allegations against them. Further, your government has maintained that it would be justifiable to deport them to their respective countries of origin, Egypt and Syria, where they will most likely face torture.

Both the conditions of the detention under the security certificate legislation and the possibility of depor- tation to countries that are known to practice torture are legally and morally problematic. By allowing individuals to be detained indefinitely, on the basis of secret evidence, and without charges being laid, the security certificate process infringes upon basic rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, notably the right not to be arbitrarily detained and the right to be informed of the reasons for one’s detention. In addition to offending these core Canadian constitutional principles, the process has been condemned internationally as an affront to democracy and the rule of law. Three United Na- tions committees - the UN Committee against Torture, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the UN Human Rights Committee - have condemned the security certificate process and called on Canada to reform its legislation.

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The United Nations has also raised concerns about Canada’s preference for deporting security certificate detainees rather than subjecting them to the domestic criminal process. Our apparent readiness to deport individuals to countries where they are likely to face torture is a clear contravention of international law, in particular the principle of nonrefoulement enshrined in the Article 3 of the United Nations Convention against Torture, to which Canada is a party. The Supreme Court of Canada, moreover, has noted that the Immigration Act does not provide a short-cut allow for the deportation of a person to a country where she/he will likely be tortured.

Mahmoud Jaballah Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei face credible threats of torture should they be deported to their countries of origin. Yet they cannot be detained indefinitely here in Canada, without being brought to trial in a fair and open proceeding. Their arbitrary and indefinite detention is imposing serious direct and indirect costs on their physical and psychological well being. It is, moreover, taking a toll on Canadian society more broadly, by undermining our very notions of democracy, fairness and rule of law.

We also understand that Mr. Jaballah, Mr. Mahjoub and Mr. Almrei are on a hunger strike in order to protest their conditions of imprisonment as well. We bring your respected attention to the following in- ternational instruments regarding the rights of prisoner and people in detention:

• Body Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Impris- onment (9 December 1988) • Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners (14 December 1990) • Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (31 July 1957) • Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (17 December 1979) • Guidelines on the Role of Prosecutors (adopted by UN Congress in Cuba 27 August to 7 September 1990)

We invoke you to make an urgent intervention in a way that they receive immediate medical attention to prevent further deterioration of their physical and mental health, if not a painful death.

We also urge you to consider our appeals and those of Mahmoud Jaballah , Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei and consider their release on an expedited basis.

Sincerely yours,

Hari Lalla Mulugeta Abai Chair, Board of Directors Executive Director

Hear my heart's prayer, O Humankind! Life is the only treasure. We are the custodians of it. It is our sacred trust. Life is wondrous, awesome, and holy. Life is burning glory And its price is simply this: Courage We must be brave enough to love.

Chief Medicine Story, Wampanoag Nation

Winter 2007 19 First Light Photo Gallery CCVT Public Education & Conferences

Mulugeta Abai, CCVT Executive Director, (left) with US Senator John McCain (right) dur- ing the National Consortium for Sur- vivors of Torture meeting in Washing- ton DC.

Ezat Mossallanejad, CCVT Settlement Coun- sellor, Policy Analyst and Researcher, pre- Teresa Dremetsikas, CCVT Program Coordinator senting his book “Torture in the Age of (right), and Dr. Musisi, CCVT Health Network Fear” to the member of Chinese community in member and Uganda Centre for Victims of Torture Toronto, 2006. consultant left), at Human Rights Defenders Con- ference for East and Horn of Africa, Entebbe, Uganda

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On December 7 and 8, 2006, more than 110 representatives of accredited torture treatment centers from all over the world gathered in Berlin, Germany to participate in the first general assembly of the International Rehabilitation Centre for Torture Victims (IRCT). After the general assembly, the 9th International Symposium on Torture was held from December 9 to December 10 and was at- tended by more than 400 participants from all over the world. The picture above shows representa- tives from Canada and USA. CCVT Executive Director, Mulugeta Abai, participated in the confer- ence as one of delegates (second row left).

CCVT was honoured to organize the first North American premiere of “The Secret Life of Words” on June 26 at the National Film Board in Toronto. Post-screening panel discussion was attended by Cana- dian actress Sarah Polley (left), the president of the IRCT, Dr. Abdel Hamid Afana, (middle left) CCVT Executive Director, Mulugeta Abai (middle right) and actress Arsinee Khanjian (left)

Winter 2007 21 First Light An Interview with Thilaga Jeganathan

By Anja Kortenaar

Working at the Canadian Centre for Victims of Tor- counsellors and helped them to care for them- ture (CCVT) as a receptionist on Monday and Thurs- selves while serving clients with traumatic sto- day mornings has given me the chance to meet and ries. talk to most of the staff. But on Mondays Thilaga works at the Scarborough CCVT Office and on The number of clients Thilaga sees is astonish- Thursdays she is at Store Front. As a result, Thilaga ing. She says, “I see about 200 clients a year, remained a mystery to me though she received more depending on Canada’s annual rate of refugee phone calls than any other employee. Therefore. I acceptance.” That makes approximately 2,600 was glad to have the opportunity to interview her, clients in total! Over the past ten years, Thilaga and finally put a face to the name of one of CCVT’s has seen the clientele change: where they had settlement counsellors. once been mostly Sri Lankans, Somalis, and Central/South Americans, many now come from Thilaga is a calm and wise-looking woman, who has Afghanistan, Africa (Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, worked at CCVT for 13 years now. A Tamil from Sri Burundi, Somalia, and Ethiopia), Iran and Lanka, she says, “I can deal with the situation more Europe (Albania). clearly than another person because I am from a war- torn country myself.” However this does make her a Thilaga says she can have up to four new clients prime candidate for vicarious trauma. Though she has a day, with many more returning clients coming 13 years of experience and is used to hearing stories in to talk to her. Fridays are mainly for meet- that would scar a less experienced listener, some of ings, paperwork and support groups (with the the atrocities she hears about are still new. As a exception of urgent clients) and are generally woman, she finds it especially hard to listen to young quieter since classes aren’t taught. and married women alike speak of gang rape. On Monday through Thursday, you’ll find To avoid vicarious trauma, she tries if possible to Thilaga meeting with clients to give them an shorten interviews or schedule follow-ups if the ac- assessment. She decides whether clients qualify counts get too long or graphic. Together, settlement (according to CCVT’s mandate) for CCVT ser- counsellors form a support group to discuss issues vices. She then makes a plan to help clients that they have dealt with. She says that CCVT’s who qualify, and directs clients to internal ser- flexible hours help her recover from trauma, and that vices (language instruction, computer classes, speaking on the phone to someone outside CCVT befriending programs) or external services usually makes her feel better. CCVT used to have a (doctors if the client is seriously traumatized, psychiatrist visit once a month to debrief with the lawyers in some cases).

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Thilaga with Tamil Senior Group

By virtue of her long experience, she knows imme- Thilaga is in a good position to know what should diately what to do for most clients. Occasionally, be different in Canadian society and to offer ad- however, something new does come up: “I had a vice for change. She says, “I think more medical client the other day that needed a shelter immedi- professionals should have a sense of dedication ately. I had to do research to locate one,” she re- when it comes to newcomers without health insur- calls. She offers counselling on a regular basis and ance plans. More doctors should be more under- tells clients how to upgrade their skills or education standing and do more pro bono work. “Policy- to meet Canada’s standards for employment. makers should make changes in terms of vulner- able groups. Social assistance is too small, and Thilaga’s expertise in the workings of legal clinics health coverage is an issue. This is discrimina- is all the more remarkable when one considers that tion.” Thilaga herself came from Sri Lanka with a general law degree and no work experience. She first We would do well to listen to this remarkable worked at her children’s school, tutoring grade 5 woman. and 6 kids in English and Math. The Vice- Principal gave her information on Canadian legal *Anja Kortenaar is a volunteer at Canadian Cen- services and she managed to secure a volunteer tre for Victims of Torture position as an interpreter at Parkdale Community Legal Clinic. Gradually the lawyers gave her more and more opportunities to work with refugees and immigrants. She began working as a settlement I am a woman committed to a politics of counsellor when another employee went on leave. transliteration, the methodology of a She then worked at the South Asian Women’s Cen- tre and later, part-time, at Flemingdon Neighbour- mind stunned at the suddenly possible hood Services helping social assistance recipients. shifts of meanings-for –which like am- nesiacs in a ward on fire, we must find As if Thilaga doesn’t offer enough already, she also runs support groups. She used to run the African words or burn Women group but now coordinates a group for Sri Olga Broumas, form “Artemis” Lankan Tamil Seniors.

Winter 2007 23 First Light

Hosam

By Emad Abbas

When Hosam was eleven years old, and in the As he left the classroom, Hosam could not stop worrying about the exam. His uneasiness led fifth grade, he was very careless with his lessons. him to stop by the manager’s office window on His father was a hard man, and when he heard that his way out, where he watched the teacher cor- Hosam had failed his religious examination, he was rect the examination papers. He waited until the very upset. He found the idea of failing in our reli- teacher had finished marking all of the papers, gious obligations completely disgraceful. He there- and when he saw him walking toward the door fore called Hosam to him and reprimanded him an- he pretended that he had stopped to tie his shoe- grily. lace. As he walked home from school, Hosam

kept thinking about the teacher, and how he had Hosam was afraid of angering his father again, and not seen him carrying the exams as he left his so the next term he worked diligently at his lessons, office. “They must still be in that room,” he reading them each several times over. But when the thought. time came to write the test, Hosam was so confused

and worried that he forgot most of what he had stud- When he arrived at his street, Hosam saw a ied, and again failed the exam. small child that lived in his neighbourhood. He When Hosam’s father discovered that his son had called the child to him, and asked him to take failed the exam for the second time, he told him, his bag home. The boy protested, and Hosam “come here,” and he rubbed Hosam’s ear. He then offered him ten pounds, and then twenty-five, to warned Hosam that if he failed the next exam, he perform this task. Hosam told the boy that, if would forbid him from going outside and playing his mother asked where he was, to tell her that during the holiday, and would force him instead to he was with a friend and that he would be home stay home and study. Hosam had no desire to spend in one hour. The boy agreed, and Hosam left his holiday in this way, and so he vowed to study him to return to the school. even more dutifully than before. When Hosam arrived at the school, he saw that

the doors were closed and that no one was there Hosam studied as much as he could, but when the except for the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper saw next exam came, he was just as afraid as he was dur- Hosam, and asked him, “why are you here?” ing the previous tests. As the teacher read the ques- Hosam thought for a moment, and then told the tions, Hosam could not stop trembling. He stayed doorkeeper that he had forgotten his bag at the until the very last moment, and was the last student school. “Can I go in and get?” he asked. The to hand in his paper. doorkeeper told Hosam that he could not go

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back into the school. “Oh please, we have an doorkeeper saw him and asked, “What are you do- exam tomorrow and I must have my books to ing, and where is your bag?!” Hosam replied that he study,” Hosam exclaimed. The doorkeeper re- had not found the bag, and suggested that one of his fused, saying that the rules forbade it. Hosam friends may have found it and taken it to his house. offered to give the doorkeeper half of his money “Then go to your house and don’t come here except if he would let him into the school. The door- during regular school hours!” the doorkeeper re- keeper responded by saying that even if Hosam plied. Hosam agreed and left to go home. gave him all of his money, he would not let him in. Hosam continued to implore the doorkeeper, The next day Hosam went to school as usual. When until the latter finally relented, saying “Ok, go in it came time for the religion lesson, all of the stu- and get your bag, but be quick, and come straight dents were excited to learn their results from the back.” exam, except for Hosam, who sat alone and silent. The teacher told the class that the results were very Hosam walked into the school, and went directly good, and that they should applaud for Hosam in to the manager’s office. His hands were trem- particular, because he had scored 120% on the bling as he tried to open the door. The door was exam. The rest of the students were very confused locked, and he could not see any way into the about how this had happened. office except through the window through which he had seen his teacher earlier on. The teacher then asked Hosam to follow him to the Hosam tried to enter through the window leading manager’s office. He told Hosam that he knew that with his right leg, but he quickly realized that this he had changed his marks. He said that if he admit- was impossible. He then tried to push through ted what he had done, he would help him, but if he with his shoulder, but this too did not work. Fi- refused and remained silent, he would tell his father nally, he climbed through leading with his head that he had cheated. and one of his shoulders. He fell down into the office, bringing one of the window curtains down This frightened Hosam, as he knew that his father with him. would be very angry to learn what had happened. So Hosam told his teacher exactly what he had done, He quickly got up, and began searching through and begged the teacher, “Please don’t tell my father, the teacher’s desk drawers and bookshelves for or he will punish me.” The teacher agreed not to tell the examination papers. He was not having any Hosam’s father since he had told the truth. But he success until he looked up and saw on the ward- warned Hosam not to do anything like that again. robe the envelope that contained the papers. He shuffled through the papers until he found his The teacher then said that he would correct Hosam’s own. He didn’t understand how the teacher had paper. After a minute he told Hosam, you scored graded the paper, and so he picked up a pen and 80% on your exam, but I will only give you 70%, in started to randomly add points in the margins of order that you will learn from what you have done. his exam. For instance, when he saw a note of 5 Hosam nodded in understanding, and after that day, in the margin, he made it a 10, and when he saw he became one of the most diligent students in his a 0 he made it a 5. class.

Hosam soon heard the doorkeeper calling for *Emad Abbass is a client of the Canadian Centre him, and so he returned the exam to the envelope for Victims of Torure. and its original place on the wardrobe. He tried to leave through the door, but found it locked. He then scrambled out the window through which he had entered, and fell on the ground outside. The

Winter 2007 25 First Light CCVT Intake Statistics 2005-2006

Source of Referrals

176 200 173 124 135 150 77 100

50 7 7 7414 6 0 l ch cy ita er er nts ian ist ool elf ter ur en sp wy th lie sic og ch S el Ch Ag Ho La O r C hy hol S Sh ity me P yc un or /ps mm F rist Co iat ych Ps

Gender Age Category

Youth 16% Senior 5%

Childd 9%

e %

AdultAd 70% lt Male Female 50% 50%

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Marital Status Employment Skills Common Law 1% Divorced Widowed 4% 7%

Single 38% Married 44%

Unskilled Skilled 46% 54% Seperated 6%

Education Category

Post graduate 2% Illiterate 2% Secondary Post secondary 43% 34%

Primary 19%

Type of Torture Client Referral

Psychological Both 52% 47% Psychologist/psyc hiatrist Medical 10% 6%

Others(in-house Physical programs and 1% services 84%

Winter 2007 27 First Light

Saddam’s Hanging: Metamorphosis of Justice and a Mockery of Human Rights

By Ezat Mossallanejad

of Jahanam, hell, warning him of the tortures On Sunday November 5, 2006, the former awaiting him after death. It was reported that some guards damned him and told him that he had de- Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein was sentenced to stroyed them. Saddam’s execution saddened many death, in a politicized trial, by an Iraqi court. Muslems, as it was carried out at the start of Eid al- On Friday, December 29, 2006, 56 days after Adha, a holy day for all Muslems. his sentence, Hussein was hanged in Baghdad’s

Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah. “The hu- Thousands of people watched the video of Sad- miliating way Saddam´s execution was carried dam’s hanging through the Internet or Aljizireh out violated clearly the human rights law," said TV. It left traumatizing scars on many innocent Philip Alston, an independent expert of the UN people. A client of the CCVT, a victim of Saddam, Human Rights Council, in Geneva. Even the reported that she cried for a long period of time US president George W. Bush said that Sad- after watching the footage. George Bush posed dam could have been hanged in a more digni- Saddam’s hanging "as a milestone on the road to fied way. Iraqi democracy." Alas! A government that is on

the road to democracy should do away with all Similar to all cases of imposition of death pen- remnants of the past including death penalty. alty, Sadam’s hanging was an exhibition of

barbarism. It appeared to be a revengeful act, The death penalty is prohibited under the Second as the guards and those attended his execution Optional Protocol to the UN Covenant on Civil and subjected him to degrading treatment Political Rights and is outlawed in Europe accord- (prohibited under Article 16 of the UN Con- ing to the European Convention on Human Rights. vention against Torture). When the guards led The numbers of countries that have abolished death him to the scaffold, prayer came in a chorus penalty are in the rise and international law is from all sides: “May peace be upon Prophet gradually moving towards its elimination. Sad- Mohammed and his descendents!” Some mem- dam’s revengeful and cruel hanging was reminisces bers of the audience shouted the Arabic word

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The CCVT has served hundreds of Iraqi, Arab and Iranian clients who have suffered under Saddam’s rein of terror. We have recorded cases of the mass murder of an entire family, maltreatment of prison- ers of war, kidnapping and disappearances, brutal torture of political prisoners including merciless beatings, mutilation, burning, water immersion, electric shock, mock executions, beheadings, sex- ual abuse and rape, confinement in deadly concen- tration camps, assassinations and religious persecu- tion. It might be argued that with Saddam’s hang- ing, his victims would heave a sigh of relief. Alas for illusion!

Saddam Hussein was tried for the massacre of 148 of our barbarous antiquity. Shia Muslems in the Iraqi town of Dujail in 1982. The first attempt to bring criminals like Saddam It was posed as an internal Iraqi affair related to Hussein to justice started with the historic Nurem- Shiites. Saddam’s hasty hanging stopped his sec- berg International Military Tribunal. On October ond trial of serious international nature that began 1, 1946, the Nuremberg trial passed its verdict in August 2006. He, along with six co-defendants, against Nazi leaders who were responsible for the was charged with genocide during the Anfal mili- horrible torture, deaths, and extermination of mil- tary operations against Iraqi Kurds by using chemi- lions of innocent people and the destruction of cal and biological weapons. civilization. Out of 22 criminals who stood trial, 11 were hanged. More than sixty years have Saddam was never tried for the multiple crimes of passed since then and humanity has gone a long international nature he had committed during 26 way in terms of human rights. Torture and the years of his tyrannical rule. Let us have a glimpse death penalty are absolutely forbidden by the at some of his heinous crimes: Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The Court never uses these inhuman punishments • Saddam Hussein ascended to power by waging in its prosecution of murdering tyrants, war crimi- a coup against Al-bakr, the then President of Iraq, nals and those who have committed crimes against in July 1979. On August 18, 1979, he ordered mas- humanity. sacre of 21 high-ranking members of the ruling Bath Party. He personally shot some with his pis- We should not forget that Saddam was not just a tol. In the course of his ominous rule of terror, Sad- person. He was represented by a system and he dam murdered 40 of his close relatives including produced a network that still exists. Rather than his brother-in-laws. serving the ideal of justice, his hanging was a pro- • Saddam Hussein waged a war of aggression vocative action. It fanned the fuel of Iraq's sectar- against Iran on September 22, 1980 that continued ian violence between the Shiite majority and for 8 years and resulted in the death of more than Sunni Arabs who support the dictator. Within one million and injury of a similar number of peo- hours of Saddam’s death, at least 80 people were ple from both sides. According to the Iranian docu- killed and dozens wounded in three bombings. ments, Saddam first used chemical weapons More than 3000 members of the U.S. military against Iran on January 13, 1981 and continued to have been killed since the coalition invasion of do so in the course of the war, Iraq in March 2003. • During Iran-Iraq war, Saddam used chemical

Winter 2007 29 First Light

The War Prayer

Mark Twain

The celebrated American writer Mark Twain dictated this piece around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere. The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine- American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed.

offended no more in that way. It was a time of great exalting excitement. The Sunday morning came – next day the battalions country was up in arms, the war was on, in every would leave for the front; the church was filled; the breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy martial dreams – visions of the stern advance, the pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flash- and spluttering; on every hand and far down the ing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the en- receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies veloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, wel- daily the young volunteers marched down the comed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and happy and envied by the neighbors and friends who sweethearts cheering them with voice choked with had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the of honor, there to wing for the flag, or, failing, die packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest inter- first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ vals with cyclones of applause, the tears running burst that shook the building, and with one impulse down their cheeks the while; in the churches the the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in

our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits sword! that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a

doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such Then came the “long” prayer. None could remem- a stern and angry warning that for their personal ber the like of it for passionate pleading and mov- safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and ing and beautiful language. The burden of its sup-

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plication was, that an ever-merciful and benig- step aside – which the startled minister did – and took nant Father of us all would watch over our no- his place. During some moments he surveyed the ble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and en- spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which courage them in their patriotic work; bless burned and uncanny light; then in a deep voice he them, shield them in the day of battle and the said: hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in “I come from the Throne – bearing a message form the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a grant to them and to their flag and country im- shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no atten- perishable honor and glory – tion. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire An aged stranger entered and moved with slow after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes import – that is to say, its full import. For it is like fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, more than he who utters it is aware of – except he his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to pause and think. his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, even to ghastliness. With all eyes following “God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has him and wondering, he made his silent way; he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s is two – one uttered, the other not. Both have reached side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the preacher, unconscious of his presence, contin- spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this – keep it in ued his moving prayer, and at last finished it mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, beware! Lest without intent you invoke a curse upon “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the bless- our God, Father and Protector of our land and ing of rain upon your crop, which needs it, by that act flag!” you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbors’s crop, which may not need rain and can The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to be injured by it.

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weapons, including mustard gas and nerve poisons, 2006). from 1983 to 1988, against both Iraqi Kurds and the Iranians as a result of which some 30,000 peo- Far from serving human rights ideal, Saddam ple died. His crime of genocide against his own hanging turned a monstrous tyrant into a martyr Kurdish people led to the destruction of 2,000 of mythical nature. People in Sunni-dominated Kurdish villages and in total killed at least 50,000 Tikrit lamented Saddam’s death: “The president, Kurds, and probably as many as 200,000. the leader Saddam Hussein, is a Martyr and God • On August 20, 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait will put him along with other martyrs. Do not be and instigated the Gulf War that continued for 46 sad nor complain because he has died the death days. Before withdrawal from Kuwait, on January of a holy warrior,” said Sheikh Yahya al-Attawi, 16, 1991, Iraqi forces set fire to the Kuwaiti oil a cleric at the Saddam’s big mosque (The To- wells and created an environmental hazard that ronto Star, Sunday December 31, 2006, p. A-2). continues up to present time. In the course of Iraqi occupation of Kuwait some 20,000 people were It is unfortunate that the government of Canada killed and around 100,000 lost their lives as a result maintained a disturbing silence vis-à-vis Sad- of war. dam’s trial and his execution. It is a mockery to At the end of the Gulf War, Hussein suppressed the millions of his victims who were denied justice movement of Iraqi Kurds for autonomy, as a result by their victimizer’s half-hearted trial and hasty of which 30,000 people lost their lives and many execution. This is against the Canadian human more thousands escaped to the Turkish and the Ira- right records; remember 1988, when Canada re- nian borders. The closure of borders by the govern- sisted pressures from the U.S government and ment of Turkey led to the death of 1000 people per joined most European countries at the UN Sub- day, mostly children. Committee on Human Rights to condemn Sad- dam's regime for the massacre of the Iraqi Kurds Although International Criminal Court (ICC) did in Halabja. not have jurisdiction to try Saddam, it was quite possible to establish an ad-hoc international tribu- With Saddam’s death many secrets will never be nal for his trial through the UN Security Council. revealed. The vicious oppressor and tormenter Unfortunately, a multilateral solution was never died as an innocent victim. Canada was a disap- sought for Iraq. Saddam was tried in a closed-door pointment as it did not raise its voice against the court to hide partnership in his genocide, multiple capital punishment and allowed justice to be dis- war crimes and crimes against humanity. A just and torted. The transformation of justice is perhaps a unbiased trial could have exposed the role of the frightening warning of the direction our human- U.S. administration and its allies, Arab regimes and ity is evolving in. the Iranian government in genocides, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the With special thanks to Aram Keivani Chahi war with Iran and Kuwait, in the course which Hussein was a U.S. ally in close affinity with the *Ezat Mossallanejad is a Settlement Counsellor, former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Policy Analyst and Researcher at Canadian Cen- Saddam’s execution removed the main witness to tre for Victims of Torture his ghoulish crimes. According to an observer, “with the death of Saddam, the secrets that could have emerged at the Halabja trial will probably “Tyranny is the by-product of cow- never come to light. His death will be a relief to ardice because it is only cowardice those in America who feared being exposed for having aided Saddam as he murdered so many of that activates tyranny”. his countrymen.” (The Toronto Star, Dec. 31,

32 First Light First Light Thank you CCVT

- CCVT Annual General Meeting Speech -

By Falis Abdul

On Sunday, the 17th of December, CCVT Annual General Meeting and Holiday Party were both held at the Bickford Centre Cafeteria. What will follow is a speech that was made by one of key- note speakers.

Ladies and Gentlemen: my name is Falis Abdul. I was born in Somalia, Moqadisho in 1992 while the war was going on in my country. Since it wasn’t safe there, my family had to move to a safer place, so we went to Ethiopia. That’s when my grandmother, aunt and I got separated from my parents. In Ethiopia things weren’t really different, life was still hard. We lived in Ethiopia for 7 years and during that time, my family couldn’t work, and one day, we got a wonderful present from Canada. My aunt, who would send us money every month, was able to sponsor us to come to Canada.

In 2003 we arrived in Canada. I was really excited, I thought everything was going to be differ- ent just like in the movies, nice houses, cars, a school where you could get a better education and every- thing was going to be just like I imagined. But when I arrived in Canada everything was not as I ex- pected for. You have to work hard for everything, to get a better house you have to work hard in school, so you can get a nice job and fulfill your dreams. (Just like how people and parents say, “money doesn’t fall from the trees”) I never thought it was going to be this cold here because where I used to live it was always warm.

After I arrived in Canada my aunt introduced me to CCVT and after awhile I started to attend the center and participate. In the homework club, I got help from CCVT staff members and volunteers with my homework. I also used computer labs where I did research for my school projects. I also partici- pated in “take your kids to work day” where I got to spend the day with Mbalu (she is one of the best staff members who helped us with our home work) I saw what CCVT does for our people and I learned something from there too. I can be just like Mbalu and help other people with their problems. I, also took part in the youth round table where it gave me the chance to not only participate but give feedback, talk about how Toronto is right now in these days and what we as youth can do to change and make it a better place and safer. I, also, attended the CCVT holiday party three times in a row. I had a lot of fun; just like you guys are going to have fun today.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I am happy to stand here today 3 years later, and tell you what CCVT has done not only for me but also many other immigrant and people who are new to Canada or need help. I would like to thank CCVT staff members and all volunteers for doing this not only for me but also for all our neighbours, our friends, our community and giving ME the chance to participate and be- ing part of something I’m proud of today and thanks for being part of my life.

Thank you CCVT………THANKS FOR EVERYTHING

*Falis Abdul is a client of Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture

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“You have heard your servant’s prayer – the uttered help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn words the other part of it – that part which the pastor them out roofless with their little children to – and also in your hearts – fervently prayed silently. wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the was so! You heard these words: ‘Grant us the vic- sun flames of summer and the icy winds of win- tory, O Lord our Go!’ That is sufficient. The whole ter, broke in spirit, worn with travail, imploring of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it – words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their have prayed for victory you have prayed for many hopes, blight the lives, protract their bitter pil- unmentioned results, which follow victory – must grimage, make heavy their steps, water their way follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listen- with their tears, stain the white snow with the ing spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the prayer. He commandeth me to the put it into words. spirit of love, of Him who is the Source of Love, Listen! and who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with hum- Oh Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our ble and contrite heats. Amen. hearts, go forth to battle – be Thou near them! With them – in spirit – we also go forth from the sweet (After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody waits.” shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help It was believed afterward that the man was a lu- us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks natic, because there was no sense in what he said. of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire;

And let the daughters of uneducated women dance…. And let them sing, “We have done with war! We have done with tyranny!” and their mothers will laugh from their graves, “it was for this that we suffered obloquy and contempt! Light up the windows of the new house, daughters! Let them blaze!”

Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas

34 First Light First Light The U. S. Military Commissions Act of 2006

By Petra Okeke

The United States of America seems to have its Unfortunately, the USMCA does not apply out- own definition for what torture and other cruel side of the United States. It seems that the treatment mean. This is evident in the United United States does not intend to implement the States Military Commissions Act of 2006 Act in places like Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, (USMCA). The Act in many words tries to de- where people have previously been subjected to criminalize torture and its use for the benefit of torture. USMCA provides the government with the United States, while justifying the use of tor- unrestricted power to determine what can be con- ture in the interrogation of prisoners. strued as torture and who should receive it. The US administration can define infliction of pain as Section 948 r of the Act speaks on the use of tor- a justifiable process of interrogation, if it is for ture in acquiring evidence that can be presented the benefit of the country. against an accused person. Looking at this section, and reading its first subsection, one might begin to Such obvious loopholes are a definite disgrace to regard the act as a bid to discredit the use of tor- the legal system of the USA and a complete sign ture and encourage other forms of interrogation. of disregard and disrespect for the intelligence of However, on closer scrutiny, there seems to be the rest of the world. The Universal Declaration some vagueness in the use of words which allow of Human Rights uses the word ALL to refer to loopholes that could permit torture. each and every human person. The USMCA goes against this and other instruments that acknowl- David Luban, a professor at the George University edge the inherent dignity of every human person. refers to these loopholes as ‘military necessity’. He criticizes President Bush’s definition of hu- *Petra Okeke is a 4th year Bachelor of Social mane as the provision of food, water and shelter. Work Student from St. Thomas University doing According to Luban such a statement makes any- her placement at CCVT. thing outside of these three provisions not applica- ble. In other words, once we provide people with References: these three things, we have satisfied the need to be United States Military Act of 2006 humane, every thing else that we do does not http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi? count. He also points out the President’s direct dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s3930enr.txt.pdf reference to the military while making the state- Torture-American Style. David Luban. Washington ment, leaving out other bodies such as the CIA. Post. November 27 2005. This might mean that this order for the humane http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ treatment of prisoners does not apply to such bod- article/2005/11/25/AR2005112501552_2.html ies.

Winter 2007 35 First Light Regional Report

Seeing Past the Smoke

By Paulina Wyrzykowski

weapons and drove pick-up trucks they could only In a noisy coffee shop in downtown Cairo a have obtained from the government. However, the friend shows me photos of a burned-out village. summer of 2003 was also the summer of the peace In one, a dead and bloated donkey lies in the dirt talks between the Sudan People Liberation Move- with stiff legs pointing up at the sky. In another, ment (SPLM) and the Khartoum government, and a row of dead bodies is lined up along the so all eyes were on Naivasha, all hopes pinned on ground, cocooned in white fabric. It’s the sum- ending the decades long civil war in the South. No- mer of 2003, several months after the Darfur up- body wanted to hear bad news coming out of Dar- rising began, and my friend, himself a refugee fur. from Darfur, is starting an NGO called the “Darfur Organization for Human Rights”. His Since then pictures of refugee camps in Chad and goals are straightforward: to disseminate infor- stories of bombed out villages have begun to ap- mation from the refugees who manage to make it pear on our TV screens with greater regularity, but to Egypt about the killings that are being perpe- this publicity has to date resulted in little effective trated in Sudan and to make sure that the names action being taken to end the conflict. The fledgling of people disappeared or killed and of the vil- African Union peacekeeping force was sent into lages destroyed make it out to the rest of the Darfur with insufficient resources and a weak man- world. date(1). The UN has threatened sanctions against Darfur, but these have consistently been blocked by What I remember most about this time is a lack countries such as China and Russia(2). In September of media interest in the events taking place in 2004, Colin Powell declared the killing in Darfur a Darfur. The information was there; I edited the genocide(3), but to date this term has not been reports and pored over lists of those killed, adopted by the UN and has carried with it no visi- watched amateur videos of shaken villagers re- ble consequences for the Sudanese government(4). counting that the janjaweed carried automatic

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Amidst the inaction, a rhetoric has emerged lation against another. During the twenty year long which plays neatly into the hands of the Khar- civil war in the South the rallying call was religion; toum government. The conflict in Darfur involves the Khartoum government went out of its way to complex historical relations. The conflict in Dar- “sell” the war to the Muslim population as a jihad, fur is a complex regional issue. The complexity of and frequently used soldiers from other marginal- the conflict should not be underestimated. On a ized regions such as Darfur or the Nuba mountains surface level, these assertions are true; any situa- as cannon fodder(5). Despite the government’s con- tion that involves people killing each other is tinued denials, by now there remains little doubt likely to be complex, and most genocides have that Khartoum is using similar tactics in Darfur by historical underpinnings. arming and lending air support to the nomadic “Arab”(6) tribes, then encouraging them to attack It would be a mistake, however, to use complex- their “African” neighbors(7). ity as an excuse for inaction, to conclude that because the conflict is complex, it should be left Aware that flat denial of atrocities is no longer pos- to run its own course. Complexity must not be- sible, in recent months the Khartoum government come an excuse for impunity. has instead sought to downplay the numbers and The politicians in Khartoum, headed by Omar adopted a strategy of billing the ongoing killing as Hassan al Bashir and the National Congress a complex regional problem requiring a regional Party, are not amateurs. They are shrewd political solution(8). Thus far, the Sudanese government has manipulators who have managed to stay in power successfully played on African fears of Western since 1989 despite numerous challenges and an imperialism and has opposed any UN proposals to overwhelming dissatisfaction with their policies take part in Darfur peacekeeping activities as an among the Sudanese. Frequently, they have done attempt to “recolonize” Sudan. so by skillfully playing one segment of the popu-

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The most recent example of Khartoum’s diplomatic interests. The regime will instead prevaricate, stall maneuvering began in November 2006, when the and lie outright in the hope that while the interna- UN announced that a deal had been reached which tional community ponders the complexities in- would allow a joint African Union - United Nations volved, Khartoum’s henchmen will have sufficient peacekeeping force to intervene in Darfur(9). time to eliminate the civilian “African” population Shortly afterwards, Sudan’s Foreign Minister Lam that it sees as loyal to the rebels. Akol insisted that “there should be no talk about a mixed force”, and Defence Minister Abdel Rahim The photographs of bodies I saw in that coffee Mohamed Hussein stated that if a UN peacekeep- shop over three years ago were real. The villages ing force was sent to Darfur, the region would be- in Darfur did not bomb themselves. Hundreds of come an “invaders’ graveyard”.(10) Meanwhile, as thousands of people are no less dead because their reports flew back and forth as to what, if anything, government won’t acknowledge its complicity in the Sudanese government agreed to, and UN offi- the matter. When a woman is raped on the way to cials scrambled to salvage the remnants of the deal collect firewood, it is because someone, some- along with their own credibility, Khartoum took the where, made the callous calculation that it is in his opportunity to embark on a renewed campaign of or his government’s interest to chase her off the violence against civilians in Darfur.(11) Since then, land and make sure she is left too damaged to Al Bashir and the UN have played a game of cat- complain. To stop the rapes and the killing it is and-mouse, with the Sudanese government first necessary to look beyond the smokescreen thrown appearing to agree to a deal, then reversing its posi- up by a ruthless and self-interested regime and ask tion or voicing reservations that would effectively ourselves how it can be held accountable for its gut the agreement.(12) actions.

It’s time to look past the smoke and mirrors and *Paulina Wyrzykowski is an Immigration and acknowledge that the Khartoum government has no Refugee lawyer practicing in Toronto. She is a interest in resolving the conflict in Darfur until the member of CCVT legal network. region has been successfully “cleansed” of any group capable of resisting its policies. The issues underlying the Darfur conflict may be complex, but they are not incomprehensible. First and foremost among them is the Khartoum government’s drive to "War implies social polarization, the retain control of the country at any cost. It is no accident that the Darfur uprising began just as the displacement of groups toward op- government was about to concede greater auton- posite extremes. A critical split is omy to the South. Having been marginalized for produced in the framework of coexis- decades by the racist policies of the Khartoum gov- ernment, the Darfuris sought also to assert their tence, leading to a radical differen- rights, and in so doing became a threat to Khar- tiation between 'them' and 'us'… toum. Fearing similar rebellions throughout the People, actions and things are no country (for instance, among the similarly margin- alized Beja(13)), Khartoum cracked down with a longer valued in and of them- vengeance by arming local “Janjaweed” militias selves….Thus the basis for daily in- and encouraging them to attack the ethnically Afri- teraction disappears.” can population(14). The Khartoum government will therefore resist allowing a peacekeeping force ca- pable of ending the conflict in Darfur into the re- Ignatius Martin-Baro gion because to do so would run counter to its own

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Notes: 1. The Successes and Shortcomings of the African Union in Darfur, The Brookings Institution, November 8, 2005 2. Time to Focus on the Real Choices in Darfur, washingtonpost.com, Stephen Morrison and Chester A. Crocker, November 7, 2006 3. Powell declares genocide in Sudan, BBC News, September 9, 2004 4. UN 'rules out' genocide in Darfur, BBC News, January 31, 2005 5. Why Khartoum wants a war in Darfur, Sudan Tribune, Ali Ali-Dinar, July 30, 2004 6. I use the terms “Arab” and “African” in quotations since the terms are highly politicized in the Sudanese context and do not necessarily correspond to definitions employed in the West. 7. Darfur Documents Confirm Government Policy of Militia Support, A Human Rights Watch Briefing Paper, July 20, 2004 8. AU extends Darfur troops mandate, BBC News, 21 September, 2006 9. Tentative Pact Set on Joint Force In Darfur, Les Neuhaus, Associated Press, November 17, 2006 10. Sudan accepts UN 'help' in Darfur, BBC, November 17, 2006 11. Sudan accepts UN 'help' in Darfur, BBC, November 17, 2006,BBC, Saturday, 18 November 2006 12. UN envoy hopeful on Darfur peace, BBC January 12, 2007 13. Eastern Sudan tempts Darfurian fate, International Relations and Security Network, March 7, 2006 14. Darfur; the Ambiguous Genocide, Gerard Prunier, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 2005, pg. 106

Philippine Anti-Torture Act of 2006

On January 29th, 2007, the Philippine Congress approved Bill 5846, also known as the Anti Torture Act of 2006. The landmark bill criminalizes torture, impos- ing penalties on any member, officer or official in the armed forces or police found violating the law. The Act classifies torture as physical, mental and psy- chological, and provides for legal assistance, protection, rehabilitation and lim- ited monetary compensation to victims of torture and their families. The bill also makes liable for torture any person who witnesses or is present during an act of torture.

Winter 2007 39 First Light

Afghanistan: An Ongoing Struggle for Survival

By Ima Madadi

There are millions of refugees around the world, When the Afghan refugees speak about themselves, they do not use scattered by conflict and natural disaster. These are the Persian term for ‘refugees’— people who have faced harrowing risks in fleeing panohand—but ‘travelers,’ muha- their country and getting to supposedly more jereen. In doing so they express friendly neighbouring countries or territories where their desire to return, as well as they are unfortunately often kept in detention or their hopes that the circumstances without permanent protection, waiting long years in that drove them into exile will end a limbo land of uncertainty. in the foreseeable future(2).

The legal and generally observed international defi- Without a doubt, Afghanistan’s internal and ex- nition of a refugee is set out in Article 1 of the 1951 ternal conflicts have led to decades of civil unrest Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the complete breakdown of the state structure (Refugee Convention)(1). as well as to the displacement of over twenty per-

cent of the country’s population, the largest refu- The Afghan people are surely no strangers to the gee population worldwide(3). While the vast ma- above-mentioned way of life. Although, it must be jority of Afghans are in neighbouring states, par- said that an Afghan would not define him or herself ticularly Iran and Pakistan, they can be found in in such legal or generally accepted definitions of nearly every corner of the world, from the former what it means to be a refugee. In her study of Af- Soviet Union to Europe, North America, Austra- ghans living in Pakistan, Inger Boesen discusses the lia and beyond. Afghan definition of being a refugee:

In 2002, after decades of ravages of war and years of human rights violations, devastating drought, and environmental degradation, the Af-

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ghan people saw a glimpse of hope after the U.S. Nations High Commissioner for Refugees led coalition forces defeated the Taliban regime (UNHCR) spokesperson, Jennifer Pagonis ex- and launched a tentative process of nation- pressed concerns about the increasing number of building in Kabul, establishing a new, interna- people internally displaced in southern Afghanistan tionally supported government. as a result of recent hostilities between government forces, NATO and insurgents. Since July, an esti- Consequently, although millions of refugees con- mated 15,000 families have been displaced in the tinued to live in exile in Iran, Pakistan, and southern provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Hel- around the world, millions also returned home, in mand. This fresh displacement adds new hardship particular since 2001(4). Many of those who re- to a population already hosting 116,400 people ear- turned reportedly found conditions in Afghani- lier uprooted by conflict and drought. stan very difficult and tens of thousands wound up in camps for internally displaced people. Ac- Indeed 2006 has been one of the bloodiest years for cording to the World Refugee Survey 2003, the Afghans since the United States and its allies international community failed to deliver two helped oust the Taliban from power. Southern Af- essential elements of post-war reconstruction and ghanistan has degenerated into open warfare, plac- sustainable refugee reintegration: security be- ing Afghan civilians at risk of direct injury as all yond Kabul and sufficient reconstruction assis- parties to the conflict have unlawfully killed civil- tance. ians though International humanitarian law sets clear rules on the conduct of hostilities that are de- More recently, at a press briefing, on October 3, signed to protect civilian lives to the maximum ex- 2006, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, United tent possible(5).

Winter 2007 41 First Light

It is imperative to note that the insurgents are not the only source of insecurity in Afghani- Notes: 1. “… owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for rea- stan. The so-called internationally supported sons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particu- government led by President Hamid Karzai’s lar social group or political opinion, is outside the country of administration is also failing to address con- his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is un- tinuing human rights problems in the country. willing to avail himself of the protection of that country; or In southern Afghanistan, tribal chiefs, such as who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the former gov- unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.” ernor of Helmand province who was removed United Nations Treaty Collection [as of 5 February 2002], due to allegations of corruption and involve- 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees Partici- ment in the drug trade, have been allowed to pants, adopted July 28, 1951 (entered into force April 22, 1954) (accessed February 19, 2005); available at http:// operate private militias with the blessing of www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/treaty2ref.htm President Karzai. Warlords with records of war 2. Inger W. Boesen (1990), “Honour in exile: continuity and crimes and serious abuses during Afghanistan’s change among Afghan refugees,” in The Cultural Basis of civil war in the 1990s, such as parliamentarians Afghan Nationalism, eds., Anderson, Ewan and Dupree, Abdul Rabb al Rasul Sayyaf and Burhanuddin Nancy Hatch, Oxford: University of Oxford, Refugee Stud- ies Programme, 160. Rabbani, Army Chief of Staff General Abdul Rashid Dostum, and current Vice President 3. Sarah Petrin (2002), “Refugee Return and State Reconstruc- Karim Khalili, continue to hold and misuse tion: A Comparative Analysis,” UNHCR, New Issues in positions of power. Refugee Research, Working Paper No. 66, 1 (accessed Janu- ary 7, 2005); available at http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/ vtx/publ. The international community at large must in- tensify efforts to respond to the humanitarian 4. For example, in 2003 alone, UNHCR assisted approximately emergency inside Afghanistan and in the 142,000 Afghans to return home from Iran and about neighbouring countries, which together already 125,000 returned on their own. And, over 343,100 Afghans repatriated from Pakistan under UNHCR’s guidance in host the largest refugee population in the 2003. U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants world. Ongoing conflict ensures that such (USCRI), Iran: World Survey 2004 Country Report, population displacement continues until rela- (accessed March 18, 2005); available at http:// tive peace and security allow the people of Af- www.refugees.org/countryreports.aspx? area=investigate&subm=19&ssm=29&cid=118; U.S. Com- ghanistan to go home. Working to end poverty mittee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), Pakistan: and suffering in Afghanistan and around the World Survey 2004 Country Report, (accessed March 18, world will give countless innocent people hope 2005); available at http://www.refugees.org/ for a brighter future. countryreports.aspx? area=investigate&subm=19&ssm=29&cid=149.

*Ima Madadi is a CCVT Board Member 5. International humanitarian law: There are clear rules on the conduct of hostilities that are designed to protect civilian lives to the maximum extent possible. The Geneva Conven- tions of 1949 and Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Con- ventions of 1949, relating to the Protection of Victims of War is about Profits and International Armed Conflict (Protocol I) prohibit any direct Losses attacks on civilians or civilian objects. Protocol I also in- What else could warrant cludes prohibitions on certain types of attacks which, while the expense aimed at a military target, have an indiscriminate or dispro- War fills the coffers of the portionate impact on civilians. The principal provisions on rich, the protection of civilians codified in Protocol I reflect cus- War fills the coffins of the tomary international law regarding international armed con- poor. flict and are thus binding on all states.

An old Quaker woman

42 First Light First Light Book Review

25 Years Rebuilding Lives: United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

over the past twenty-five years and examines In June 2006, the United Nations Office of the how it functions today. Statements of past and present members of the Fund’s Board of Trus- High Commissioner for Human Rights launched a tees provide an illustration of issues that require new book, Rebuilding Lives. The book was pub- more attention in the future and suggestions as lished to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the to how to improve the Fund’s operations and United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Tor- responsiveness in order to best serve victims of ture. The Fund provides financial support to organi- torture. zations around the world that provide rehabilitative

services to victims of torture and their families. The The book is available in English, French and overarching aim of the Fund is to contribute to the Spanish and includes a foreword by the United eradication of torture by focusing on the protection Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and promotion of the rights of victims. Louise Arbour.

Rebuilding Lives focuses on five fund-supported

projects currently underway in Australia, Bosnia and

Herzegovina, Chile, Pakistan and Rwanda. These projects are described in articles accompanied by a series of photographs. The book also presents the experiences of torture survivors and those who work to rehabilitate them in various fund-supported or- ganizations.

Additionally, the book includes three background chapters on fundamental issues relating to torture. The first of these concentrates on the legal definition of torture under international law and the local, na- tional and international mechanisms through which torture can be addressed and eliminated. The sec- ond chapter examines the medical diagnosis of tor- ture and the long-term physical and psychological implications of torture for victims. It also tackles the challenging question of why and how torture occurs. Lastly, the third chapter details the develop- ment of the Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture

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Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar - Factual Background

The Commission of Inquiry into the Actions Qaeda. The Commissioner concludes that it was highly likely that the American officials relied upon of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar the information provided by the RCMP when mak- was established in February 2004 under Part I of ing their decision to detain Mr. Arar and to deport the Inquiries Act. In September 2006, the Com- him to Syria. However, he notes that Canadian offi- mission released its final report on the matter, cials did not directly participate in or acquiesce to entitled Report of the Events Relating to Maher the American decision. Finally, the Commissioner Arar. The Report consists of two parts, the first finds that upon Arar’s return to Canada, the govern- of which presents the Commissioner’s analysis ment acted in ways to damage Mr. Arar’s reputation and recommendations, and the second of which and to downplay the mistreatment that he suffered. summarizes the factual findings of the Commis-

sion. The Factual Background contains information taken

from the testimony of over 70 government officials In his Analysis and Recommendations, the Com- and some 6,500 government documents that were missioner summarizes his conclu- entered as exhibits. It details the events sions under four main headings: that occurred before, during and after first, information sharing prior to Mr. Arar’s detention in New York and Mr. Arar’s detention, second, Mr. his subsequent deportation and impris- Arar’s detention in New York and onment in Syria. The report also en- removal to Syria, third, his impris- deavors to explain the organizational onment and mistreatment in Syria, and policy contexts in which these and fourth, the period after his re- events occurred, with particular empha- turn to Canada. sis on the contexts that shaped the ac-

tions of Canadian officials. The Commissioner finds that there

is no evidence to suggest that Ma- The public version of the report is a har Arar committed an offence or thorough, but occasionally vague and that he at any point constituted a threat to Cana- incomplete account, as it does not include evidence dian national security. He concludes that the that the Commissioner and the Government of Can- RCMP provided American authorities with in- ada have determined to be confidential due to rea- formation about Mr. Arar that was inaccurate sons of national security. From the very beginning, and which portrayed him in an unduly negative the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture sup- fashion, notably by suggesting that he was an ported Mr. Arar by various means including direct Islamic Extremist and that he had links to Al contacts, press release and letter writing.

Now everyone must come And each his torture show Then let’s set a balance His scale will deepest go That hath the greatest sorrow

By Baba Tahir (Iranian poet)

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Torture in the Age of Fear - Reflections from a friend -

With the full collaboration of the CCVT, in September 2005, I published a book in 304 pages on Torture in the Age of Fear. What will follow is an excerpt from a letter I re- ceived from a close friend.

My very dear Ezat,

At last, I completed your book - must say it made extremely dismal and depressing reading. So much so that whenever I tried to narrate some instances from your book to the kids, they howled in protest, saying they did not want to hear it (they knew what it would be). I have ear- marked certain chapters for them to read and it will call for lot of per- suasion to get them to read it.

I can see the phenomenal amount of effort that must have gone into compiling and writing the book. It must have taxed your perseverance too. Above all, it must have been quite an ordeal recounting endless traumas of so many people. I think you have done a yeomen service by extensively documenting so many eye-opening things, which must awaken and shock all of us. Your erudition and extensive reading also comes through these pages.

Unlike the other readers of the book, my involvement was obviously personal, and probably, a few people would be able to appreciate, the finer nuances of some of the things that you have stated, as well as I could.

I felt the book could have done with a little more editing so as to retain the attention of the readers; in some parts, it does drag a bit and at times gets pedagogic too.

The book also gave me an excellent idea and an insight into the work that you have been doing. I am indeed proud of your phenomenal contribution to the lives of so many individuals. As I have said ear- lier, I am amazed at how you could manage to maintain your own sanity amidst so much, really so much, despair, frustrations and misery; indeed hats off to you.

I sincerely hope the book reaches a wider audience.

Khozema Mansure New Mombay India

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CCVT Programs and Services

1. Mental Health • ESL Tutoring and Conversation Circles to help • Counselling students learn and practice their English. • Individual and Group Therapy, Mutual Support • Escorting and interpreting for survivors at different Groups appointments (medical, legal, social). • Crisis Intervention: suicide attempts, breakdowns, 5. Public Education family problems, etc. • responds to numerous requests for information, assis- • Art Therapy tance and consultations on torture and the effects of • Coordinated professional services: doctors, law- torture as well as regularly producing resource materi- yers, social service workers provide treatment, docu- als mentation and legal support 6. Refugees in Limbo 2. Settlement Services • Providing services to refugees in limbo that include • Includes information/orientation, interpretation/ counselling, assisting in sponsorships, family reunifi- translation, counselling, employment-related issues cation and other immigration-related issues. and referrals to resources relating to the economic, 7. Language Instruction and Training social, cultural, educational and recreational facilities that could contribute to the initial settlement of the • LINC/ESL classes specially designed to address the client. needs and realities of the survivor of torture (concentration, memory, depression, triggers) 3. Children/Youth Program: • Computer training: basic and intermediate levels • Intake/assessment, settlement services, mental 8. International Projects: CCVT is associated with a health services, recreational and empowerment ac- coalition of Centres which support victims of violence, tivities that incorporate conflict resolution, mentor- repression and torture, in exile or in their own countries ing, peer support and story-telling 4. Volunteer Program • Befriending to assist survivors in rebuilding their connections to others as well as to the greater com- munity.

Any comments or thoughts about First Light? We warmly welcome letters to the editor!

Just mail your comments to: CCVT 194 Jarvis St. 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2B7 Canada

Or email them to: The Editorial Committee c/o [email protected]

and we’ll do our best to publish them in the next issue. We reserve the right to shorten any letters due to space requirements.

46 First Light First Light

I want to help CCVT respond to the needs of survivors of violent ;YES! oppression who have sought refuge here in Canada.

Canadian Centre for ‰ $20 ‰ $40 ‰ $50 ‰ $150 Victims of Torture

‰ $250 ‰ Other Main Office 194 Jarvis St. 2nd Floor Toronto, ON, M5B2B7 Name Tel: (416) 363-1066 Fax: (416) 363-2122

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E-mail: [email protected] Donate Online! Website: www.ccvt.org Visit www.canadahelps.org

CCVT MONTHLY GIVING PLAN You can pre-authorize small monthly deductions on your credit card. It’s so convenient, most of our Monthly Giving members hardly notice their small monthly donation, but it allows them to contribute more. CCVT can plan better knowing how much money to expect each month. And, because we save on paper and postage, more of your contribution goes directly toward helping torture survivors.

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Winter 2007 47 First Light

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