to address past failures to properly investigate cases. In November, the UN CEDAW Committee called on Canada to ensure that the National Inquiry would investigate the role of policing. In November, prosecutors in the Province of Quebec laid charges in only two of 37 complaints brought mostly by Indigenous women alleging abuse by police. The Independent Observer appointed to oversee the cases raised concerns about systemic racism. In December the Quebec government announced a public inquiry into the treatment of Indigenous Peoples by provincial bodies. In November, the Quebec government launched a public inquiry into surveillance of journalists by police. COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY In February, legislation was introduced to reverse 2014 Citizenship Act reforms allowing for dual nationals convicted of terrorism and other offences to be stripped of Canadian citizenship. In February, the government withdrew an appeal against the 2015 bail decision releasing Omar Khadr – a Canadian citizen held at the US detention centre in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for 10 years beginning when he was 15 years old and transferred to a Canadian prison in 2012. In November, the Federal Court ruled that the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service practice of indefinitely retaining metadata from phone and email logs was unlawful. Mediation broke off in the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin who were seeking redress on the basis of a 2008 judicial inquiry report documenting the role of Canadian officials in their overseas arrest, imprisonment and torture. In June, the British Columbia government allowed full operations to resume at the Mount Polley mine, despite an ongoing criminal investigation into the 2014 collapse of the mine’s tailings pond and the fact that approval of the company’s long-term water treatment plan was pending. In November, a private prosecution was launched against the provincial government and the Mount Polley Mining Corporation for violations of the Fisheries Act. In May, the fifth annual report assessing the human rights impact of the CanadaColombia Free Trade Agreement was released. It again failed to evaluate human rights concerns linked to extractive projects’ effects on Indigenous Peoples and others. The government failed to adopt measures to fulfil a 2015 election promise to establish a human rights Ombudsperson for the extractive sector. Canada was urged to take that step by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in March and by the CEDAW Committee in November. Three Canadian companies faced civil lawsuits over alleged human rights abuses associated with overseas projects. A case dealing with HudBay Minerals’ Guatemalan mine was proceeding in Ontario. In October, a British Columbia court ruled that a case involving Nevsun Resources’ Eritrean mine could proceed. In November, an appeal was heard in British Columbia as to whether a JUSTICE SYSTEM Concerns mounted about extensive use of solitary confinement after the case of Adam Capay, an Indigenous man held in pre-trial solitary confinement in Ontario for over four years, became public in October. 110 REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS Throughout the year, 38,700 Syrian refugees were resettled to Canada through government and private sponsorship. In April, the Interim Federal Health Program for refugees and refugee claimants was fully restored, reversing cuts imposed in 2012. In August, the Minister of Public Safety announced increased funding for immigration detention facilities. Amnesty International Report 2016/17