Come to Court to Support Hassan Almrei’s Bail Application October 2 & 3
From Homes Not Bombs – other dates like to be announced soon.
Secret Trial Detainee To Mark Seven Years of Indefinite Detention this October

Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei is the last of Canada’s secret trial detainees to remain behind bars at the notorious Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, aka Guantanamo North. This October, he is again applying for bail, and needs your support. If you are near Toronto, please consider coming to court and supporting Hassan’s constitutional challenge to his indefinite detention. If you cannot make it to Toronto but would like to contribute to Hassan’s community bail support fund, see details below.

DATE: Thursday October 2, 9:30 am (and likely Friday, October 3, 9:30 am (email us at tasc@web.ca to confirm Friday)
LOCATION: Federal Court, 180 Queen Street West (check for courtroom at second floor registry), Toronto

BACKGROUND

Arrested in October 2001, Hassan spent the next four years and three months in solitary confinement, shivering through two winters without heat under barbaric conditions that led him to undertake a dangerous 43-day hunger strike in 2003 to get the heat turned on. In the fall of 2003, the federal government admitted in an internal memo (released at the Arar Inquiry) that there was not enough information to lay a criminal charge against Hassan, yet five years later, he remains indefinitely detained without charge because of the draconian security certificate system, a medieval form of two-tier justice in which the lowest standards are applied to refugees and permanent residents based on a mix of racial profiling and fear (all five of Canada’s secret trial detainees are Arab Muslims).

Since the spring of 2007, Hassan has again been in solitary confinement at Gitmo North, the only detainee in a multi-million-dollar maximum security prison inside a maximum security prison, presided over by 21 staff.

Hassan has never seen the secret allegations against him, and never will. Even though the Supreme Court of Canada declared unconstitutional the process under which he has been detained, it is a telling indication of the Canadian government’s blind obedience to the fear-mongering lies of CSIS and the RCMP that he remains behind bars. All he has ever asked is for the government to charge him if there is a case to be made, or release him so he can get on with what remains of his life.

Hassan’s last application for bail was turned down in part because, although Almrei was willing to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet, live under constant house arrest with video cameras at the only entrance to a basement apartment, have only limited supervised outings, have contact only with individuals approved by the state, no computer access, no cell phone access, consent to a phone tap and mail opening, and consent to agents of the state entering his abode any time of day or night without notice or warrant, the judge nonetheless was petrified that Almrei would spend considerable time alone in a basement, and that “the risk of surreptitious communication by Mr. Almrei is too great.”

In addition to seeking bail, Hassan continues the effort to stop his deportation to torture in Syria.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

1. Send a contribution to the Hassan Almrei bail fund. To do so, write a cheque to Homes not Bombs (mark Hassan bail in memo portion) and mail it to PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West, Toronto, ON M6C 1C0. If bail is granted, that money will likely be held by the government for a long time, or until such time as this current reign of injustice is over, at which time it will be returned to you. It would be helpful for you to enclose a note about WHY you are contributing to his bail (ie, a comment on the right he should be able to enjoy to bail, perhaps a comment based on your prior knowledge of Hassan and his honourable actions, such as lengthy hunger strikes for basic human rights while detained, etc.). These could be presented to the court as a sign of the trust you repose in Hassan and in his community of supporters who would monitor him.

2. Join the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada and, specifically, its fall Caravan to End Canadian Involvement in Torture. For details, email us at tasc@web.ca

3. Mark Hassan Almrei’s seven years in indefinite detention with a public vigil on that sad anniversary, October 19 (or as close to that date as you can put it together)

More information: Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West, Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, (416) 651-5800, tasc@web.ca