Stop Secret Trials in Canada: A National Day of Action to End the Use of the CSIS Secret Trial Security Certificate and to Release Five Muslim Men Currently Held in Canadian Prisons on Secret "Evidence" Neither They nor Their Lawyers are Allowed to See

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SAMPLE FLYERS FOR HANDOUT ON OCTOBER 31

While vigils and protests will be held throughout Canada (please contact us to organize one in your own community!), we at the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada (a division of Homes not Bombs) are encouraging folks in Ontario and Quebec who are close enough to converge in Ottawa at CSIS National Headquarters for a massive trick-or-treat for sealed evidence.

 

On Friday, October 31, Halloween, early morning rush hour, we plan a large, creative, theatrical, nonviolent direct action, the first ever of its kind, at CSIS national HQ in Ottawa. This mass trick-or-treat will seek the secret evidence which has held 5 Muslim men behind bars, much of it in solitary confinement, a cumulative 94 months, without charge or bail.

 

It will also be an opportunity to Provide Psychological Help for CSIS Agents Whose Irrational Fear of Arabs and Muslims is Throwing Innocents Behind Bars, Breaking up Families, and Deporting Refugees to Sure Death (save those old couches for the action!)

The field is open, so bring your costume ideas, your creative spirit, and help plan an action to put the national spotlight on the threat to democracy posed by the CSIS secret trials. (CSIS recently declared just about everyone who has ever protested in Canada a terrorist threat in their June annual report to Parliament. So perhaps a meet-and-greet with those of us whom CSIS has tarred is in order too!)

Among our slogans and ideas (feel free to add):

Help turn Canada's National Spy Agency into Canada's National Pie Agency (what else would we do with all those surplus fall apples? And don't they make "northern spy" apples?????)

Watch as REAL detectives (Nancy Drew, Miss Marple, Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, Sam Spade, The Dukes of Hazard, Starsky & Hutch, Baretta, Magnum P.I., the guys from Hawaii 5-0, Hercule Poirot) teach CSIS the basics of no-fault police work.

Set up an Affidavit-Writing Workshop so CSIS can learn how to produce one without factual errors, hearsay, or "feelings" in place of facts.

Keystone Kops affinity group, complete with handlebar mustaches and briefcases with important files in them which can be accidentally left behind at the end of the action!

Perjury Inoculation Team (PIT). As CSIS agents drive in to work, they can have a PIT stop and receive a free inoculation against perjury so they won't continue lying under oath in court.

Security Blanket Affinity Group. Linus from Peanuts shows us that all you need to feel secure is a nice warm friendly blanket. Maybe a few more of those at CSIS would mean a lot less pain and suffering in the Muslim community at the hands of Canada's national spy agency

Kangaroo affinity group (needs some costume work), but with kangaroos wearing placards that simply read "court," the case will be made.

Guilt-By-association Game. Show how the guilt-by-association nature of the security certificate should, by its very logic, provide for the lock-up of every single person in Canada, including our leader, Mr. Chretien himself.

The "How does it Feel" Affinity Group, which will be stationed at both entrances to CSIS, snapping picture after picture of every face and licence plate going into CSIS!!!

Jealousy workshops to help CSIS get over its poor sibling relationship with the RCMP, which was at the core of their screw-up over the Air India disaster.

The Wizard of DREO affinity group (When characters from the Wizard of Oz went to the space warfare agency two falls ago, they shut the place down for the day--maybe they can bring that luck to CSIS)

...And whatever other costumes and masks are appropriate top the spirit of the day (including masks of the faces of those currently held on certificate). Heck, do you think they'd arrest you on Halloween for wearing a mask? This could go before the Crimes Against Holidays Commission at the United Nations.

 

Soundtrack suggestions

Theme to Hawaii 5-0

Secret Agent Man

Miss Marple Theme

Murder, She Wrote

The Thin Man

 

Buses will leave southern Ontario and Montreal on Thursday, October 30 and drop folks off at churches in Ottawa, where we will feed one another and prepare for the next day's action. Buses will return folks on Friday night.

For more info: Homes not Bombs, tasc@web.ca or (416) 651-5800

*****HOMES NOT BOMBS BASIS OF UNITY******

Homes not Bombs actions are built on three equally weighted components: they are confrontational, they are nonviolent, and they are transformative. While we welcome an incredibly broad range of creative actions within our framework, all we ask is that a specific basis of unity is respected by all participants.

That basis of unity can be summed us thusly: we pledge not to do violence -- verbal, physical or psychological -- to our opponents, whether they be police, CSIS agents, or bystanders who disagree with us. We pledge this both in reference to pro-active acts of violence and in the sense of "self-defence." We pledge not to have alcohol or drugs either on site or at the gathering points for the action, nor do we carry any weapons or objects would could be perceived as weapons; we do not engage in property damage unless it is clearly defined and consensed to by all of the affinity groups taking part in the action; we attempt to establish an atmosphere of calm and self-discipline at our actions through the use of song and theatre, and generally discourage chanting and long boring speeches.

Our actions are built in the spirit of honesty and openness which forms the core of most direct action; hence, everyone participating in the action knows what to expect from one another before engaging in the confrontation, heightening the sense of solidarity which can be broken when something unexpected occurs and some folks feel uncomfortable showing support for something they did not consense to at spokescouncil the night before the action.

 

OUR BASIS OF UNITY IS NOT BUILT IN JUDGMENT OF OTHERS

We hold this as a basis of unity not in judgment of others who may wish to go beyond these parameters in other situations, but rather as a point of accountability and respect for one another participating in a specific action. We find that if everyone can agree upon specific points of unity within an action, then those who are first-timers will feel just as comfortable as those who have engaged in such actions again and again. In the interests of building in a sense of respect and comfort with one another and a sense that we will be accountable to one another, having this basis of unity has helped us create a certain style of action which we find very effective on the streets and in the courts, where our actions have resulted in acquittals despite the best efforts of the state to criminalize them.