Justice committee  --which, along with terrorism, are considered among the most serious violations of international law. I know that you're all familiar with the case of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian citizen who went to Iran in 2003 with a permit to take photos. She died of the extreme torture to whic

Justice committee  Distinguished members of the committee, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about part 1 of Bill C-10, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act. I am the executive director of the Canadian Centre for International Justice, which is based here in Ottaw

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As Mr. Marston raised, I think there is sometimes this concern about what will happen to Canadians elsewhere, and what is already happening in Iran and Libya, and so on. I think the response is almost the flip side of the way it was presented. Right now we are seeing the commissi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Let me first of all say thank you so much for those expressions of support. We know there's a lot of election talk right now and that people are likely starting to have an eye to that potential. But we felt it was really important to have the opportunity to come. We know this c

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think that the new war crimes legislation was passed in 2000, of course, because Canada had ratified the new International Criminal Court treaty and had the obligation to implement the treaty into Canadian law. So it looked at the criminal cases and looked at our history in Can

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Certainly the issue is whether the State Immunity Act, as it currently stands, is constitutional and complies with international standards. As you said, the UN Committee Against Torture, when it said in a previous case, the Bouzari case, that Canada was in violation of its obliga

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Distinguished members of the committee, I want to thank you very much for the opportunity you have provided me to appear before you once more to discuss how survivors of serious human rights violations can turn to Canada's judicial system when all other options have been exhauste

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Certainly we looked at that piece of legislation and we have talked about whether it's a matter of adding these crimes, because they are on exactly the same level. The crimes of terrorism, of course, have been very much in the public eye since September 11 globally, and I think i

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would say no. I would be quite dismayed to see a list of countries that would be exempt. In part, it relates to the answer to your previous question about why those countries, those four in particular, in the U.S.... My understanding is that the amendment to the Foreign Soverei

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The distinction here is that we're asking that those who commit torture, and ideally a few other categories of the most serious crimes of international concern--war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide--cannot be protected by the State Immunity Act. I think it's a separa

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Perhaps I'll throw out one and then see if anyone else.... Of course I'll respond to it, but perhaps others would like to raise this. In thinking this through, one of the things we assumed would get raised, which I addressed to some extent in my opening statement, is whether thi

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In fact I was going to answer, but perhaps I'll let the lawyers on the case answer that.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you. Perhaps I'll start, or would you like to start, Mark?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Perhaps I can just add one additional clarification in terms of how this is done in the U.S. There are two pieces of legislation, the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victims Protection Act. Those create, essentially, the cause of action. They create the possibility of suing

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would add that when I was referring to the review of Canada's record by the United Nations Convention against Torture and they essentially said that Canada was in breach of its obligations, it was essentially because of the interpretation of the State Immunity Act that was give