by Donald Pratt
Source: Justice for Hassan Diab
URL: www.justiceforhassandiab.org/news
Date: June 19, 2010


This week, defence attorney Mr. Don Bayne asked the court to remove the condition of electronic monitoring imposed on Dr. Diab since March 31, 2009. In his argument, Mr. Bayne noted the following significant developments in the extradition case.

* The case is demonstrably weaker than it appeared in March 2009, particularly after France disavowed its own handwriting reports. A defence expert is allowed to testify about the manifest unreliability of unsourced secret intelligence upon which the case is founded.

* Lengthy delays and the collapse of extradition hearing dates in January and June, 2010, have been caused by the Crown Attorney’s adjournment requests. This situation has been highly prejudicial to Dr. Diab, who must pay $30,000 for the first year and $18,000 each year thereafter for electronic monitoring.

* During an unsuccessful bid to challenge Dr. Diab’s bail in June 2009, the Crown Attorney described the electronic monitoring as adding “little” to the release plan.

* Dr. Diab has faithfully adhered to all conditions of his very strict release plan.

The Crown Attorney opposed the defence’s request to remove electronic monitoring, and blamed the delays on the defence, saying that Mr. Bayne should have alerted the Crown to the weaknesses in France’s handwriting evidence.

The Crown also took issue with the claim that the case against Dr. Diab is weaker now. Last month, the French replaced their discredited handwriting reports with a new report. The Crown urged the court to overlook previous criticisms of the disavowed handwriting reports and regard the new handwriting report as presumptively reliable. The Crown characterized Dr. Diab’s faithful adherence to the bail conditions as “irrelevant”.

On June 18, Justice Maranger ruled that Dr. Diab must continue to wear the electronic monitoring device and shoulder the entire cost. The court stated that the GPS monitoring device is necessary to alleviate the risk of flight.

The defence plans to bring an abuse of process application against France and the Crown during the week of August 30 in relation to the handwriting “evidence”. A new date of November 8, 2010, was set for the extradition hearing.

by Chris Cobb
Source: The Ottawa citizen
URL: [link]
Date: June 16, 2010


University of Ottawa professor accused of terrorist bombing in court fight over cost of his surveillance

OTTAWA — Alleged terrorist bomber Hassan Diab wants his bail conditions changed so he no longer has to wear a costly electronic monitoring device.

The 56-year-old Ottawa university professor is wanted by French authorities who accuse him of being involved in the murder of four people, and the injuring of several others, in a 1980 synagogue bombing in Paris.

Terrorists left an explosive device strapped to a motorcycle they parked outside the synagogue.

Diab’s lawyer, Don Bayne, told Justice Robert Maranger that the protracted, often-delayed proceedings have left the unemployed Lebanese-born academic with a mounting monthly surveillance bill of $2,500 — plus another $9,000 he had to set aside for deposits on the monitoring equipment.

Federal Justice Department lawyers oppose the move, saying that nothing has changed since the judge set the original bail conditions and that Diab remains a flight risk.

The proceedings — a preamble to the actual extradition hearing — have been going on intermittently for more than 14 months with Bayne and Crown prosecutor Claude LeFrançois regularly exchanging barbs.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by "The People's Commission Network"
Source: The People's Commission Network // Rabble.ca
URL: [link]
Date: June 15, 2010



Over past months, reports have multiplied of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) visits to the homes and even workplaces of people working for social justice. In addition to its longstanding and ongoing harassment and intimidation of indigenous peoples, immigrant communities, and others, the spy agency has become much more visible in its surveillance of movements for social justice.

The People's Commission is aware of dozens of such visits in the Montreal area alone. People visited range from writers and artists to staff at advocacy organizations and anarchists living in collective houses. Unannounced, in the morning, the middle of the day or the evening, CSIS agents knock at the door of private homes. Their interest is far ranging: from the tar sands, to the G8, to indigenous organizing, Palestine solidarity, Afghanistan; who you know and what you think. Their very presence is disruptive, their tone can be intimidating, and their questions intrusive, manipulative and inappropriate. They guarantee confidentiality -- "just like in security certificate cases" -- and invariably ask people to keep quiet about the visit.

The People's Commission Network advocates total non-collaboration with CSIS. That means refusing to answer questions from CSIS agents, refusing to listen to whatever CSIS may want to tell you, and breaking the silence by speaking out whenever CSIS comes knocking.

If you are in immigration proceedings, or in a vulnerable situation, we strongly advise you to insist that any interview with CSIS be conducted in the presence of a lawyer of your own choosing.

Here are 10 good reasons not to talk -- or listen -- to CSIS:

1. Talking with CSIS can be dangerous for your health

Even though CSIS agents do not have powers of arrest and detention, CSIS can and does use information it gathers in seemingly innocuous conversations to write security assessments for immigration applications, detention and deportation under security certificates, various blacklists (the no-fly list, border watch lists, etc.) and other purposes. Innocent comments you make can be taken out of context and misinterpreted, but you will have no opportunity to correct errors, because intelligence information remains secret. This can have a serious impact on your life.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by unsigned editorial
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: June 9, 2010


Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik left

Abousfian Abdelrazik lives under a cloud. Anyone who gives him a job risks being charged with breaking Canada’s anti-terror laws. His bank assets have been frozen. He can’t travel abroad.

That’s because the United States or some other country put him on the United Nations blacklist of people who are thought to have ties to Al Qaeda or other terrorists. He’s the only Canadian on it.

But security services and police in Canada and his native Sudan have cleared him of any criminal activity. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government asked the Security Council in 2007 to get him delisted, without success. Any of the 15 council members can veto such a move. Meanwhile, federal regulations that enforce the list mean that he is without a job, unable to travel and reliant on charity.

This is wrong, and Harper should make things right. Abdelrazik has petitioned the Federal Court to strike down Ottawa’s regulations as unconstitutional. But he shouldn’t have to wage this battle. Ottawa should stop complying blindly with a UN process that can target a Canadian citizen who has done no wrong, just because some other country harbours a suspicion. Harper should repeal the federal regulations. He’d have all-party support.

As in the Omar Khadr case, this looks like another example of Ottawa failing to go to bat for a Muslim citizen who runs into trouble.

As Justice Russel Zinn of Federal Court rightly pointed out in a ruling last year when he ordered Ottawa to bring Abdelrazik home (after leaving him stranded in Sudan for six years), the UN watchlist process is “untenable under the principles of international human rights,” insofar as it falls short of natural justice and lacks procedural fairness. That pretty much says it all. Canada must protect its own.

© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2010

by "Community Advisory"
Source: The People's Commission Network
URL: [link]
Date: June 8, 2010

(français en dessous)

TWO SHORT VIDEOS: IF CSIS COMES KNOCKING

Since the fall of 2009 there have been ongoing visits by members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to social justice organizers and activists in Montreal and other parts of Quebec. These visits are in addition to CSIS' ongoing harassment of targeted communities. In May, the People's Commission Network released a community advisory, "If CSIS Comes Knocking", in response to those visits.

The People's Commission Network has now produced two short videos re-creating CSIS visits to the homes of two Montrealers. The videos advocate a "Don't talk, Don't listen" approach of total and complete non-cooperation with CSIS.

** CSIS visit to Freda: [link]

Read story on visit to Freda (Rabble.ca, 4 June 2010):
[link]

** CSIS visit to Abdulhadi: [link]

Read story on visit to Abdulhadi (Le Devoir, 25 November 2009):
[link]



[ Read the rest ... ]

by Laura Czekaj
Source: The Ottawa Sun
URL: [link]
Date: June 3, 2010


After eight years spent living with the accusation of being a terrorist, Mohamed Harkat is a step closer to either being deported as a national security risk or having his name cleared.

The Ottawa man will have to wait a few months longer to find out whether Federal Court Judge Simon Noel agrees with the government’s allegations that Harkat is an al-Qaida sleeper agent, or whether their claims are unsubstantiated.

Final submissions in Harkat’s case wrapped up Wednesday.

If the judge favours the government’s claims, a removal order will be issued for Harkat and the deportation process will begin. The Algerian national entered Canada in 1995 as a refugee.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by Stephen Lendman
Source: The Baltimore Chronicle
URL: [link]
Date: June 1, 2010



Mohamed Harkat

Canada's War On Islam: The Case of Mohamed Harkat

Like in America post-9/11, Canadian Muslims have been victimized, vilified, and persecuted for their faith, ethnicity, prominence, and activism. They've been targeted, hunted down, rounded up, held in detention, kept in isolation, denied bail, restricted in their right to counsel, tried on secret evidence, convicted or incriminated on bogus charges, given long sentences and incarcerated as political prisoners or deported to certain torture, imprisonment or death by so-called democratic countries that, in fact, mock the rule of law and judicial fairness.

Victims are pawns in the war on terror - how rogue states intimidate populations to accept foreign wars and homeland repression to mask their more sinister agenda. Today, it reflects unbridled militarism, permanent wars, imperial conquest, and planned economic crises causing lost jobs, homes, benefits, futures, and the greatest ever wealth transfer to the rich, largely below the radar.

In her 2005 paper, "Securing Canada: Muslims and the Myth of Multiculturalism in the post-911 World," Samantha Arnold discussed the environment as defined by Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act and the Canadian-US Smart Border Declaration, saying:

It flies in the face of the country's image as a tolerant, compassionate society, embracing diversity and multiculturalism - the very "foundational myth of this country, a mythical heritage of tolerance that turns on the historical reconciliation of French, English, and Aboriginal peoples." In fact, the reality unmasks the mythology, Mohamed Harkat one of many prime examples, an innocent man victimized for political advantage, so far denied due process and judicial fairness.

[ Read the rest ... ]

by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: June 2, 2010


OTTAWA — The fate of Mohamed Harkat is now in the hands of a Federal Court judge who must decide if the Ottawa man is a dangerous member of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network — or the victim of faulty security intelligence.

Judge Simon Noel is not expected to deliver a verdict until the fall. He has been hearing evidence in camera and in open court since September 2008.

"I'm looking forward to clearing my name and getting on with my life," the Algerian-born Harkat said outside court after his legal team completed its final arguments Wednesday.

Harkat, 40, has lived under suspicion since December 2002, when he was first arrested on a national security certificate that declared him a terrorist.

That case was thrown out when the Supreme Court ruled the legal process was so secretive it denied Harkat the right to defend himself.

The federal government remade the legal regime and reissued the certificate against Harkat in February 2008.

Harkat, who spent 3 1/2 years in jail after his arrest, said he wants to be able to get a job and live a normal life.

Although unsure about the outcome of his case, Harkat said he has dreamed of the moment the judge dismisses the charges against him.

"It would be like a sunrise in my life," said Harkat, who came to Canada in 1995 after five years in Pakistan.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Source: Radio-Canada
URL: [link]
Date: 2 juin, 2010


Dans le cadre de l'audition de l'affaire Mohammed Harkat, la défense a entamé sa plaidoirie finale mardi en Cour fédérale.

L'avocat Matthew Weber s'est surtout attaqué à la crédibilité de la preuve accumulée contre son client. Il a d'abord répliqué aux avocats du gouvernement qui prétendaient lundi que Mohammed Harkat avait menti à plusieurs reprises lors de son témoignage.

L'avocat s'est basé notamment sur un rapport rendu public la semaine dernière qui affirmait que les services secrets canadiens (SCRS) avaient commis des erreurs de fait dans plusieurs dossiers, ce qui a porté préjudices à de multiples personnes, dont Mohammed Harkat. Dans ce dernier cas, le SCRS avait détruit des preuves.

Le juge Noël a cependant fait remarquer à Me Weber que pendant deux jours, en huis clos, en compagnie des deux avocats spéciaux chargés de défendre Mohammed Harkat, il avait pris connaissance de faits confidentiels, dont des interceptions téléphoniques, qui étaient crédibles et qui contredisaient le témoignage de Harkat.

L'avocat a alors critiqué les procédures secrètes qui entourent les certificats de sécurité et qui lui interdisent de confronter ces éléments de preuve.

Le juge Noël s'est donné jusqu'au 31 août pour entendre tout élément de preuve ou tout élément nouveau dans l'affaire. Une décision devrait être rendue à l'automne ou au début de l'hiver.

Mohammed Harkat est soupçonné par le gouvernement canadien d'être un agent dormant du réseau terroriste Al-Qaïda. Le procès qui a cours présentement vise à déterminer la validité du certificat de sécurité émis contre lui en 2002. S'il n'a pas gain de cause, Mohammed Harkat sera déporté en Algérie.

TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS © CBC/RADIO-CANADA 2010.

by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: June 2, 2010


OTTAWA — Mohamed Harkat's lawyer told a Federal Court judge he cannot rely on the accuracy of 13 intercepted phone conversations summarized by Canada's spy agency.

The summaries potentially offer evidence that the Algerian-born Harkat lied to the court about his links to Islamic extremism.

But Harkat lawyer Matt Webber argued the summaries hold little evidentiary value since the spy agency destroyed the original recordings and translations of the alleged conversations.

"These summaries really have no place in a court of law," Webber said in his final argument Tuesday. "It doesn't deserve to be called evidence."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) used to routinely destroy material since it considered evidence-gathering the job of the police, not an intelligence agency.

Two years ago, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered CSIS to stop destroying original notes and recordings.

In the Harkat case, Webber told Judge Simon Noel, CSIS already suffers from a serious credibility problem. Last year, it was revealed the agency did not disclose for years that one of its key informants in the Harkat case had failed a lie-detector test.

[ Read the rest ... ]