Interview with human rights lawyer on transnational repression
Davut Akça, a member of Northern Justice Watch (NJW) and an assistant professor at the Lakehead University, and NJW Communications team member Ruveyda Dos have conducted an interview with Toronto-based human rights lawyer Sarah Teich on transnational repression and its implications on Canada.
The interview tackled transnational repression as a concept and its impact on diaspora communities in Canada on the occasion of a report released jointly by Human Rights Action Group where Teich is a member and Council for Secure Canada to explore authoritarian regimes’ harassment of Canada-based critics and to call on Ottawa to protect Canadians from abusive foreign interference.
Teich explained that their work as human rights defenders with communities like Uyghurs, Tamils and Turks inspired the report.
“What we try to do where possible is when there’s a phenomenon that affects everyone, we like to go after that phenomenon in a systemic way,” she said. “Because that serves every community that we work for.”
Concerning the implications of transnational repression on Canada, Teich described it as a serious threat to sovereignty.
“Because when you have rogue regimes halfway around the world influencing the Canadian elections, it’s really quite a big deal,” she said.
Teich said the abuse can also have a silencing effect on diaspora communities, particularly individuals who do not necessarily have a full grasp of their legal rights in their host countries.
In terms of prevention, she said Canada’s tools for combatting transnational repression are not enough.
“For example, we have the Security of Information Act, which is probably the closest thing we have in terms of a specific legislation,” she said. “But the offenses that it prescribes are quite narrow in a lot of respects, so that act can and should be amended.”
“There should be a hotline that victims of transnational repression can call,” she added, suggesting that diaspora communities can cooperate with the authorities in providing linguistic services for that hotline.
“Even in the absence of a government hotline, perhaps Northern Justice Watch could position itself as an organization that victims can go to when they’ve been encountering some of these issues,” she said. “There are many gaps because the Government of Canada hasn’t done quite enough to combat this. Maybe civil society, at least in the short term, can fill that gap.”
Teich said their report is not necessarily intended to raise awareness as the general public is unlikely to read 200 pages of detailed analysis.
“I think putting the information in sort of more palatable pieces whether [in the form of] a series of opinion pieces, talking to the media, social media campaigns.. it’s not something we’ve done but it’s something that should be done to raise awareness,” she said.
Titled “Combatting Transnational Repression and Foreign Interference in Canada,” the joint report of Human Rights Action Group and Secure Canada was endorsed by Northern Justice Watch as well as a number of Canada-based human rights NGOs and diaspora groups.
The publication highlights state perpetrators of transnational repression such as China and Turkey, citing specific incidents from around the world.
Recommendations put forth by the report includes, among others, the creation of a dedicated agency, criminalization of refugee espionage and imposition of targeted sanctions on perpetrators.
