Why do elected and hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs disagree?

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Editor’s note: Former JUSTnews editor Philip Symons published this timely op-ed in the CUSJ Googlegroup, and we felt it was so informative we had to share! Why do elected and hereditary Wet’suwet’en chiefs disagree on whether pipelines should go through their territory? Just like our elected members of parliament, Wet’suwet’en elected Chiefs and Councils keep … Read more

CUSJ supports the Wet’suwet’en

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Letter of January 21, 2020, from CUSJ President Bill Woolverton TO: Honourable Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resources; Premier John Horgan; Adam Olsen, Interim Leader, Green Party of BC; Andrew Wilkinson, Leader of the BC Liberal Party; Federal Justice Minister David Lametti; Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; Jagmeet Singh, New Democratic Party of … Read more

Climate Action Network Sets PM’s Clock

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CUSJ is a member of the Climate Action Network and signed on to this long but informative letter detailing what is needed in a government oriented to acting on the climate emergency. Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Congratulations on your re-election to lead Canada’s government at this pivotal time in history. The next few years are … Read more

Massive victory for dying with dignity

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On September 11 2019, a Quebec judge ruled that parts of both the federal and Quebec assisted dying laws are too restrictive and violate people’s rights. Specifically, Quebec Superior Court Justice Christine Baudouin struck down the controversial “reasonably foreseeable” rule in Canada’s federal assisted dying law, as well as the “end of life” clause in Quebec’s … Read more

What is 5G?

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How could 5G affect our health and environment? By Marg Friesen M.Sc., Safer Wireless Radiation Manitoba Originally published in the Manitoba Eco-Journal; reprinted with permission from the author. WE ARE HEARING A LOT OF BUZZ about faster “5G” for a new interconnected world, but do we really know all we should know on how it may … Read more

Segal Report Misses Point

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For immediate Release

The Murray Segal Report Misses the Point

The Board of the Canadian Unitarians For Social Justice (CUSJ) call on Prime Minister Trudeau to immediately to establish a full independent public inquiry on the case of Dr. Hassan Diab.  Its purpose would be to examine the Canadian system of extradition and to recommend how the law should be changed to better protect the democratic and human rights of Canadian citizens.

CUSJ is a national faith-based organization of members that works for social justice, democracy, human rights, a healthy environment, and peace.  We have been following the case of Dr. Diab and supporting him and his family since he was arrested in November, 2008. 

The Segal report claims that the Government of Canada is completely exonerated because they followed the law in every detail.  Bill Woolverton, President of CUSJ challenges the conclusion. “This is a whitewash report to protect the government,” he said.  “The unjust and unconscionable treatment of Hassan Diab over the past 11 years cannot be acceptable to Canada as a standard of practice. If this can happen, then there are serious flaws in Canada’s extradition laws. If Canadians are to be protected from unfair arrest and extradition on flimsy evidence, the law must be improved.”

The litany of injustices:

  • Dr. Diab was incarcerated without charge for 160 days in maximum security in Canada. 
  • On bail for over 6 years, he had to pay $2000 a month for his own security anklet. 
  • He was not allowed to see the evidence against him.  Some of that evidence had no known source and could have been obtained by torture.
  • The federal team tried to help the French improve the handwriting evidence, to make the case credible.  Our government was working for the French, not for our Canadian citizen. 
  • Canada extradited Dr. Diab to France in 2014, even though the judge said the evidence was too flimsy to meet Canadian legal standards.  The Supreme Court decision (Ferras: 2006) that directed judges to refuse extradition if the evidence is flimsy was ignored.
  • In France Dr. Diab was held in maximum security with two hours a day to read or exercise.  He was held without charge or trial for 4 years.  There was never enough evidence for charges or a trial.
  • Judicial investigators from France proved that Hassan Diab was not in Paris at the time of the incident.  They recommended at a minimum a release on bail but the French prosecutor refused to release him.
  • A case could be made that both Canada and France took advantage of the societal fear of terrorism to scapegoat Dr. Diab because he was Arab and Muslim. 

Dr. Hassan Diab has conducted himself peacefully and with dignity through all these trials.  He has only ever asked for justice.  He has demonstrated over and over who he is as a human being.  What was done to him, in both Canada and in France, is both unjust and unconscionable.

It is time that we demonstrate who we are as a democratic country that respects human rights.  Canada must take a strong independent look at our extradition law with a view to improving it to better protect Canadians.

For further information contact

Bill Woolverton, president 

president@cusj.org

Devastated by his ordeal, Hassan still fights for justice and change so No Canadian will ever have to face what he has faced.

Campaign to stop killer robots

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Note: This post was updated on April 27th to show that CUSJ had joined the campaign. CUSJ has joined the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that is working to ban fully autonomous weapons. Lethal autonomous weapons are independent artificial-intelligence-driven weapons such as drones, that can make decisions to kill … Read more

Book review: Hard choices for a soft landing

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CUSJ member Philip Symons’ concise guide, Surviving Civilization’s Collapse, explores humanity’s history, its quirky psyche, and its options for survival. I recently attended a small group video presentation (Regeneration by Daniel Wahl) and discussion on the subject of climate change. It was evident from the reactions of the attendees, that for some (activists and news … Read more

CUSJ endorses call to boycott B.C. Ballet to protest its support of a rogue regime

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How sad that the BC Ballet chose to support Israeli war crimes and apartheid, by performing as a Canadian cultural ambassador to the Zionist Israeli state in January 2019. The Canadian BDS Coalition, of which CUSJ is a member, has decided that, since B.C. Ballet will not boycott Israel, we will boycott BC Ballet. BC … Read more

Montréal becomes a blue community

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On March 22 2019, World Water Day, McGill University and the City of Montréal were awarded Blue Community certification. Montréal thus joined a proud cohort of about 40 international cities with this certification, including Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Victoria B.C. and Burnaby B.C. (which became the first Blue Community in 2011). McGill is the fourth university … Read more

Does this lady look like a “security threat” to you?

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For over two hours hours on January 15, members of Homes not Bombs and Ottawa Raging Grannies staged a sit-in at the entrance to Global Affairs Canada, demanding a meeting with Chrystia Freeland, with what seemed like a tantalizing proposal: Freeland could, with the stroke of a pen, cancel the $15 billion Saudi weapons contract, … Read more

CUSJ endorses #StopJNF campaign

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CUSJ is proud to have endorsed the #StopJNF campaign, which seeks to revoke the Jewish National Front (JNF) Canada’s charitable status and expose, challenge and stop the JNF’s discriminatory and harmful activities.  As explained in the campaign website, the JNF is a private corporation whose lands were obtained through exploitative land sales and often-violent, forced … Read more

We stand with the Wet’suwet’en: No consent, no LNG pipelines

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Although all five hereditary clan chiefs to he Wet’suwet’en Nation have clearly stated their opposition, the Canadian Liberal government seems determined to go ahead with TransCanada subsidiary Coastal GasLink’s liquid natural gas (LNG) pipeline projet. This, in spite of the fact that doing so would: Fly in the face of the most recent report of … Read more

Opinion: Israel has taken the wrong path

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Jake Javanshir is an Iranian Jew whose family emigrated to Israel in 1950. Jake knows Israel well: he grew up there and served in the army, and he has many family members there still. Jake confides that, years ago, he became disillusioned with Israeli politics and moved to Canada. He has visited Israel a few … Read more

BDS is a movement in the spirit of human solidarity

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Here is a letter that CUSJ President Margaret Rao wrote recently to Prime Minister Trudeau and to Chrystia Freeland.

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you on behalf of Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice (CUSJ), a national faith-based organization that advocates for peace and justice in our world. I have written to you on other occasions pointing out that the global, grassroots, Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement is non-violent in nature, promoting economic and cultural boycotts as a means to end Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. The BDS movement works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people and to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Specifically, the BDS campaign seeks to end more than 5 decades of Israel’s military rule over 4.5 million Palestinians, including the 11 year illegal blockade of Gaza, the killing and maiming of unarmed Gazan protesters and medics, the ongoing forcible eviction of Palestinians from their homes, the expulsion of indigenous Bedouins from their traditional lands and the construction of illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank.

The boycott movement also seeks equal rights for Palestinian (Arab-Israeli) citizens of Israel, currently discriminated against by dozens of racist laws and enshrined in the new Nation-State Law, defining Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. In December 2016, former Secretary of State John Kerry pointed out that the State of Israel “can be Jewish or it can be democratic – not both!’ Criticism of the State of Israel has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, nor with Judaism. When you conflate the Palestinian people’s struggle for basic human rights and freedom with anti-Semitism, you do a grave injustice to freedom- loving Jews and non-Jews everywhere.

Your recent statement of apology to the Jewish people for turning away a boat full of Jewish refugees in 1939 was right and good and well overdue. “There is little doubt that our silence permitted the Nazis to come up with their own final solution,” you stated. And what of Canada’s and the international community’s decades-long silence on the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people? Palestinian refugees constitute nearly 50% of all Palestinians. As Holocaust survivor and IJV (Independent Jewish Voices) supporter, Suzanne Weiss expressed to you in an open letter,’ “We must all demonstrate the spirit of human solidarity that Canada failed to show in 1939 to counter the persecution and suffering of all afflicted peoples, including the Palestinians.” Let us take the hard lessons learned from the past and apply them to the present, so that we may work together, Palestinians, Jews, and non-Jews, to cultivate a world of peace, justice and dignity for one and all.

Standing on the Side of Love and Justice!!

Margaret Rao

President, Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice

CUSJ commends Rev. Eklof for broaching a “taboo” topic: the BDS movement

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This post was modified on November 9th to include details of Rev. Eklof’s correspondence with a local synagogue. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane in Washington state, created quite a stir recently when they hosted the Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East (UUJME) who showed the film  “Occupation of the American Mind” to the congregation. … Read more

CUSJ denounces “horrific hate crime” against faith community in Squirrel Hill

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CUSJ members, and people of good faith everywhere, are shocked and saddened by the shooting of eleven worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pennsylvania on Saturday, October 27 2018. CUSJ President sent the Rabbi this message: Dear Rabbi Hazzan Myers and members of the congregation, Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice send our deepest … Read more