Thank you to everyone who were able to join us for the launch of Defending Civil Liberties in an Age of National Security and Counter-terrorism, a new publication from the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group featuring 27 pieces from leading experts, activists and ICLMG members reflecting on the past twenty years and the challenges that lie ahead.

Read the publication online or buy a print copy here

The launch featured a panel with four of our contributors:

• Dr. Brenda McPhail does research and advocacy at the junction of privacy and technology, and is the Director of Executive Education for the Master of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University.
• Dr. Monia Mazigh is an academic, award-winning author and human rights activist. She was the ICLMG National Coordinator in 2015 and 2016.
• Dr. Pamela Palmater is a Mi’kmaw lawyer, professor, and human rights expert from Eel River Bar First Nation.
• Tim McSorley is the National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

Why this new publication?

Following 9/11, we saw a massive expansion of the national security state in the USA, Canada and elsewhere: tightening of border restrictions, new rights-violating anti-terror laws, unjustified military invasions, exponential increases in surveillance, arbitrary detention and torture, criminalization and attacks on dissent, a surge in religious, racial and political profiling, and much more.

In response to the Canadian parliament’s rushed passage, during a period of intense fear-mongering, of the unnecessary and problematic Anti-terrorism Act, 2001, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group was created in 2002.

Since then, the ICLMG has worked with coalition members and partners across Canada to defend fundamental rights and freedoms from the impacts of counter-terrorism and national security laws and activities.

Defending Civil Liberties offers a retrospective on this collective work: what was done, the victories, the challenges, and the unresolved questions. It also looks forward, exploring the importance of continuing to protect and promote civil liberties in the face of ever-expanding uses and definitions of “terrorism” and “national security,” as well as the state’s constant push for more powers for unaccountable national security agencies that threaten everyone’s rights, and more acutely, the rights of many marginalized communities.

Thank you again for joining, watching and reading!