statism watch

CSIS had nothing but smoke and mirrors. With any luck, the fascist ‘security certificate’ provisions are next. The Kafkaesque notion of secret evidence should be no more welcome in this country than secret trials.

Flashback: Charkaoui asks court to toss security certificate case | Selective enforcement: Charkaoui barred from US airspace on flight from Fredericton to Montreal | CSIS reviews security certificate cases in wake of criticism | Tories aim to bring back anti-terrorism provisions | High court reprimands CSIS policy of destroying secret evidence in security case | More secrecy added to already secret process | Charkaoui set to fight new security certificate law | New security certificates issued | The New Security Certificate: Rushing injustice through the Senate | Court puts security certificates in limbo

Andrew Chung, Toronto Star
September 24, 2009

Adil Charkaoui, 36, was arrested in 2003 under Canada’s embattled “security certificate” system

MONTREAL — Once branded a terrorist operative, jailed, and headed for deportation, Moroccan-born Montreal resident Adil Charkaoui will soon be a free man.

During a hearing in Federal Court, this morning, Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer told the court she will issue an order later today to remove all the conditions limiting his freedom. Upon hearing the news Charkaoui’s parents seated in the audience broke down in tears. Charkaoui looked at them and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Charkaoui, 36, was arrested and detained in 2003 under Canada’s embattled “security certificate” system, a provision of immigration law where non-citizens deemed a threat to national security can be deported while the evidence against them is kept hidden.

The judge has yet to pronounce on the cancellation of the certificate itself and certain questions the Crown wants heard in the Federal Court of Appeal, and yet this latest step toward exoneration of Charkaoui’s six-year ordeal came quite quickly.

In late July, to circumvent a judge’s order to disclose certain intelligence, government lawyers decided to withdraw the evidence, claiming that its disclosure would undermine national security. The intelligence apparently came from communications intercepts and human sources that the government doesn’t want exposed.

As a result, Crown lawyers submitted to the judge that the evidence that remains doesn’t “meet their burden of proof” to support the certificate’s use to deport Charkaoui.

Still, Tremblay-Lamer made it clear during the morning hearing that in light of the withdrawal, she has no choice but to quash the certificate.

“It’s evident the certificate will be cancelled,” she said.

The security certificate is a rarely used provision of Canadian immigration law that has been used against suspected foreign spies and more recently terrorism suspects. Federal ministers, acting on the advice of the national spy service, can deem a person a threat to national security, which allows for secret evidence to be used against them in deportation proceedings.

A French teacher and married father of three, Charkaoui was jailed in 2003 and remained behind bars for 21 months before he was released on strict bail conditions in February 2005.

For four years his moves were severely curtailed and closely monitored. He wore a GPS-tracking ankle bracelet and couldn’t leave his house without one of his elderly parents tagging along, including to his graduate courses in education at the University of Montreal and even the gym.

The conditions were eased last February when Tremblay-Lamer said he is now highly recognizable because of all the media coverage, and that if he had the profile of a sleeper agent years ago, he doesn’t today.

In withdrawing the sensitive evidence from its submissions, the government dropped certain charged allegations; for instance, that Charkaoui in 2001 called the war in Afghanistan a battle against Islam “led by the wicked and the Crusaders,” and that he had a conversation the previous year with two others about seizing control of a commercial plane.

CSIS says it stands by the evidence it has gathered. Charkaoui is one of five men the government says are threats to national security and is using the certificate process against.

“The government is reviewing the decision,” said Christopher McCluskey, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. “Our objective is to ensure Canadians are safe from terrorist threats. We are examining the impact of the decision on that objective.”

Ottawa is trying to deport Mohamad Harkat – who just this week also had his bail conditions relaxed – Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub and Hasan Almrei – all of whom are fighting to remain here.

The security certificate system has failed a few crucial tests in court of late. Most recently it was revealed by a federal judge that in the case of Almrei, a Syrian refugee, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service failed to disclose that one informant was not subjected to a lie-detector test as the agency had claimed, and that another was “deceptive” in answering questions.

That revelation came to light just weeks after another federal judge criticized CSIS for omitting evidence in the Harkat case.

Charkaoui’s case has been perhaps the most high profile of all, not least because the Moroccan national has already won two Supreme Court battles. In 2008 the court agreed that CSIS erred in destroying evidence against him.

More significantly, in 2007, the court struck down the security certificate provision of Canada’s immigration law as unconstitutional because of the secret hearing process. In response, Parliament introduced “special advocates” who can challenge the government’s evidence in the hearings.

The many successful challenges to the security certificate has led some to speculate its days are numbered.

The government still contends that Charkaoui shouldn’t remain in Canada, and is asking to appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal on questions regarding the compulsion to reveal sensitive information in court.

Source | See also under Rights: Report: Massive FBI database set to quadruple in size | EU Plans Massive Surveillance Panopticon That Would Monitor “Abnormal Behavior” | Merced police used TASER on unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair | Business as usual: SWAT team breaks down mayor’s door, shoots dogs, ransacks home, refuses to apologize | ‘Stunt driving’ automatic convictions ruled unconstitutional | French Government To Use Swine Flu Threat In Crack Down On Liberties | China’s crackdown for patriotism on 60th anniversary | It’s a great day for freedom of speech: ‘Hate Speech’ laws found to violate Charter Rights | CIA doctors face human experimentation claims | UK Government plans to link criminal records to ID cards | Facebook to make privacy changes, keep user data indefinitely if not deleted | Rendition still happening on Obama’s watch | Obama approves new interrogation unit | Charkaoui asks court to toss security certificate case | Greece To Enforce Mandatory Swine Flu Vaccinations | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK: New evidence in Binyam Mohamed torture case | Social workers erred in removing child from poor parents: report | UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | Chinese dissident saved by Canada details horror | Alberta Hutterites need enhanced driver’s licence photos: top court | UK: Police given powers to enter homes and tear down anti-Olympics posters during 2012 Games | Supreme Court rules tainted evidence admissible in ‘minor’ Charter violations | CSIS ignored Khadr’s human rights: Parliamentary report | Yahoo! protects user privacy – and gets fined by Belgium | B.C. ‘public guardian’ accused of abusing senior’s rights, property seizure | Selective enforcement: Charkaoui barred from US airspace on flight from Fredericton to Montreal | Pro-rights ‘Charter 08′ Manifesto author could face prison in China | Ottawa appeals court order to repatriate Omar Khadr | Supreme Court to rule on ‘tidal-wave’ of press freedom cases | Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear Afghan detainee torture case | Top court to examine if minimum sentences apply despite charter violations | Khawaja appeals terrorism conviction | Manitoba board considers random drug tests for high school students | UK: Big Brother row as police start using camera cars to fine wayward drivers | Province of Ontario fights to keep farm workers from unionizing | Who counts as ‘human’? | UK MP George Galloway takes Canadian speaking ban to court | Rights groups press for better security oversight | Judge finds no entrapment of suspects in Toronto ‘terror’ case | Security certificate detainee requests prison over intrusions on family | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | UK: Civil servants attacked for using anti-terror laws to spy on public | UK: Government plans to keep DNA samples of innocent | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | Activists ’shocked’ at Clinton stance on China rights | Canadians tortured overseas sue government | Former MI5 chief: UK Ministers ‘using fear of terror’ to restrict civil rights | UK: Landlord fights police plan for CCTV at pub | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Milk trial defence: Raw milk is safe and food choice a right | Missed vaccinations lead to suspension threat | Ban-happy Ontario accused of ‘Big Brotherism’ | Australian Citizen Journalist Charged for Filming Police under Anti-Terror Law | UK: Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors | Psychiatric treatment used to ’silence’ Chinese critics | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | UK launches high-visibility community punishment | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference | Retired B.C. woman surprised to find herself on international no-fly list | Tribunal shouldn’t police online hate, report says | Social services set up CCTV camera in couple’s bedroom | Bad news bearers warned to zip it by Kremlin | Beijing peasants bullied, beaten off of family farms by state-developer blocs | Canada’s free speech enemies to lay Remembrance Day wreath | Halifax thinks again about subjecting applicants to lie-detector tests | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | UK Shortly to Become Worse Surveillance Society than Stasi East Germany | Torture Tactics Endorsed in Secret White House Memos | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | Security expert: Weak accusations against Almrei, held 7 years on security certificate | National Post Editorial Board: Britain mulls a society in which privacy is banned | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | Lawyers say UK Guantánamo suspect has no hope of fair trial | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal | India’s use of brain scans in courts dismays critics | Protesters: Police pepper-sprayed peaceful gathering | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | Google Street View could care less about your privacy | Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets | NYC Residents Furious over Invasive Surveillance Grid | Rounded up into torture camps: the ‘undesirables’ China doesn’t want you to see | Ezra Levant: How I beat the fatwa, and lost my freedom | Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says | Mass Arrests as Beijing Prepares for Olympics | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Protestors added to database of terror suspects | Edmonton police rounded up women for ‘talent nights,’ hearing told | Fisherman, 78, faces eviction to make room for container terminal | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | Papers Please: UK cops stopping millions in streets | UK Parents Need Government Permission to Kiss Children | U.K. Develops Plan to Begin Microchipping Prisoners | Human rights body to consider Internet speech regulation | Blogger arrests hit record high | Terror Bill Passes Narrowly in Britain’s House of Commons | Canada hears of native abuse pain | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Human rights reforms could trigger unfair proceedings | Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established | The Ontario Human Rights Commission: Hey, we want to be in the censorship business, too! | Court puts security certificates in limbo | Alberta Barren: The Mannings and forced sterilization in Canada

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 9:28 am and is filed under law, terror. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.