Building Support through Partnerships

One way to build support for this policy change is through creating partnerships. It is important to work with others who are already in support of this type of policy change to ensure that the change does in fact occur. As explained in an earlier blog the NDP, BQ and some Liberal MPS already support the policy shift. It is important to continue to work with these individuals and groups to repeal the security certificate provisions.

Another way to form partnership would be to work with legal associations and experts. The Canadian Bar Association could play a very important role in this process. They are needed to ensure that the repeal process does in fact go through and that any changes that are made are still constitutional. It would also be important to have their expertise in the legalities of the change. Also the Muslim Lawyers Association in particular would be of great help to this cause. Many of the members of this association have been very vocal in their criticisms of the security certificates and have already been asking for the immediate repeal of them.

Civil society organizations would also be of assistance in ensuring this repeal happens. The Canadian Council on Refugees is an organization that has been involved in studying and criticizing security certificates for quite some time now. This organization has criticized how the Canadian government creates policies related to immigrants and refugees. They have recently been very vocal on the negative consequences of the current immigration, refugee and citizenship policies, including security certificates in Canada.

The Council has repeatedly called on the Canadian government to abandon the use of security certificates. The replacement security measure recommended by the Council is the same policy change that we have been promoting. The Council also believes that using criminal proceedings are a viable alternative and as such support their repeal.

Amnesty International is another civil society organization that could build support for the change. Amnesty International is an internationally recognized and well respected global organization that is committed to the values of freedom, equity and justice. Amnesty International has already expressed great concern for the way in which the security certificates violate human rights. They have criticized the certificates for ignoring international human rights standards and have asked the government to replace security certificates with a type of measure that is fair and just.