Center for International and Security Studies

excerpt from journal introduction:

[...]

Moving from the realm of health care to the realm of immigration – but continuing the discussion of incarceration as a tactic of exclusion that operates beyond a framework of “crime and punishment” – I, along with Sophie and Mohamed Harkat4 discuss the recent history of security certificate detention in Canada. In “Justice in Tiers”, Sophie and Mohamed describe the practice of secret trials, where the precautionary logic of national security combines with the recognition of diminished rights for non-citizens to create a shifting system of indefinite detention, both within and outside the prison. Echoing Collins’ call to action, we argue for the abolition of security certificates. 

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The history of the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) is explored, assessing major trends shaping the current growth of carceral practices and offering suggestions for the future of the conference movement. The goal here is to facilitate the expansion of abolitionism by describing the changing nature of what is to be abolished. A discussion of the emergence of prison abolitionism and of the ICOPA is presented, describing the shift in focus from prison to penal abolition. Taking these developments and character into account, an abolitionist gaze must be expanded to reflect a carceral abolition project, encompassing contemporary penal abolitionism while acknowledging the proliferation of
carceral practices and spaces outside the traditional penal system.

Keywords: prison abolition; penal abolition; carceral abolition; ICOPA

I will be giving a short presentation on Mohamed Harkat's security certificate case, and on the current status and trajectory of the Canadian security certificate regime. Moe Harkat is one of Canada's Secret Trial Five. The Federal Court upheld the security certificate against him in December 2010, and he was served with deportation papers on January 21, 2011. He is currently pursuing an appeal that challenges the constitutionality of certificates (which, in their previous incarnation, were found to violate the Charter). These are the latest developments in a Kafkaesque saga of detention without trial, house arrest and strict conditional release, secret intelligence, and vague allegations about terrorist ties dating back to December 2002.

The second half of my presentation will discuss the contents of documents obtained under federal Access to Information law that discuss government plans for the future of security certificates.

Attendees are encouraged to sign on to the Statement Against Security Certificates (see http://www.harkatstatement.com/).

The theme of this year's SPEAK event is 'prisoners of conscience and security certificates'. I will be speaking about the legal aspects of secret trials, as well as the organization of security certificates by government agencies and potential developments on the horizon. The talk will draw on my research findings, and on recent writings. Sophie Harkat will be speaking about the lived experience of security certificate detention.

The afternoon will feature workshops. My workshop will be on how individuals and groups can use Access to Information (ATI) law to conduct research on security certificates, and on other social justice issues. The pursuit of the ‘right to know’ through ATI mechanisms runs contrary to the basic idea of secret trials, which thrive under conditions of opacity. Effective use of ATI can open up new avenues for debate and interrupt carefully-crafted government messaging campaigns.

The workshop will introduce participants to the ATI process and describe how ATI requests can be used to dig deeper into the back-stage practices of government agencies involved in the administration of security certificates. A particular focus will be placed on using ATI requests to obtain records that can be incorporated into journalism and other writing that counters the official narratives about security certificates. Participants will be provided with a short guide on filing a federal ATI request as well as copies of request forms, and will, by the end of the workshop, be able to take action by filing their own ATI requests.

Click below to download the event poster.

Criminologists and socio-legal scholars have proposed that late modernity is defined by (in)security -understood as both the shared experience of pervasive insecurity, uncertainty, and unease, and an expansionary security apparatus or field based on the identification, pre-emption, and management of security problems. This course will explore key debates and theoretical approaches related to governing -and governing through -(in)security, and connect this literature to contemporary security practices. We will focus on the ways in which institutions associated with criminal justice have been shaped by the problem of security and incorporated into the transnational field of unease management. Our work will be guided by a close engagement with Richard Ericson's research on 'counter-law', which builds on Foucault's work on governmentality and Agamben's work on states of exception.

The third Arab development symposium (ADS) - covers issues related to the double transition from education to work in the Arab World. It was held in Kuwait in November 2014. The previous two symposia focused on food and water security in the Arab World and on small and medium enterprises reinvigorating the developmental role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Arab countries. The ADS is a joint effort between the Arab fund for economic and social development and the World Bank (Middle East and North Africa Region) to provide an opportunity for policymakers, practitioners, and academicians to share ideas and experiences on topics which are high on the Arab development agenda. As such, the ADS series complement other fora for research and knowledge sharing and dissemination.

The study aimed at measuring the impact of the open-ended questions along with lengthening wait time in explaining the unit of Islamic Jurisprudence prescribed in the book of Islamic education for the tenth grade and its relationship to the achievement and higher-order thinking skills. The study consisted of 60 students in the tenth grade in Arjan Secondary School for Girls in Amman Borough Directorate during the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015. The students were chosen intentionally and distributed equally and randomly on the study groups (the control group and the experimental group). The researcher has used the quasi-experimental method and has also built two tools for the study, the first tool is an achievement test, and the second is higher-order thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) to measure a variable effect (open ended questions with a waiting time of 5 seconds) on the variables of achievement and higher thinking skills. The study results showed that the arithmetic average for the experimental group that learned using open-ended question, with different cognitive levels along with a wait time of 5 seconds was the highest, amounting to (20.57), while the control group that learned using close questions with the normal wait time amounted to (15.27(. Moreover, it showed the presence of statistically significant differences between the averages of the two sets of performance differences study on the post-test and on the higher thinking skills test, in favor of the experimental group.