nightslantern.ca: #USA / #Québec // July 19, 2019
25.7.17
U.S.A.: two threatened actions by the Trump
administration may be points of no return in the enforcement of an illegal
neo-fascist American agenda. The Department of Homeland Security has reportedly
told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the DACA program will be dismantled.
The "Deterred Action for Childhood Arrivals" program assures over 800,000
immigrants without official papers, work permits and a kind of asylum. The
Department of Homeland Security has also warned that some undocumented workers
under Temporary Protected Status risk
having their TPS status cancelled. The disenfranchised are threatened with
deportation to countries many have fled at the risk of their lives. Deportation
to their countries of origin would be a violation of international law.
According to Article 33 of
the United
Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, "1. No Contracting State shall expel or return
("refouler") a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories
where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion,
nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion."
This Article is enforced by the U.S.
accession to the 1967
Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, Nov. 1, 1968.
The Trump administration's disregard for aspects of human rights is underscored
by the reported closing of the U.S. State Department's Office of Global Criminal
Justice. The office was tasked with applying justice to war criminals. It has
attempted to further U.S. policy interests at the International Criminal Court.
It has recently engaged in identifying the sources of war crimes in
Syria. Partial sources online: "Trump
administration to end legal protection for over one million immigrants in US,"
Genevieve Leigh, July 15, 2017, World Socialist Web
Site; "Those with DACA or TPS should “get ready to fight mass deportation”:
Gutiérrez," Ricardo Ibarra, July 17,2017, La Prensa
Sonoma; "Donald Trump's administration 'closes State Department office that
investigates war crimes and genocide'," Ben Kentish, July 18,
2017, Independent; "Tillerson to Shutter State
Department War Crimes Office," Colum Lynch, July 17,
2017, Foreign Policy (FP).
Québec City, Québec: Québec Muslims have been denied
permission to develop a cemetery in the town of Saint-Apollinaire 35 kilometres
from Québec City. The attempt to buy land adjacent to an established cemetery
followed the massacre of Muslims at the Québec City mosque on January 29th. Five
of the six victims were returned to their birth lands for burial and one was
buried in the only Muslim cemetery in Québec currently, at Laval. The denial was
possible when zoning changes which allowed the new cemetery were overturned by a
19 to 16 vote of town residents. The CBC reports that
La Meute (see 1 and 2) was involved in early
protest against the Muslim cemetery, applied through a petition to force the
referendum which overturned the zoning changes. In a meeting at the Islamic
Cultural Centre of Québec City after the vote, it was revealed that two days
before, Canada Post had delivered a package containing a defaced Qur'an and a
hate note in French suggesting the Muslims use a pig farm for their cemetery.
There are also previous reports of strangers approaching the Mosque, asking for
money etc. and running away. After Québec City's initial public show of sympathy
and support for its Muslim community, survivors of the January 29th attack live
under a kind of terror. Current information on accused murderer Alexandre
Bissonnette, is not easily available. At Bissonnette's court appearance on
February 21, 2017, the judge ordered a publication ban. Charged with six counts
of murder and five counts of attempted murder he's expected in court September
8th. The Québec Court Judge Jean-Louis Lemay has expressed concern with delays
caused by the Crown's (ie. the prosecution's) slowness in disclosing evidence
against Bissonnette. Several murder suspects have been freed in Québec due to a
Supreme Court ruling last year (the Jordan decision) which requires Provincial
Court legal proceedings be completed within 18 months.
Partial sources online: "Quebec
town votes against allowing Islamic cemetery to be built," Kenyon Wallace, July
16, 2017, Toronto Star; "Voters reject Quebec City-area
Muslim cemetery project 19 to 16 ," Jonathan Hayward, July 17,
2017, The Canadian Press; "Quebec City mayor worried
about far-right group linked to cemetery referendum," Jonathan Montpetit, July
18 & 19, 2017, CBC News; "Defaced Qur'an, hateful
note sent to Quebec City mosque where January shootings occurred," July 19,
2017, CBC News; "Quebec mosque shooting suspect
Alexandre Bissonnette changes lawyer," Andy Riga, March 30,
2017, Montreal Gazette; "Judge worried about delays in
alleged mosque shooter case," Canadian Press, May 29,
2017, CTV News Montreal.
-by J.B.Gerald, Gerald and Maas nightslantern.ca
Read the full article …
Dispatch: Aboriginal Press Media Group |
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