Dear all,
This is perhaps the fourth email I have received now on Kingston
Immigration Holding Centre in Canada. Three men are being held there
without charge, without trial, without anything but so-called "secret
evidence". Two of them have been on hunger strike for 57 days - and
counting... The third has been on hunger strike for 68 days. Their
reasons for this are detailed below (such as being given no medical
attention for things like Hepatitis C, blood in the urine, or a double
hernia).
After two months with no food, their health is not being monitored,
despite one man this weekend "experiencing great pain that left him
screaming, and a complete lack of control over his body, with
uncontrollable shivering and shaking".
The "holding centre" is run by the Canadian Border Services Agency,
represented by Minister Stockwell Day. He has visited the centre but
not met with the men. Please demand that he immediately meet with them
to resolve the crisis. His contact information is: Phone: (613)
995-1702 Fax: (613) 995.1154 [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
Please also contact the new Immigration Minister, Diane Finley, to
demand she meet with the families and take immediate action. Phone
(866) 496-3400 [log in to unmask]
Lastly, please contact the PM, Stephen Harper, Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900 [log in to unmask]
I have appended a more detailed report below.
Whether you are in the UK, Canada, US or elsewhere, I would hope that
the Canadian government - and these three Ministers in particular -
take heed of your requests and recognise the gravity of what they are
doing.
many thanks,
Nadia
-------------------------------------------
(please forward far and wide and especially to local media in your
area--thanks!)
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
(416) 651-5800, [log in to unmask]
January 30, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"We are slowly dying in here..."
Weekend Scare Underscores Very Real Danger of Sudden Death for Hunger
Striking Detainees at Canada's Guantanamo North
Still No Medical Monitoring After Two Months Without Food
JANUARY 30, 2007 -- "We are slowly dying in here," Mohammad Mahjoub says
over the phone on day 67 of his hunger strike, day 56 for Mahmoud
Jaballah
and Hassan Almrei. "Our situation is very bad."
The three men, held indefinitely under the much-criticized security
certificate regime of secret evidence and deportation to torture, are
kept
at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC), dubbed Guantanamo
North.
Despite last Thursday's visit by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day,
who
did not meet with the detainees, there has been no negotiation with the
men, and no effort to end a critical situation that could turn deadly at
any time.
NO MEDICAL MONITORING
Indeed, the detainees' lives are on the line as staff at the facility
play
a dangerous game of roulette: despite considerable medical literature
spelling out the need for daily medical checks of hunger strikers who
have
passed day 10 without food, medical staff have NOT conducted a single
physical check on any of the detainees, who are subsisting on water and
juice. The need to check weight, pulse, blood pressure, respiration,
electrolytes, and sodium and potassium levels, among other standards, is
essential in preventing the kind of traumatic incident that occurred
this
past weekend.
On Saturday, January 27, Mr. Jaballah reports that he felt dizziness at
about 3:15 pm, pressed the emergency button, and someone finally saw
him at
approximately 4 pm. He was very weak and unable to walk, and requested
that
if he needed to be taken to another area for medical help, that this be
done with a wheelchair or cart. He was informed that a cart would
arrive at
6 pm. He again felt quite ill, pressed the emergency button, fell down,
and
was rendered unconscious, only waking up in another section of the
KIHC. He
reports experiencing great pain that left him screaming, and a complete
lack of control over his body, with uncontrollable shivering and
shaking.
"Because there has been no daily monitoring of blood, pulse, weight, or
other vital signs, it is hard to pinpoint the exact cause of this
incident,
but our consultation with a Toronto-area physician who has attended to
one
of the men during a prior hunger strike says that low potassium or
sodium
could be one cause, coupled with dehydration and possible heart
arrhythmia," says Matthew Behrens of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials
in
Canada. "Needless to say, all of these can lead to a sudden
life-threatening drop in blood pressure that could place any of the men
in
a coma."
DETAINEES VERY WEAK
Daily calls from the detainees indicate they are so weak that they spend
most of the day lying down. One has blood in his urine. Another is
suffering the severe effects of high blood pressure. Another has broken
out
in severe skin rashes causing incessant itching, while a severely
swollen
tongue has not been dealt with either. All are weak and dizzy from two
months without food. And there is no end in sight.
The detainees, their families, and friends and supporters are concerned
that Stockwell Day used his trip to KIHC to justify his preconceived
notion
of the situation, rather than use the occasion as an opportunity to
actually learn the real reasons behind the hunger strike.
STOCKWELL DAY NOT GETTING FULL PICTURE
Stockwell Day did not get a full picture when he visited Guantanamo
North.
He was unable to taste the daily humiliation the men face at the hands
of
guards, nor to hear what it is like to be denied medical treatment for
things like Hepatitis C, blood in the urine, or a double hernia. Day
needed
to hear what it is like to be held indefinitely, without charge, on
secret
evidence, for upwards of seven years, as these men are living through,
to
understand that having a microwave and a TV in your facility does
nothing
to ease the pain of lengthy separation from families, the mental
torture of
being held on secret 'evidence' neither you nor your lawyer will ever
get
to challenge, and the daily fear of deportation to torture in Syria or
Egypt.
PROBLEM ALREADY FLAGGED BY CORRECTIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Day also did not get a taste of what it's like when there is no
oversight
agency or ombudsperson to deal fairly with complaints, a key reason for
the
hunger strike that was in fact flagged by the federal government's
2005/2006 Annual Report of the Correctional Investigator, which
concluded
"The transfer of detainees from Ontario facilities to the Kingston
holding
centre means that the detainees will lose the benefit of a rigorous
ombudsman's legislative framework to file complaints about their care
and
humane treatment while in custody. The Office of the Correctional
Investigator is concerned that the detainees will no longer have the
benefits and legal protections afforded by ombudsman legislation.
Pursuant
to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a non-profit
organization with no legislative framework, such as the Red Cross, is
unlikely to meet the protocol's requirement for domestic oversight."
(See
below for full text of relevant section of the report)
INITIAL HOPES DASHED
Mahmoud Jaballah explains that despite initial hope that things might be
better at KIHC than they were at Metro West Detention in Toronto, the
punitive, mean-spirited atmosphere that has taken hold of the facility,
especially after they initially raised minor complaints about guards'
behaviour, has become intolerable. Guards are regularly slamming cell
doors, making rude comments, and making daily life difficult for the
men,
who are not allowed to speak to pre-approved media without those same
guards present.
The threat they feel to their personal safety, and the even greater
fear of
false allegations being made against them, means they are now trapped
in an
Orwellian nightmare that could cause them their lives.
The men are told that health care, which used to be available to them in
their living unit, can now only be delivered in the next building. The
men
say they do not feel safe going to the next building without a
supervisor
present so there is a witness to possible false allegations that could
harm
their chances for bail. [The facility is top-heavy with staff, including
two directors, two secretaries, seven supervisors, 12 guards -- all for
the
three men] So unless they comply with petty and unreasonable prison
rules,
they are denied a basic human right.
MEDICAL STAFF AND DUTY TO CARE
Last week, a group of some 70 health workers across Canada challenged
the
lack of ethical standards at KIHC, and campaign representatives point
out
that the World Medical Association Declaration on Hunger Strikers
(adopted
by the 43rd World Medical Assembly Malta, November 1991 and editorially
revised by the WMA General Assembly, Pilanesberg, South Africa, October
2006) states at point #5 that "Physicians attending hunger strikers can
experience a conflict between their loyalty to the employing authority
(such as prison management) and their loyalty to patients. Physicians
with
dual loyalties are bound by the same ethical principles as other
physicians, that is to say that their primary obligation is to the
individual patient."
As each minute ticks by, the spectre of the Criminal Code of Canada
looms
larger, which defines as criminally negligent anyone who "in doing
anything
or, in omitting to do anything that it is his duty to do, shows wanton
or
reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons."
TAKE ACTION
1. WRITE /CALL/FAX Day, Finley and Harper. It is crucial that public
pressure continue to be felt in Ottawa. It is such pressure that forced
Day
to go to KIHC; such pressure will be required to get negotiations going.
Specific points to raise:
a. The men be should provided with immediate and daily medical care in
their living unit.
b. If the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre will not send in health
care
staff (something they did before September), the government must allow
an
independent outside doctor in to check on the men.
c. The federal government must immediately appoint a neutral mediator
to
deal with the problems, and set up a system to deal with ongoing issues
that is balanced and fair (as per the concerns raised by the federal
government's own Office of the Correctional Investigator)
d. The men should not have to die for a little bit of dignity.
*Stockwell Day, MP
House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 995-1702
Fax: (613) 995.1154
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
NOTE: Stockwell Day is the Minister responsible for the Canadian Border
Services Agency (which runs the KIHC). Demand that he meet immediately
with the detainees or appoint a neutral party to immediately resolve the
crisis at KIHC.
*Diane Finley, MP
Phone (866) 496-3400 (Simcoe constituency office).
[log in to unmask]
NOTE: Finley is the new immigration minister. Ask that, as one of the
two
ministers responsible for signing security certificates, she meet with
the
families of the detainees (who have requested a meeting) and that she
also
take action to meet the reasonable demands of the detainees.
* Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Phone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: 613-941-6900
[log in to unmask]
2. SOLIDARITY LETTERS.
Write a support card to the detainees (let us know at [log in to unmask] if you
have so we can monitor if mail is getting through). Mohammad Mahjoub,
Mahmoud Jaballah, and Hassan Almrei can be reached:
Kingston Immigration Holding Centre
c/o CSC RHQ Ontario Region
440 King Street West
PO Box 1174
Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y8
Further info: Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, (416) 651-5800,
[log in to unmask], www.homesnotbombs.ca
+++++++
Annual Report of the Correctional Investigator, 2005/06 (with respect to
Kingston Immigration Holding Centre)
The second policy issue that concerns my Office is the situation of
individuals detained pursuant to national security certificates. A
national
security certificate is a removal order issued by the Government of
Canada
against permanent residents and foreign nationals who are inadmissible
to
Canada on grounds of national security. A recent decision has been
made by
the federal government to transfer security certificate detainees held
under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act from Ontario
facilities
to a federal facility, pending their removal from Canada.
In Ontario facilities, the detainees could legally file complaints
regarding conditions of confinement with the Office of the Ontario
Ombudsman. That Office had the jurisdiction to investigate complaints
filed by the detainees pursuant to the Ontario Ombudsman Act.
The Immigration Holding Centre has been built in Kingston within
the perimeter fence of Millhaven Penitentiary. The Canadian Border
Service
Agency entered into a service contract with the Correctional Service to
provide the Border Service Agency with the physical detention facility
and
with security staff. The Border Service Agency has a contract in place
with the Red Cross to monitor the care and treatment of detainees in
immigration holding centres, including the new Kingston holding centre.
The Red Cross, a non-government organization, has no enabling
legislation
to carry out a role as an oversight agency. The transfer of detainees
from
Ontario facilities to the Kingston holding centre means that the
detainees
will lose the benefit of a rigorous ombudsman's legislative framework to
file complaints about their care and humane treatment while in custody.
The Office of the Correctional Investigator is concerned that the
detainees
will no longer have the benefits and legal protections afforded by
ombudsman legislation. Pursuant to the Optional Protocol to the
Convention
against Torture, a non-profit organization with no legislative
framework,
such as the Red Cross, is unlikely to meet the protocol's requirement
for
domestic oversight. (full report available at
http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/reports/AR200506_e.asp)
|
