15 May 2025, OTTAWA – As the new Liberal government works to set its priorities and MPs prepare to return to Ottawa, Canada faces a turbulent world where fundamental rights are being eroded both internationally and at home. To protect these rights and ensure they do not simply become empty promises, the government must prioritize strong, concrete and unequivocal action, warns the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG) in a new open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“Over the past several months, and especially during the election campaign, all parties have been vocal that they will protect Canada’s national security. We agree that all people in Canada, and around the world, deserve to live in safety,” said Tim McSorley, national coordinator of the ICLMG. “However, we need to remember that this security cannot come at the expense of human rights and civil liberties; but rather, that protecting them is the bedrock of ensuring all of our safety.”

The full letter, online here, details necessary actions and urges governmental response:

Stop foreign surveillance and restrict information-sharing with foreign national security agencies. Notably, the government must end the application of the US Secure Flight List and other US watchlists to Canadian domestic and non-US international flights as well as halt negotiations on the Canada-US CLOUD Act agreement, which would allow US law enforcement to spy on people in Canada and access information held by Canadian companies without a warrant or oversight from Canadian courts.

Protect privacy, end mass surveillance and regulate dangerous technology, including updating Canadian laws and policies to protect against government surveillance, such as facial recognition and online data scraping, to protect against efforts to undermine encryption, and to regulate artificial intelligence (especially for national security purposes).

Protect rights at the border, including canceling the Safe Third Country Agreement, reconsidering the billion dollars being shifted into border security and instead determine how it could better meet the actual needs of people in Canada, and fast-tracking the new CBSA complaints and review body.

End Canada’s complicity in indefinite detention, unfair extradition and torture, including resolving the cases of Abousfian Abdelrazik, Mohamed Harkat and Hassan Diab, and repatriating all Canadians and family members detained in camps and prisons in Northeast Syria.

Protect freedom of expression and association, dissent and protest, internationally and at home, by amending vague and overly-broad Canadian “national security” laws and refraining from introducing new anti-protest legislation, such as “bubble zone” laws at the federal level.

Reinforce accountability, transparency and due process, including ensuring that any national security review is transparent and fully involves civil society and impacted communities, increasing funding for review bodies, and repealing changes to the Canada Evidence Act and reducing restrictions on the defence accessing evidence and other information in terrorism cases.

End the use of political, rights-violating and secretive watch lists, including the Terrorist Entities List and the Passenger Protect Program.

Defend rights in the context of counterterrorism internationally, including taking a firm stance against states using the label of “terrorism” to justify human rights abuses, particularly in regard to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and violence committed across the region by Israel.

We must remember that Canada’s national security apparatus has been used to violate the rights of Canadians many times: from complicity in the torture and detention of Canadians abroad such as Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El Maati, and Muayyed Nureddin; illegally collecting private data and monitoring our online activities; to spying on, harassing and arresting journalists, Indigenous land defenders and anti-genocide protesters as well as violently dismantling camps; and using AI and facial recognition without authorization and oversight.

“Prime Minister Carney has described his party as ‘the party of the Charter,’ and recently committed, including in conversation with the UN Secretary-General, to protecting human rights. We urge the PM and the government to show that in bold, immediate actions,” said McSorley.

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About the ICLMG:
The ICLMG is a national coalition of Canadian civil society organizations that was established in the aftermath of the rushed adoption of the Anti-terrorist Act of 2001. The coalition brings together 44 NGOs, unions, professional associations, faith groups, environmental organizations, human rights and civil liberties advocates, as well as groups representing immigrant and refugee communities in Canada. Our mandate is to defend civil liberties and human rights in the context of the so-called ‘War on Terror’.

More information:
Tim McSorley, national coordinator, ICLMG
(613) 241-5298
nationalcoordination@iclmg.ca