The Toronto 19

The arrest and detention of 21 Pakistani men in Toronto by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) is perhaps the most outrageous case of racial profiling in this country thus far and it causing mixed reactions. Some Pakistanis, mostly students, have ducked out of sight and gone into hiding, even changing their names. Some are sad but many are laughing at the outrageous number of accusations leveled against these men.

The arrests came well after midnight on August 14, (2003) a day now etched in historical memory because of the massive power outage that left people in Ontario and most of the eastern United States in darkness.


An elite anti-terrorism unit consisting of officers from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in an operation known as “Project Thread” kicked down doors, woke up sleeping men with guns to their heads, hauled them out of their beds, cuffed their arms, shackled their feet, and deposited them into prison cells.

Prison officials had a convenient name for these accented foreigners: “Al-Qaedas.” Inmates welcomed them with physical abuse and incessant taunting. The men were soon moved to solitary confinement `for their own protection.’ And when family, friends, the media, and community leaders received official confirmation from CIC of the arrests, an entire week had passed. They came to be known as ‘The Toronto 19.’

In the days that followed though two more were added to the count. And as they came up for detention review before an Immigration adjudicator, two were ordered deported to Pakistan and three were released on bail which was set at $10,000. “a ridiculously exorbitant amount for people who have not been charged with anything,” says lawyer Amina Sharazee.

The men have not been charged because there is nothing to charge them with. According to sections of Canada’s Immigration law the department is merely required to have “reasonable suspicion” that the men pose a threat to Canada’s security and with that they can be deemed inadmissible, detained and deported. CIC is not required to prove anything.

CIC arrested the men, all students or refugee claimants, because they had allegedly violated Canada’s immigration policy by registering in a bogus college “in order to enter and/or remain in Canada.” “Of the 400 odd people registered in this bogus business college which is not owned or operated by neither Muslims nor Pakistanis, only the Pakistanis and Muslims were targeted,” says Tarek Fatah, spokesperson for the Muslim Canadian Council. “What happened to the 379 others associated with this college?”

CIC made a grand leap from registration in a defunct college to the men’s “strange” behavior and from that deemed they had “reasonable grounds to suspect” the men were a threat to Canada’s national security. “If that’s not racial profiling, nothing is,” says Fatah.

At one of the many detention hearings the Commissioner of the RCMP, Giuliano Zacccardelli, was quoted as saying: “There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that there’s any terrorist threat anywhere in the country related to this investigation.” The Minister’s counsel’s response to his statement was, “of course, there isn’t, “it is an ongoing investigation.” This quote appeared in every major newspaper, radio and television news report dealing with the men’s arrest.

According to Tarek Shah, a lawyer who now represents nine of the detained men, the stigma of a security threat will have a damning impact on their lives if and when they are returned to Pakistan. Showing evident frustration, Shah complained that the department will not let him address the allegations of security threat at their detention reviews. “Where did the three van loads of seized evidence vanish to? They should have been brought in court. But now they are not even discussing that issue. They just want that issue to be closed,” he says.

In a four page backgrounder on Project Thread, the Immigration Department outlined its grounds for “reasonable suspicion” and thus its reasons for continued detention.

The men are between the ages of 18-33. They [all but one] “are from, or have connections to, the Punjab province in Pakistan that is noted for Sunni extremism.

Tarek Shah, the lawyer, finds this preposterous. The men never hid their ages from anyone least of all immigration officials. Most of the men are from Faisalabad. Faisal Zafar, a friend of several of the men, described Faisalabad as a moderate city in the Punjab and a whole lot different from Karachi where sectarian violence plagues its streets night and day. The Minister’s counsel argues that these points are not meant to be taken in isolation.

The men entered Canada as students but didn’t do much studying. They had the ability to support themselves but had no clear source of income. They had contact with each other and resided in clusters of 4 or 5 while maintaining a minimal standard of living.

How much studying can a person do when learning to read and write English? Some of the men got jobs delivering pizza, some worked at convenience stores and others received funds from their relatives in Pakistan. One of them used two addresses but only registered one with the immigration department. His lawyer explained that he did that to get cheaper insurance for his car. Given the extremely high rates of car insurance who can blame the man?

Two brothers among the 21 belonged to a family with a very lucrative business in Pakistan. In other words, papa has a lot of money and he ensured his boys were comfortable. When you are an immigrant you do nothing but maintain a minimal standard of living and you live with others who are in a like position.

Ø The RCMP received complaints that the men engaged in “strange behavior.” Unexplained fires occurred in their apartment. A shotgun was fired into the air. Aeroplane schematics were posted on a wall as well as pictures of guns.

The Minister has not been able to explain just what is so strange about the men’s behavior. As for the fires, no fire marshal reports were presented. In fact, the landlord said that on one occasion the alleged fire was a lot of smoke that was created when one of the men ‘tried’ to make soup. The implication though was that the men were cooking up bomb-making chemicals.

Ø One of the men (the one Indian) was enrolled in flight school to qualify as a multi-engine commercial pilot. His flight path for training flies over the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant. He often brings with him an unknown male as a passenger. His instructors have described him as an unmotivated student.

It would have been nice to point out to the reading public that the normal route for all students registered in the flight school’s program goes by the power plant. Immigration officials nor the administrators at the flight school seem to know who or when the said student brought with him “unknown male as a passenger.”

Ø Two associates of the group were found by Durham Regional Police outside the gates of Pickering Nuclear Power station on a cool, damp morning in April 2002. They requested that they be allowed to enter the perimeter in order to go for a walk on the beech.

This accusation is fairly damning by itself given the way it is presented. In the detention review hearing D. Ormon, lawyer representing Anwar Mohammad: “My client knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who was walking around the power plant. Now, it’s not alleged that my client knew this person who was walking around the power plant, so essentially, I could potentially pose a security threat if I knew the Minister’s Counsel, the Minister’s Counsel knew someone, that someone knew someone else, they knew someone else. I don’t’ think that’s a reasonable suspicion.”

Ø “RCMP Emergency Response Team Members, who are trained in psychological assessment, expressed concern over the calm demeanor of subjects at addresses where ‘dynamic enter’ was used. (Meaning shock and awe). The same calm demeanor was found by CIC officers interviewing subjects after their arrest.

What this all amounts to, says members of Project Threadbare, a city-wide coalition of civil rights activists who are demanding the release of the men, is that if you are a refugee or a foreign student from Pakistan, no, the Punjab province, between the ages of 18 and 33, living in clusters with very little to clutter your apartment, you can’t cook, you speak bad English, or your friend’s friend to the third degree did something strange, you take flying lessons or go near a flight school, watch out, you too may be a security threat.

In a very short period of time Project Threadbare has launched a very aggressive campaign aimed at bringing awareness to the men’s detention. The overwhelming show of support has come from non-Muslims. The campaign is aptly called: “Being Pakistani is NOT a crime!”

Ormon summarizes the Minister of Immigration’s position best when he said: “We don’t have anything right now and possibly we may uncover something, but in the meantime, detain the 19.” What the Minister is saying is that while there is no evidence to suggest that there’s a terrorist threat, there is evidence to have “reasonable suspicion” that there is a terrorists threat. In other words, what Project Thread calls “reasonable suspicion” Project Threadbare calls “racial profiling.”

What, under normal circumstances, should have been the case of a bunch of ordinary chaps from an impoverished and corrupt third world country trying to worm their way into Canada, has been turned into a circus aimed at protecting Canadians from a bunch of so-called ‘terrorists.’

And with that CIC has played into the hands of those who are convinced that Canada’s generous immigration and refugee policy is to be blamed for crime, unemployment, and now add to the list, terror. They would rather have Canada slam shut its doors to the world’s poor and dispossessed, the very people who built this country from bottom up.

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