CPTnet
11 July 2006

EDMONTON, ALBERTA: CPT, Mennonite Church Canada delegates call for end to
secret trials and "security certificates."

On Thursday, 6 July 2006, Mennonite Church Canada Assembly delegates and
Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Canada members and supporters delivered a
petition of eighty signatures to the office of Edmonton-Strathcona Member of
Parliament (MP) Rahim Jaffer. The Petition called for an end to secret
trials in Canada, and release or charge of those currently held under
"security certificates."

The government of Canada, using a secret trial security certificate under
the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, can declare any refugee or
permanent resident inadmissible to Canada, have them arrested, and held
without charge or bail indefinitely. It can also refuse to allow either
that person or their lawyer to see the evidence against them. Currently,
Canada is detaining five Muslim men on security certificates, who have
served between three and six years without charge.

Delegate Judith Doell, pastor of Whitewater Mennonite Church in Boissevain,
Manitoba, admitted that she was not aware of this issue until she saw
information at the Assembly. What drew her to the walk is a passion for
justice, an uneasiness with growing militarization in Canada, and the
message of the Assembly Ministers' Conference held the first day.

"We talked about three spiritual disciplines of the
Anabaptists--peacemaking, truth telling and economic sharing. Speaking out
against these secret trials is peacemaking and truth telling in action."

The walk began at the Delta Edmonton South Hotel, where over 500 delegates
to the annual assembly met over four days, and attracted representatives
from the Edmonton Coalition Against War and Racism, the Raging Grannies and
Women in Black. Three kilometres and forty-five minutes later, the group of
more than twenty arrived at the office of MP Rahim Jaffer. In his absence,
the group presented the petition and background information to Jaffer's
staff. CPT Co-Director Doug Pritchard noted to those gathered that Jaffer,
in attending Edmonton area vigils, had supported CPT during a four-month
kidnapping crisis in Iraq which took a CPT delegation of four hostage.
"Now, we're urging Mr. Jaffer to consider a similarity and use his position
as MP to call for the abolition of this unjust legislation," Pritchard said.

Former CPT hostage James Loney advocated for the detainees in an open letter
to MPs delivered last month during Supreme Court of Canada hearings on the
constitutionality of security certificates legislation. "Insofar as these
five men have not been charged, they are subject to an unjust deprival of
freedom just as I was," he wrote.