THURSDAY, AUGUST 16th, 2007, 12 Noon, Sharp!
Demo and Action against CSIS and the SPP
Dorchester Square, Peel metro

As a part of the week of action against the Security and Prosperity Partnership (PSP), the People’s Assembly against Security Injustice (PAASI) invites you to a demonstration to denounce the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) role in the criminalization, harassment, and profiling of refugees, immigrants and non-status people.

Before, and increasingly since September 11th 2001, CSIS has contributed to creating a climate of suspicion, mistrust, and paranoia directed towards specific migrant communities. With the support of the Liberal and Conservative governments and under pressure from the US government, Canadian secret services have intervened in the selection of refugees, immigrants and visitors, creating incriminating and false files, and coercing refugees and permanent residents into spying on their own communities. The security certificate masquerade – with its secret evidence, confessions obtained under coercion and torture and media leaks – is a good illustration of the oppressive and illegal ways in which CSIS works.

CSIS was created in the aftermath of the McDonald Commission that brought to light the criminal activities of the RCMP in the 1970’s. The fiasco surrounding the Air India attack in 1984 was the coup de grace for the RCMP. Despite all this, the RCMP, along with CSIS, was heavily implicated by Judge O’Connor in the deportation and torture of Maher Arar. O’Connor recommended a further inquiry into the cases of El-Maati, Nouredine and Al Malki. In its short history, CSIS has infiltrated unions and has been involved in several scandals of its own.

The SPP is an initiative of the American, Canadian and Mexican states, pushed by corporate interests formalized as the North American Competitiveness Council. These three states and the corporations behind them want to force the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) even further towards economic and security integration. In the short term, this means a series of sectoral agreements focusing on water, food security, transportation of goods, energy, and the environment, with the goal of harmonizing trade between Canada, the US, and Mexico.

As in all free trade agreements, the circulation of goods and services is to be liberalized while immigration, border controls, and labour are further restricted. The SPP goes further: it aims to create a “common security
perimeter” around US, Canada and Mexico.

In the « Homeland Security » era, this integrated security regime promises to usher us fully into the world of CSIS: security for the few and justice for no one, state control and surveillance, racial profiling, the rule of suspicion and fear. Specifically, this means biometrics, agreements on seasonal labour, collaboration on police training, integrated systems of electronic eavesdropping, shared data-banks of personal information, closer relations between security and intelligence forces in the three countries, borders patrolled by drones and sensors, and, of course, coordinated no fly lists. CSIS’s exaggerated and racist “threat assessments” have already helped to prepare the ground for these developments. And its role, within the framework of a reinforced “Fortress North America,” could become more important than ever.

The People’s Assembly against Security Injustice is made up of individuals and groups opposed to the security diversion, to the profiling of immigrant communities and to the repression of dissent.

We also invite you to participate in the Day of Action against the SPP in Montebello, on Monday, August 20th.

Action Supported by:

Apatrides Anonymes
le Comité des sans-emploi Mtl-Centre
No One is Illegal
People’s Commission on Immigration Security Measures
Block the Empire Montréal
the Immigrant Workers Centre
Solidarity across Borders
Tadamon! Montréal