Solidarity chain against the Muslim and refugee bans at US Embassy in Ottawa on January 30, 2017 (Photo credit: Claude Panneton)

By Anne Dagenais Guertin and Tim McSorley – So much has happened in the last few days, we are struggling to keep up. The sheer volume of bad news can be overwhelming, so we are elated to see that people are taking to the streets, to their communities and to social media to show their solidarity against violence, racism, Islamophobia and injustice, with no sign of that outrage fading soon.

Our thoughts and solidarity are with the families of the victims and survivors of the shooting at the Centre culturel Islamique de Québec in Ste-Foy, and we firmly condemn all forms of violence and discrimination, especially Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism.

In the weeks and months leading up to this heinous crime, we have seen so many attacks on the rights and lives of numerous people and communities coming from so many sides, that they often feel chaotic, even unrelated. But as others have pointed out, and as we strongly believe, the events of January 29^th cannot be seen in isolation from the overall political environment. They must be seen as linked, and denounced as such.

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The Honourable Ralph Goodale
Minister of Public Safety
269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P8

January 30, 2017

Dear Minister Goodale,

We are writing to you about the urgent need for Canada to revise the Ministerial Directives on torture issued by the previous government to conform to the unconditional ban on torture in international law.

Doing so now would send an important signal to Canadians and to the international community that Canada will under no circumstances use information from a foreign country that was likely obtained under torture, or share information that could likely lead to an individual being tortured.

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