CIMM Committee Report

APPENDIX E
LETTER FROM SECURITY CERTIFICATE DETAINEES AND RESPONSE FROM CBSA

Hassan Almrei, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammed Mahjoub

Kingston Immigration Holding Centre

c/o  CSC RHQ Ontario Region

440 King Street West

P.O. Box 1174

Kingston, Ontario K7L 4Y8

November 16, 2006

Members of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration

6^th Floor, 180 Wellington Street

Wellington Building

House of Commons

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Members of the CIMM:

We appreciate that some of you visited Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC) and met with each of us briefly.  However, 10 minute interviews were not enough to allow you to accurately understand our conditions of detention. Therefore, we are submitting a more detailed description of the frustrating, humiliating, and unjust conditions we face at KIHC.   We hope that you will require CBSA and the Crown to correct these policies.

I. Injustice of the security certificate legislation: We recognize that the mandate of CIMM is limited to considering our conditions of detention and not to addressing the injustice of the security certificate legislation itself.  However, it is important to note that the security certificate legislation profoundly affects the conditions of our detention.   In other words, simply making KIHC policies more humane will not substantially improve our conditions of detention.  The security certificate law is unjust and must be abolished. 

·           Perpetual threat of deportation to torture and likely execution: Because security certificates exist to facilitate deportation, we live perpetually under the threat of being shipped off to face torture worse than Mr. Arar experienced.  This daily reality is emphasized when government lawyers argue that deporting us to torture is acceptable and when the Minister of Public Safety and Security and the Minister of Immigration make public statements claiming that we can leave Canada at any time.  No other prisoners face this constant threat.  We ask that you affirm that Canada should never deport people to torture, as specified under international law.

·           Treatment as dangerous terrorists.  Under the security certificate legislation, we have been labelled as threats to national security and accused, without benefit of any due process, of being “terrorists.”  The punitive and highly restrictive treatment we have received both at Metro-West Detention Centre and at KIHC is a direct result of this unjust designation.  Some of us have endured extensive periods of solitary confinement. We also have endured humiliation, taunting, beatings, and threats  because of the terrorism label.  Improving the discriminatory policies at KIHC will not necessarily improve our lives, since in practice just being labelled as terrorists makes us targets for mistreatment by guards and staff, and is used as the excuse to deny us rights and privileges accorded to other inmates.

·           The prospect of permanent detention or lifelong house arrest under impossible conditions: All other prisoners in Canada can look forward to a time when their sentence is served and they will be freed. However, under the security certificate legislation, we face only two options; life long detention/house arrest or deportation to torture. The conditions imposed on Mr. Harkat and Mr. Charkaoui make employment and a normal life virtually impossible.  In effect, their families have become their jailers, putting a heavy burden on their relationships.  Mr. Almrei has no family in Canada, and therefore cannot even look forward to the limited freedom of house arrest.  Being robbed of our entire futures is an unjust and extremely damaging “condition of detention”. 

·           Security certificate legislation discriminates against non-citizens. Under international law, it is illegal to set up dual justice systems which discriminate against non-citizens.  But the security certificate process does just that.  Many Canadian citizens who have similar profiles to ours, such as visiting Afghanistan and being associated with those on terrorist lists, are walking free while we are treated more punitively than hardened convicted criminals.

II. We should be granted the rights of “untried prisoners.”  Without prejudice to our demand to either be charged and given a fair, open trial or be released, we also claim the rights of untried prisoners.  We have been held for years without charges. We therefore fall under the category of “untried prisoners”, under the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Here are sections which we believe CBSA violates.

84 (2) Unconvicted prisoners are presumed to be innocent and shall be treated as such.:  We are presumed guilty and treated with policies which are equal to or worse than those accorded to convicted maximum security inmates.

87.  …untried prisoners may, if they so desire, have their food procured at their own expense from the outside, either through the administration or through their family or friends. Otherwise the administration shall provide their food.  Our families or friends have been forbidden to provide food for us. For the first few months at KIHC, we were forbidden to purchase any outside food. Recently KIHC arranged for the Kingston Muslim Society to purchase our canteen needs for us, but only at one convenience store which does not sell halal food and which charges double the price of grocery stores. This imposes a hardship both on us and on our families and friends. It is also unfair to impose this on the Muslim community, and makes us lose face in the Muslim community. Also the cost is far higher than our families, already burdened by poverty, can afford.  We asked the jail to be responsible for managing our money and providing canteen. But CBSA staff told us they have no legislative mandate to handle our money.  We want our families to be allowed to buy our canteen needs themselves and send them directly to us.

88. (1) An untried prisoner shall be allowed to wear his own clothing if it is clean and suitable.  Unlike those detained at other immigration holding centres, we are required to wear prison uniforms when we go to visit family and friends.  We find this humiliating.  As untried prisoners, we want the right to wear our own clothing at all times.

92. An untried prisoner shall be allowed to inform immediately his family of his detention and shall be given all reasonable facilities for communicating with his family and friends, and for receiving visits from them, subject only to restrictions and supervision as are necessary in the interests of the administration of justice and of the security and good order of the institution. Following our transfer to KIHC in April, 2006, we were forbidden to phone or contact our family and friends for weeks.  Hassan Almrei’s family lives in Saudi Arabia.  When he was at Metro-West, he was allowed to make 3 way phone calls to them through a friend or to call them directly using a phone calling card through the Chaplain.  But KIHC refuses to allow him to phone his family. A friend mailed him a phone card, so that he could phone his family. But KIHC mailed it back to her, saying phone cards are prohibited.  Mr. Almrei has not been allowed to contact his family in over 6 months. We ask you to require KIHC to allow the detainees to phone their family members, either at the expense of KIHC or by allowing friends to send them a phone card to make the calls.

III. KIHC is not an appropriate facility for long-term detention.  For years, we had been held in provincial detention centres, facilities not designed for long-term detention.  When we challenged this, CBSA announced that it was constructing KIHC, as a more appropriate facility for us. It is not.  In many ways it is even worse than Metro-West Detention Centre. It is a small portable unit, which creaks with every movement. All night, whenever one person rolls over, we all hear it. The strong security lights of Millhaven shine through our bedroom windows all night. Until recently KIHC refused to allow us to put up curtains.  The unit is furnished with uncomfortable hard seats bolted to small tables. Each table has a large metal bolt in the middle and the tables tip. This  means we have no place to eat comfortably or to spread out a board game, writing material, etc.  Sitting on those chairs all day hurts our backs.  What passes for an exercise yard is just a short asphalt walkway between our unit and the Administration Building, too small to run or play sports.  Inside the Administration Building is a small room where we may see visitors and another tiny room crammed with several exercise machines.  We are not permitted to use the washroom adjacent to the exercise room when visitors come. There is no library and no educational or recreational programming, as CBSA claims we are being held pending deportation.  Unlike people held in medium or minimum security prisons or other immigration holding centres, we have only a microwave, but no kitchen.

IV. We receive more restrictive and punitive treatment than maximum security prisoners.  As untried prisoners, we deserve to be treated with minimum restraint.  Throughout our many years of imprisonment, we have been model prisoners.   Even the RCMP acknowledges that we should be classified as minimum security inmates.  In minimum security, prisoners have keys to their own cells and the right to work and study. Before being moved to KIHC, we were told that CBSA would not impose CSC policies on us. However, we are being detained at Millhaven Penitentiary, a maximum security prison, and are forced to follow unnecessary, humiliating, restrictive, and disruptive CSC policies.  These include:

·           3 counts a day: Even though the three of us are constantly under surveillance, we are forced to stop whatever we are doing three times a day and be locked in our cells to be “counted”. At 8PM we have to do a “stand up” count, which means we have to go to our cell and the guards require us to stand up in front of him. The guards claim that the purpose is to prove we are healthy.  This is nonsense, because we are constantly under observation.  Imagine during the winter we have to leave the gym to do a stand-up count.  Additional counts are imposed on us any time others such as food service staff come into the unit. This ridiculous and harassing practice disrupts our Qu’ran study and if we are exercising, we are forced to return sweaty through the cold to be locked up for one minute.   We want the count discontinued.

·           Daily inspection by the nurse: KIHC insists that the nurse must see us every single day. They lock us in our cells during this examination. This clearly has nothing to do with our health, since the nurse is not even allowed inside our cells. And it is harassing and insulting. We only want to see the nurse when we ask for her for valid health reasons.

·           No privacy: The guards watch us constantly, even when we use the toilet.  They open the curtains to the cell door and watch us use the toilet.  We need more privacy.

In other ways, we are forced to endure CBSA policies which are worse than those imposed on maximum security, convicted inmates, even though we are immigration detainees who have never been charged or convicted:

·           Replace CSC staff with CBSA staff:  CSC staff have been trained to work with criminals, not with immigration detainees.  Since KIHC employs CSC staff, they treat us in the same way that they treat criminals.  We suggest that CSC staff be replaced by CBSA staff as in other immigration holding centres.

·           Lack of educational and recreational programming:  All Millhaven prisoners except us have access to programming for sports, recreation, and education. They also have a library, pool tables and ping pong tables. We asked for a ping pong table. But Mr.Whitehorn first claimed he never got the request and then Miss Berry refused the request.

·           Prohibition from dialling our own phone calls and limitation to 20 minutes per call and a total of one hour a day.  All other prisoners are allowed to dial phone calls themselves and to talk as often and as long as they wish.  It is humiliating to have to ask guards to dial calls for us.  We need to be able to talk longer than an hour, especially when there is a family issue or an issue regarding our cases which we need to discuss. If a person not on the list, such as a child, answers, the KIHC staff is required to refuse the call.  Since we are not allowed to leave messages or to speak to anyone except the limited names on our lists, it is often very frustrating to try to get through to family and friends.  This is a constant source of stress. We want the right to phone friends and family like other prisoners.  This should include permission to make phone card or 3-way phone calls to our overseas family members.

·           Denial of family visits:  CSC provides facilities for private family and conjugal visits for convicted inmates.  We have no such privileges.  Mr. Jaballah and Mr. Mahjoub have been denied private time with their wives and children for over six years.  We want KIHC to provide a trailer for family visits.

·           Denial of adequate exercise yard and facilities: The UNSMRTP specifies  “21.(1) Every prisoner who is not employed in outdoor work shall have at least one hour of suitable exercise in the open air daily if the weather permits.”  At KIHC, our “exercise yard” consists of a small concrete walkway between two buildings, the length of two wheelchair ramps. This is not an adequate exercise facility.  This walkway is adjacent to a fenced off large, unused yard within the walls of Millhaven Penitentiary. We want KIHC to allow us to exercise in that yard.   

·           Denial of the right to cook our own food. Prisoners in medium-security facilities are allowed to cook their own food. Even though we are considered low-security risks, we are forbidden to prepare our own food.  Because the food provided by KIHC (actually Millhaven’s food service) is not culturally appropriate, being forbidden to prepare our own meals deprives us of religious and cultural access. We want the right to prepare our own meals.

·           Denial of access to the Federal Corrections Ombudsman: When we were held at a provincial jail, we had access to the Provincial Corrections Ombudsman. But once we were transferred to KIHC, a federal facility, we lost access to any Ombudsman.  All federal inmates are guaranteed access to the Federal Corrections Ombudsman. But because we have never been convicted, we do not fall within his mandate.  As a result, there is no official oversight body to which we can complain of mistreatment.  We do have access to the Red Cross, but this is not sufficient, both because we do not have permission to phone the Red Cross, only to send them a letter in English (for which interpreters are not provided), and because the Red Cross is not authorized to publicize its findings. We need Parliament to amend the mandate of the Federal Corrections Ombudsman, to allow him to serve us as well.

·           Denial of the right to contact the media: Until recently KIHC would not allow the media to contact us or allow us to speak to them. Now KIHC will not let us talk to the media from our living unit and in the Administration building only for 1 hour.  When we have given media interviews, KIHC staff sit in and intimidate us. We deserve more freedom to talk to the media in person and by  telephone.  We want the right to phone or meet with the media from our unit and to meet with them for the same times as visiting hours and without KIHC staff present.

·           Obstructing our religious practices:  KIHC refuses to allow us to leave our cells before 7AM claiming it is CSC policy. But we aren’t Millhaven prisoners.  We are just 3 people who are detained by CBSA.  There are two religious issues here. As Muslims, we must bathe before prayers if we are unclean. Therefore we must shower before 5AM, the first prayer time.   We also want to be able to pray together during the 5 daily prayer times, including first prayer. Being locked up until 7AM means we have no ability to shower and therefore, if we are unclean, we cannot pray for first prayer, and we cannot pray together.  Our faith encourages us also to fast. We like to fast on Monday and Thursday, and therefore must eat before first prayer time. But we can’t do that because we’re locked up before 7AM. This policy of keeping us locked up posed a particular hardship during Ramadan. During Ramadan, we are required to fast from dawn to sunset with no food or water.  So Muslims need to eat breakfast and bathe before dawn.  Of course, we were unable to do so, and as a result, deprived of a good breakfast, we suffered all day.  Our lawyer, our families, and two Imams spoke to KIHC and CBSA staff to argue that we should be released before 5AM. But they refuse to allow it.  We want to be allowed out of our cells before daybreak..

·           Protection from harassment and threats by guards:  Some of the guards at KIHC harass us and threaten us. Some also have implied that they have the power to accuse us of bad behaviour when they frisk us or when they are walking alone with us from building to building and no witness is available to contradict their lies. As a result, we have asked that when we go out to exercise or to go to a visit (in the Administration building), that the guard be accompanied by a supervisor. This request has repeatedly been denied. After we complained about a guard’s behaviour, CBSA punished us by requiring when we go for a visit that we have to hold our hands up in the air.  As a result, we decided we had no choice but to refuse to leave our unit since August, and have therefore had no fresh air, exercise, or visits. We need protection from mistreatment by the guards. 

·           Denial of access to interpreters. Arabic is our first language, and none of us has ever had English classes or is skilled in writing English.  (Our friend, Diana Ralph has put our concerns here into good English, in consultation with us.)  Neither KIHC nor CBSA provides us with interpreters to help us write complaints or other letters necessary to our defence and to challenges to our conditions of detention. 

We hope that you will meet with us at more length to discuss these concerns and, more importantly, that you will take principled and decisive action to defend our rights.

Sincerely,

Hassan Almrei

Mahmoud Jaballah

Mohammad Mahjoub

Canada Border Services Agency

December 15, 2006

Mr. Mahmoud Jaballah

RE: RESPONSE TO YOUR HUNGER STRIKE DEMANDS

On December 08, 2006, the CBSA Manager met with you at our request to discuss the reasons for engaging in a hunger strike.  During the discussion you indicated the action taken is in protest to the condition of detention at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (KIHC).

Given that Correctional Service Canada (CSC) has entered into a service agreement with Canada Border services Agency (CBSA) for the security and operations of the KIHC, CSC will only address operationally related issues.  Therefore, non-operationally related issues will be addressed under separate letter by the CBSA Manager.

I have reviewed the list of your concerns and provide the following clarifications to your concerns:

1.                  Request to cancel all counts at the KIHC

Counts are conducted as a requirement to monitor the whereabouts and well-being of individuals subject to security certificates (ISSC) at all times.  Detention Officers are required to verify that ISSCs are present, safe and in good health during counts and security patrols of accommodation areas in the facility.  All counts at KIHC are conducted in the least intrusive manner possible while protecting the safety of individuals and the security of the facility.  Detention Officers conduct counts in a manner that respects gender, religious and cultural considerations, in particular, with regard to religious and cultural events or ceremonies.

2.                  Request to dial the telephone number without the assistance of a detention officer

Read in conjunction with CBSA response dated December 15, 2006.  The KIHC has developed procedures to allow you to communicate with legal counsel and maintain family and community ties through telephone communication which are consistent with principles of protection of the public, staff members and other ISSCs residing within the KIHC.

The detention officer must ensure that the number and person being contacted has been approved by the CBSA in accordance to your individual call allow list.

3.                  Request the use of a calling card to contact your family in Saudi Arabia

Read in conjunction with CBSA response dated December 15, 2006.  Telephone calling cards or instruments of monetary value are prohibited within the KIHC.

4.                  Request to cook your own food

The KIHC facility has been designed and constructed for limited food preparation (re-heat) only.  KIHC has an agreement with Millhaven Institution Food Services Department to provide the daily meals which meet your dietary and religious needs.  The common room is equipped with a refrigerator, microwave, toaster and kettle for your use.  The items available to you must meet the fire regulations for the facility and have been approved.

5.                  Request to be released from your cell at 0500 hrs to shower before prayer and eat before sunrise during Ramadan and volunteer fasting

KIHC respects your religious and dietary needs during Ramadan.  The necessary food items are provided to you to break the fast before sunrise and in the evening.  During the evening meals, double portions of Halal food are provided and at least one meal provided can be re-heated.

There is no religious requirement for group prayers.  However, KIHC provides the ability to pray together in the common area throughout the day and evening.

6.                  Request that all complaints be addressed by CBSA and not CSC as you believe that our complaints addressed by the KIHC Operations have been negative

Refer to CBSA response dated December 15, 2006

7.         Request to attend Millhaven Health Services without the application of handcuffs

The application of restraint equipment is used to ensure your safety and security, and that of the staff, Millhaven Institution and the public.  As such, restraint equipment must be utilized during all escorts outside the KIHC facility.  The Millhaven Institution, Health Care Unit is outside the perimeter of the KIHC facility and therefore, restraint equipment will be applied.

8.         Request to wear your personal clothing during visits with families and friends

During regular business hours there is a greater volume of activity in the KIHC administration building.  Therefore, in order to distinguish staff, and other personnel from ISSCs, it is important that institutional clothing be worn during business hours in the administration building.  You are permitted to wear personal clothing within the housing unit and in the administration building after hours, including weekends and during court proceedings.

9.         Request access to an Ombudsman

Refer to CBSA response dated December 15, 2006.

10.       Request privacy during a media interview

Media access has been provided while ensuring that security is not compromised.  A detention officer is in the room to ensure the safety and security of everyone concerned, including the ISSC, the media personnel and accompanying equipment.

11.       Request additional time during media interviews

Refer to CBSA response dated December 15, 2006

12.       Request to receive all property currently being held in A&D

The KIHC has established procedures for the receipt and issuance of personal property.  All property received at the KIHC must receive prior approval by the KIHC Director.  The amount of items within a cell is limited to ensure the safety of any person and the security of the KIHC and is compliant with the fire regulation of a confined living space.  Any personal property must be received within the prescribed timeframes (every 6 months) and must not exceed a total cell value of $1,500.

13.       Request the assistance of an interpreter file a complaint as you believe your English is not adequate

Refer to CBSA response dated December 15, 2006

14.       Request access to private family visits

Refer to CBSA response dated December 15, 2006

15.       Request access to a teacher

Read in conjunction with CBSA response dated December 15, 2006. Any requests for self-study or distance learning materials must be pre-authorized by the KIHC Director.  In addition, the CBSA Manager will review each request and may refer the ISSC to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada to determine if proper student authorization is required.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

C. Berry

A/Director

KIHC

cc. : P. Whitehorne, CBSA Manager

  B. Roscoe, CHC