Matthew Behrens

Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who coordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. His column "Taking Liberties" examines connections between national security and civil liberties. Behrens has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. "national security" profiling for many years.

Columnists

May 21, 2013

Canada's culture of mean: Beating up on refugees

Matthew Behrens

Testifying before a Senate committee on a repressive piece of deportation legislation, refugee rights lawyer Barb Jackman aptly summed up the mean political culture that increasingly grips the land.

Columnists

Apr 22, 2013

The cluster bombs of Boston and drone strikes of Yemen

Matthew Behrens

The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing were acting no differently than a general in the Pentagon when they detonated a crude version of weapons that are a regular part of many a military arsenal.

Columnists

Mar 19, 2013

Warm and fuzzies: Canadian mythmaking on the 10th anniversary of a slaughter

Matthew Behrens

This past week has provided Canadians with a series of warm and fuzzies that, like most of this nation's mythology, were built on self-congratulatory lies.

Columnists

Feb 21, 2013

Terrorism against women: The war that never ends

Matthew Behrens

The utter failure to implement an action plan to end violence against women stands in stark contrast to the open coffers for Canada's weapons manufacturers and torture-complicit spy agencies.

Columnists

Jan 21, 2013

In the spirit of Dr. King, a call for refugee sanctuary

Matthew Behrens

While Canadian churches have a long and conflicted history, they now have a unique opportunity to provide sanctuary and thereby live out Martin Luther King's call for relevance and witness.

Columnists

Dec 21, 2012

Harkats head back to Supreme Court after 10 years of secret trial nightmare

Matthew Behrens

In 2013, the core issue, unremarkably, boils down to the same problem that the Supreme Court identified in its 2007 decision: how can one meet a case that one does not know?

Columnists

Dec 7, 2012

Perversions of justice in Canada's cases of inadmissibility

Matthew Behrens

Findings of inadmissibility in Canada's immigration system are condemning growing numbers to endless deportation procedures or decades of essentially stateless limbo.

Columnists

Nov 21, 2012

Canadian vets victimized by national security state

Matthew Behrens

While war veterans have never enjoyed the support they required, the gap between "support our troops" rhetoric and the reality of veterans' lives has become increasingly wide in the Harper years.

Columnists

Oct 22, 2012

Canadian Khalid Awan remains stranded after years at U.S. 'Gitmo in the Heartland'

Matthew Behrens

While Omar Khadr returned from Guantanamo Bay this fall, another abandoned Canadian will shortly mark 11 years behind bars, much of that time in an Indiana hellhole known as Little Guantanamo.

Columnists

Sep 20, 2012

Taking Liberties: Canada's growing torture infrastructure

Matthew Behrens

Agencies of the Canadian state, from spies to judges, have wedged open a door to legitimize complicity in a practice that both domestic and international law ban outright.

Matthew Behrens

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