posted on December 07, 2004 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink
Original author: Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: December 7,2004
Harkat's lawyer obtains information despite government's objections
The question of whether Canada's spy agency pays its sources for information led federal lawyers yesterday to suggest the answer to that question could imperil national security.
A former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent, Jean-Luc Marchessault, was asked the question as the lawyer for accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat sought to understand what motivates CSIS informants.
CSIS is accusing Mr. Harkat of being an al-Qaeda operative, in part on the strength of unnamed sources.
Before Mr. Marchessault could answer, however, a federal lawyer interjected, reminding Justice Eleanor Dawson of her duty to protect national security. James Mathieson suggested she should consider closing the court to the public in order to hear Mr. Marchessault's answer.
That answer, he argued, falls within the ambit of the Security of Information Act, which became law in late 2001. The law makes it an offence to disclose any information about how the government uses, collects, deciphers, assesses, handles or reports security intelligence information.
"CSIS needs to have their methodologies and operational methods protected," Mr. Mathieson said. "To reveal some would be injurious to national security."
Mr. Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, said the suggestion "boggled" his mind. "If it threatens our national security to find out whether or not CSIS pays its informants, then we're in real trouble in this country," he said.
Original author: Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: December 6, 2004
Security certificate process so secretive, Ottawa man cannot defend himself further, lawyer argues
The lawyer for Ottawa's Mohamed Harkat has launched a constitutional challenge to what he calls the "fundamentally unjust" process the government is using in an effort to brand his client a terrorist threat.
Paul Copeland says the security certificate process is so secretive that it denies Mr. Harkat a basic right: to respond in a meaningful way to the terrorist allegations levelled against him.
In doing so, he argues, the law that gives rise to the process -- the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act -- offends the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says an individual's liberty or security can only be deprived in keeping with the principles of fundamental justice.
Original author: Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: December 05, 2004
'Algeria will assume I'm guilty if deported, Harkat says from jail
Ottawa's Mohamed Harkat says that being publicly branded a terrorist by Canada makes it impossible for him to safely return to Algeria.
"Canada is the most trusted country in the world," he told the Citizen in an interview at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, where he has been held for almost two years on the strength of a security certificate.
The federal government is attempting to deport Mr. Harkat to Algeria based on the case built by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which alleges he is an al-Qaeda operative.
Original author: Stewart Bell, for The National Post
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link] (subscribers only)
Date: November 22, 2004
Report warns retaliation possible for removal of al-Qaeda associates
TORONTO - A new Canadian intelligence report says terrorists might attack Canada in retaliation for the arrests of several al-Qaeda associates who are being deported for reasons of national security.
In the report, titled Al-Qaeda: Potential Threats to North American Targets, the federal government's threat analysis unit said Canada's efforts to deport al-Qaeda suspects could trigger a violent response.
"Canadian agencies have aggressively pursued removal proceedings against inadmissible classes of foreign nationals associated with al-Qaeda constituents, which may also provide extremists with an impetus to attack Canadian interests."
The report by the Integrated National Security Assessment Centre (INSAC) was labelled Restricted Distribution because of its "sensitive nature," but a copy was disclosed to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.
Original author: Janice Tibbetts
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link] (subscribers only)
Date: November 15, 2004
Lawmakers to decide if 'draconian' law should be altered or even scrapped
Parliament will embark within weeks on an expansive review of Canada's anti-terrorism laws to examine whether extra powers given to police and government in the emotional months after the 2001 U.S. terror attacks should be softened or scrapped.
The anti-terrorism bill, introduced when the World Trade Center rubble had barely stopped smouldering, was one of the fastest pieces of legislation ever passed by the government of former prime minister Jean Chretien, despite being a lengthy 171 pages long and containing 146 provisions.
Original author: Stuart Trew
Source: Ottawa XPress
URL: [link]
Date: November 11th, 2004
Adil Charkaoui and the security certificate
The scary logic of security certificates: If the government says you're guilty, you must be guilty.
Friends of Adil Charkaoui try again to show how un-Canadian those security certificates are
Downtown workers will have to get used to a few new spooks outside the federal court building at 90 Sparks Street. We're not talking the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) spies either, although they're involved.
Members of the Coalition for Justice for Adil Charkaoui are in Ottawa from Montreal for the next few weeks, or as long as it takes the Federal Court of Canada to decide whether Canada's security certificate process is constitutional. Mary Foster from the coalition, who along with the other members was covered by a white ghost-like sheet, told XPress she would be "haunting the court," until it issued a verdict.
Charkaoui, a Montreal resident, has been in jail for 17 months after being arrested on suspicion of terrorism. He has been charged with no crime...
For those of you who missed this excellent two-part documentary on security certificates and secret trials you can download both parts here, in MP3 format:
PART I and
PART II
They are excellent teaching tools.
'Really great interviews with Sophie, Mary Foster, Diana Ralph, Matthew Behrens, Mahmoud Jaballah's son Ahmed, Roch Tasse and others.
Original author: CBC News Staff Source: CBC.CA URL: N/A Date: November 8, 2004
OTTAWA - Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside a Federal Court building in downtown Ottawa Monday to protest against Canada's security-certificate process.
That's the law the federal government can use to detain non-citizens on suspicion of terrorist ties, and deport them without revealing the evidence against them.
Lawyers for a Moroccan man, Adil Charkaoui, challenged the process, Monday, in Federal Court. Charkaoui has been held in jail under a security certificate since May 2003
Supporters of that challenge include Monia Mazigh, the wife of Maher Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian who was held in a Syrian jail for a year because of alleged ties to Al-Queda.
Original author: Elizabeth Thompson
Source: The Montreal Gazette
URL: N/A
Date: November 9, 2004
Lawyer argues for terror suspect's release;
government counters law isn't unconsititutional
Maher Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh and Adil Charkaoui's sister, Hind, were among protesters who say security certificates are unfair.
The security certificate system used to detain suspected terrorists isn't perfect, but it shouldn't be declared unconstitutional, lawyers for the federal government argued yesterday.
Presenting his arguments before the Federal Court of Appeal in the case of Montrealer Adil Charkaoui, Daniel Latulippe said a good judge, willing to play an active role, can go a long way to ensuring that someone detained under a security certificate gets a fair hearing.
Click on the photo of Mohamed to see all items related to him. JUNE 2017: Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional.
This fight is not over. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee will re-double its efforts to see that justice is done for Mohamed Harkat and that the odious security certificate system of injustice is abolished once and for all.
