Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Nov. 26th, 2024

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Are they not even trying to hide this?

[Uma Ruthiramoorthy]

No, it's not hidden. It's right there in the open, in your face.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I think I have about 30 seconds left.

Very quickly, you talked about family back home being threatened based on things that people are doing in other countries around the world. Is this common? Is this something that is tracked in any way?

[Uma Ruthiramoorthy]

It is, 100%. Surveillance goes on constantly in Sri Lanka of families of victims. It's constant. It doesn't matter if an individual has left Sri Lanka or is still there. The fact that somebody has made a complaint means their entire family is surveilled.

We've seen reports from the UN in which they've recorded accounts of families getting knocks on the door in the middle of the night and phone calls in the middle of the day. The surveillance can be your simple police officer at the end of the street surveilling you. They are not just victims of other human rights violations but also of enforced disappearances. We're hearing of actual mothers who have had direct interactions with the police and army simply for being a parent of a missing person.

Yes, in all of the cases where we've tried to submit submissions or papers and tried to get victim statements, people have not wanted to come forward for fear of what might happen to their family back home.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Now I invite Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe to take the floor for two minutes, please.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Ms. Hui.

On November 19, we witnessed something very difficult for many Hong Kongers, as well as for the Hong Kong diaspora: the High Court of Hong Kong sentenced 45 pro-democracy leaders for their participation in the 2020 democratic primaries. Under the notorious national security law, sentences ranged from four to 10 years.

Does this kind of show of force by a totalitarian regime like the one in Hong Kong demotivate or scare the diaspora even more? Are people more afraid to speak out or publicly oppose the regime when they see such measures being taken?

[Frances Hui]

Thank you for mentioning the 45 activists. They were sentenced to jail last week, and some of them are close friends of mine, actually.

What has happened to Hong Kong in the past few years has had a profound impact on the diaspora and the entire Hong Kong community. Many of them left Hong Kong because of that. Even when they have left Hong Kong and are residing in a safe country—the U.S., Canada, the U.K. or elsewhere in democracies—they don't feel safe to speak up.

There's a general fear to speak up. There's a general sense of self-censorship happening. A lot fewer people are willing to speak up to touch on the situation in Hong Kong on their social media or even in interpersonal exchanges with their friends or family. They, as I said, don't want to associate with people who continue to be outspoken because they are afraid that they would also be targeted. When they—

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you, Ms. Hui.

Mr. Johns, you have the floor for two minutes, please.

[Gord Johns, NDP, Courtenay—Alberni, BC]

I want to go back to Ms. Hui.

We ran out of time when I asked a question about what more can be done to ensure the safety of and prevent the silencing of women, political activists and human rights defenders, especially women who are dissidents fleeing transnational repression.

You had just started. You had 10 seconds, and I want to give you some more time to talk about that and also about Ms. Kwan's efforts to pressure the Minister of Foreign Affairs to withdraw privileges and immunities for the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

How can foreign governments effectively counter transnational repression by the PRC while managing those economic and political pressures at the same time?

I think you have two minutes to reply, so I'll hand it over to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

You have one minute.

[Frances Hui]

Thank you so much.

I'll go back and say again that we should define transnational repression in the law and criminalize these threats. It should be in the law, the definition of transnational repression.

Second—and I think this applies to victims and especially to women victims—we need to provide victim support with emotional support, legal support and personal support.

Third, we need training and education with agencies on how they can handle these reports of transnational repression. We need training for victims, for civil society and for human rights defenders, especially those who are most vulnerable to this repression, to know what resources are available for them, what they can do when certain things happen and what they should do to protect themselves from harm.

The last thing I would talk about is that I think it would be great if we could increase the capacity of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to counter foreign influence in a coordinated way. Maybe a hotline should be set up for targets of transnational repression to report these cases to corresponding agencies. Perhaps a commission could even be set up that handles these reports and is also responsible for inter-agency coordination so that all the federal agencies that are doing this can coordinate and counter that in a more coordinated way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you, Ms. Hui. You exceeded the time by 15 seconds. Thank you.

On behalf of all members of the committee and their staff, I would like to thank both witnesses. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you for your testimonies and for your declarations. They were very interesting to our committee.

If you feel that any other information would be interesting to the committee, please feel free to write to the clerk or me. Thank you.

Now I will suspend for a few minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

We will restart our meeting, please.

I would like to welcome the witnesses.

As an individual, we have Noura Aljizawi, senior researcher with The Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto.

From Secure Canada, we have Sarah Teich, legal counsel.

You will have a maximum of five minutes for your remarks, after which we will proceed with a question period.

Welcome, Ms. Aljizawi.

I would like to give you the floor for five minutes. You can start, please.

[Noura Aljizawi, Senior Researcher, The Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto, As an Individual]

Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Noura Aljizawi. I'm an exiled human rights defender as well as a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto.

My research investigates digital transnational repression against exiled activists and human rights defenders. In Canada we hear much about foreign interference, cyber espionage and attacks on critical infrastructure, but the phenomenon of digital transnational repression, which is a growing global threat, remains under-recognized. While transnational repression itself is not a new phenomenon, it involves the extension of authoritarian practices to target individuals who may feel safe because they live beyond the authoritarian borders of their countries of origin.

Digital surveillance technology has made it easier for dictators to expand their repression beyond borders. Digital transnational repression arises, basically, when authoritarian regimes use digital surveillance tools to intimidate, silence and harass dissident voices in exile and the diaspora. These tactics include a range of technologies such as spyware and malware, phishing, harassment, disinformation and smear campaigns.

For example, in 2018 Citizen Lab revealed that Saudi activist Omar Abdulaziz, who is based in Montreal, had his device compromised by Pegasus spyware. This attack, attributed to a Saudi-linked operator, gave full access to Abdulaziz's device and private communications with fellow dissidents, including some who were back home as well as those in exile, such as the journalist Jamal Khashoggi—messages exchanged just weeks before Khashoggi's assassination. Abdulaziz also endured physical threats and attempts to lure him to go back to Saudi Arabia. This story, in particular, inspired us at Citizen Lab to look at how exiled dissidents are targeted and impacted by digital threats.

Based on the experiences of 103 exiled dissidents in Canada and other democracies, our research revealed widespread perpetration. Basically, more than 20 state actors are involved in digital transnational repression—and I mean 20 state actors beyond Russia, China and Iran, the classic actors. Digital threats often escalate to physical threats. Despite their resilience, targets experience the chilling effects of digital transnational repression, including impacts on their well-being, sense of security, essential freedoms and even immigration status. Many of them have experienced emotional, physical, professional and financial distress. Some even became socially isolated: They had to cut ties with their family members and friends back home. As well, many of them reported questioning the meaning of continuing their activism in exile, and some decided to cease their activism altogether.

There's absolutely a significant gendered dimension of digital transnational repression when women are targeted. They endure additional layers of gender-based harassment and abuses and, while many victims reported to law enforcement, they found the responses insufficient. Finally, the inactions of host states can embolden perpetrators to escalate their attacks.

To combat this growing threat, we recommend to Canada that, to start, we need, really, for Canada to believe that we must take preventive measures and to not respond to cases as individual cases. These are not isolated cases or incidents. These practices and incidents are a pattern, and we need to prevent them, not only respond to them.

My key recommendations are in four areas. I can elaborate more on them. Basically, we need legislative and policy reforms. We need Canada to recognize digital transnational repression and oppression, to revise existing frameworks to prevent any harm that can be caused on targets and to differentiate transnational repression from foreign interference.

We need Canada to hold perpetrators accountable, including state actors as well as the private sector, whose technology is being used in digital transnational repression or whose platforms have been facilitating the harassment of exiled activists.

We need Canada to design a framework to support the targets by, maybe, creating a whole-of-government agency to monitor, report and respond to digital transnational repression systematically, to empower targets and to provide digital security resources, legal assistance and mental health support. Also, we need to work with the communities. On top of that, we need to adopt an intersectional approach to recognize the unique vulnerabilities of women, racialized groups and other marginalized targets of digital transnational repression and transnational repression.

Finally, transnational repression is a global problem—

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Can you wrap it up, please? Time is up.

[Noura Aljizawi]

My recommendations are up.

Thank you so much. I'm happy to respond to your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Now I would like to invite Ms. Sarah Teich to take the floor for five minutes.

[Sarah Teich, Legal Adviser, Secure Canada]

Good afternoon. My name is Sarah Teich. I am a lawyer based in Toronto. I am representing Secure Canada today.

Secure Canada is a non-profit organization dedicated to combatting terrorism and extremism by creating innovative laws, policies and alliances that strengthen Canada’s national security and democracy. It is a partner organization of Human Rights Action Group, the legal non-profit I co-founded two years ago with David Matas.

Together with Secure Canada, we published a report in September 2023 on combatting foreign interference and transnational repression in Canada. David and I also represented the Human Rights Coalition recently before the foreign interference commission.

Transnational repression in developing democracies is a critical subject for the Canadian government to address. We spent a great deal of time at the recent commission discussing the long arms of various authoritarian regimes in Canada. However, we have not yet adequately covered the topic of the long arms of authoritarian regimes in unsafe third countries, and this presents a particular vulnerability. Such instances have devastating impacts on Canadians.

Indeed, while transnational repression on Canadian soil can be devastating in terms of its impact and consequences, autocrats can act even more boldly in regions that have less stringent rule of law safeguards. There are several examples of instances with a Canadian nexus. Some of the more particularly egregious examples are those involving kidnapping or illegal renditions.

Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen who has been arbitrarily detained in the PRC for almost 20 years now, first arrived in Canada in 2001 as a political refugee before becoming a Canadian citizen four years later. He was arrested by Uzbek police during his visit to Uzbekistan in March 2006 and was quietly handed over to Chinese authorities in June of that year.

The Iranian regime engages in this form of transnational repression as well, including through its proxies. Hamas’s kidnapping of Canadians from Israel to the Gaza strip is an example of this. Iris Weinstein, the daughter of Judih Weinstein Haggai—a Canadian who was taken hostage by Hamas last year—visited Parliament just earlier this month, urging the Canadian government to help bring her mother’s body home.

In 2021, Iran also attempted to kidnap Canadians directly from North America. U.S. authorities foiled the plot. The perpetrators planned to kidnap five targets, three of whom were residing in Canada, and forcibly transport them to Iran. Such a plot may well have been successful had it targeted individuals residing elsewhere. Iranian agents abducted German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd from a hotel in Dubai and forcibly returned him to Iran. His execution was reported by state-run media late last month.

Just five days ago, Israeli Moldovan rabbi, Zvi Kogan, disappeared and was murdered in Abu Dhabi. The perpetrators were Uzbeks, with emerging reports that they may have been hired by the IRGC.

Beyond China and Iran, Turkey engages in similar acts. The Kacmaz and Acar families, who are now residing in Canada, were kidnapped by Turkish authorities in Pakistan and Bahrain, respectively, and forcibly deported back to Turkey. They were detained, imprisoned and tortured before arriving in Canada.

In short, this is a threat posed by numerous dictatorships, and it is important that Canada develop strong policy to protect Canadians and their loved ones overseas from the long arms of autocrats.

What strong policy can be implemented? I don't have enough time here today to go into this with the detail that I would like, but, in short, there are numerous initiatives that I believe this committee can and should recommend the government undertake. I'll name just a few.

Travel advisories should be sufficiently updated.

Canada can develop clear policy and lead an international initiative on the provision of consular services to dual nationals, since that is a common challenge when dealing with countries like China and Iran, which do not recognize dual citizens.

As well, Bill C-353, which is before the foreign affairs committee today and Thursday, should be prioritized and passed into law, as this would enhance the government's tool kit to respond to some of these cases.

I'll leave it there, and I'll be happy to answer questions.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you for your time. It's been very well respected.

Now I would like to invite Mr. Majumdar to take the floor for five minutes.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, witnesses.

I know that time is short, so let me encourage you both to provide in writing to the committee some fuller recommendations, particularly if you could help us define transnational repression from your perspective, whether it's digital, or, as Ms. Teich described, quite literal, and the tools and recommendations you would have for how the Government of Canada can work toward curbing the threat of transnational repression in third countries.

Let me start with you, Ms. Teich, friend and former colleague. It's good to see you.

Marcus Kolga, our former colleague at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, has proposed creating an international coalition of nations affected by transnational repression, many of which I think you covered, potentially within the G7 or NATO.

Can I ask you to expand upon this a little bit and provide to the committee and our colleagues here what a coalition could look like and how member nations might be best able to build a unified response to counter the transnational repression posed by tyrants and rivals who are clearly working with each other and using very similar tools.

[Sarah Teich]

That's a great question.

I would like to start by quoting Noura. It does require a global response. This is a global problem, and I think a coalition is a great idea. I fully endorse that suggestion.

In terms of what it may accomplish, I can think off the top of my head of a couple of examples.

One relates to one of the topics I recently described, which is this idea of dual nationality and the importance of developing international consensus. When Canadians are detained in countries like China and Iran, and they hold Canadian citizenship and Chinese or Iranian citizenship respectively, there are hurdles to that person's receiving consular assistance and any other type of assistance. Getting them medicines, etc., all becomes very challenging when the country that they're held in doesn't recognize that they're also a Canadian citizen.

One thing that David and I have recommended over the years is that there be an international consensus policy, perhaps among the like-minded, as part of this sort of coalition, which outlines how Canada reacts to these types of situations and asserts very strongly in public policy that Canada doesn't agree with that interpretation and that Canada considers these people Canadian citizens.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

That's very helpful. Thank you, Ms. Teich.

Ms. Aljizawi, I want to compliment you on your work at the Citizen Lab. Over a decade ago, I had the honour of working with your team on countering Iranian repression domestically and internationally.

If you don't mind, take a bit of a wider look across the region. We've seen in recent times this relationship between the al-Assad regime and the Iranian regime. Do you see these two authoritarian regimes working to aid each other in carrying out acts of transnational repression?

[Noura Aljizawi]

Absolutely. As a researcher, it's hard sometimes to wear the other hat and tell personal stories. My relationship with the Citizen Lab came through the targeted attack on me through digital means. It was attributed, after analysis, to Iranian operators, although I am not Iranian. I'm a Syrian citizen. My whole human rights and peace work activism was for Syria, but I was threatened a couple of times by the Iranian ambassador in Geneva. I was harassed online by trolls linked to Iran, Russia and Hezbollah.

This is why I'm saying that it's a global problem. These bad actors really have each other's backs, whereas victims are stuck somewhere in democracies, and these democracies, unfortunately, don't coordinate with each other.

[Shuv Majumdar, Conservative, Calgary Heritage, AB]

That's a great response, and thank you for sharing your personal experience with us.

When you think about victims of transnational repression in third countries around the world, what kind of support for their rights might be best assembled? Could it be a contact group that focuses on holding these regimes to account? Are there new digital tools that are available for democracies to work with to expand the rights of the oppressed?