Tonight on the Terrordome: END GUANTANAMO NORTH!

Across North America, the rights of citizens and non-citizens are increasingly under threat during this so-called “War on Terror,” which has become a war on domestic dissent and democracy.

North Americans are being subjected to unprecedented levels and means of electronic surveillance, and in the United States, warrantless searches of private information, mail and conversations have by-passed the law courtesy of the Office of the President. In Canada, detentions, secret trials and deportations of men without proper access to legal defense have become enshrined courtesy of the government’s use of security certificates.

Tonight on The Terrordome, we'll hear from several voices on detentions and the denial of rights, beginning with Mumia Abu Jamal.

We'll also hear from Doug Pritchard of Christian Peacemaker Teams on a demonstration in Edmonton on Thursday to free detainees in what has become known as Guantanamo North. He'll be in a demonstration tomorrow going from Delta Edmonton South (4404 Gateway Blvd.) to the office of MP Rahim Jaffer, beginning at 1 pm and culminating at 2 pm.

Finally, we'll hear a discussion hosted by Radio CKUT in Montreal with Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a child rights activist from Defense for Children International and Adam Hanieh of Sumoud, a political prisoner solidarity group based in Toronto.

The discussion will be led by broadcaster Stefan Christoff from the second annual Free Palestinian Political Prisoners speaking tour organized by Sumoud, which focused on the realities facing Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, specifically child prisoners.

Please visit:

Christian Peacemaker Teams
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty's Freedom Caravan
Close Guantanamo Bay North!

To hear tonight's show, tune in at
6 PM on FM-88, or click on
cjsr.com on the web!
(or click on the link on the upper left)

The recent capture by Palestinian fighters of an Israeli soldier has become known around the world. Less well-known is that the Israeli government has bombed Palestine, including civilians, and kidnapped members of its government. Even less known are the conditions in which Palestinians currently live, including the imprisonment of children.

"Defense for Children International is a Palestinian NGO 'dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child'. Today massive numbers of Palestinian children are being arrested and detained by Israeli forces.

"In the first quarter of 2006 alone, some 350 children were arrested compared to around 700 child arrests in the whole of 2005. 8,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently detained by Israeli authorities, in prisons which major human rights organizations throughout the world.

"According to a 2006 report from Amnesty International, many Palestinian prisoners 'face medical negligence, routine beatings, position torture and strip searches by Israeli prison authorities'. According to recent figures the Palestinian prison population includes 400 children and 100 women detainees."

But don't get too uppity thinking, "Oh, we Canadians are so wonderful." And never, never assume that Israel is alone in such abuses, not in that region, and not in the world.

Although the worst of Canada's crimes were committed during the initial period of invasion, genocide and establishment of permanent, irreversible occupation (they call it "settlement"), crimes are still being committed in our name right now... and sometimes for our financial profit.

For now, a word about Canada's glorious human rights record from Sumoud:

“Many of the almost 14,000 people annually deported from Canada are returning to uncertain fates that may include torture or worse.

“Under the so-called Safe Third Country Agreement, Canada is turning away countless at-risk individuals who subsequently face increased risk of deportation to torture....

“A current MP and potential future leader of the Liberal Party performs moral gymnastics to justify torture.

“The Canadian government is officially linked with the US-based training school for torture, the School of the Americas [better known as the School of Coups and Assassinations], whose graduates have included some of the worst and most notorious human rights abusers in Latin American history.... Two Canadian officers graduated from the ‘School of the Assassins’ in 2004.

“The federal government has yet to come clean on its role in the scores of CIA flights that have landed in Canada since 2001, many of which may be implicated in the deportation to torture program known as extraordinary rendition.

“Upwards of 100 Canadian soldiers are current stationed at Afghanistan's Bagram Air Force Base, home to a detention facility where occupying forces have tortured and murdered detainees in custody. Conditions at Bagram are described as even worse than those at the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Under the current agreement pertaining to treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, Canadian forces regularly hand over detainees to forces known to be involved in torture.

“Canada is one of the few countries in the world that's refused to condemn the illegal US-run detention and torture centre at Guantanamo Bay.

“Canadian police, RCMP, and military have been training Iraqi police and Afghani police. Amnesty International reports that detainees in Iraq continue being tortured with electric shocks and plastic cables. Torture in custody remains a major problem in Afghanistan. What, exactly, are Canadians teaching?

“[The] Spy agency CSIS regularly trades information with torturers, as CSIS officials publicly admitted during the [Maher] Arar Inquiry.

“The Canadian Press reported on January 19, 2006 that Human Rights Watch found "Canada allegedly backed Bush on forced disappearances" and "worked aggressively" to dilute key elements of a United Nations treaty outlawing forced disappearances.

"The story notes 'that [former PM Paul] Martin apparently decided to run interference for the US as a way for Canada to mend strained relations.' Human Rights Watch notes that "disappearances occur when governments seize people without acknowledging their detention, leaving them highly vulnerable to torture or execution."