Source: The Ottawa Sun
URL: [link]
Date: September 7, 2005
An Ottawa man jailed as a suspected terrorist for 1,001 days without criminal charges or a trial, will take his fight against deportation to Syria to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Three Federal Court of Appeal justices took mere minutes yesterday to uphold a national security certificate against Mohamed Harkat.
The justices dismissed a second appeal by a detained Muslim man that Canada's immigration law is unconstitutional.
Harkat's lawyer Paul Copeland argued that deporting people based on evidence they can't see or challenge violates their constitutional right to fundamental justice.
At minimum, the law should allow for security-cleared lawyers to hear and challenge secret testimony, Copeland argued.
It was an appeal he expected to lose.The same judges had dismissed a nearly identical challenge by Adil Charkaoui, who is fighting deportation to Morocco. "I am rather optimistic that the Supreme Court of Canada will disagree with you," Copeland told them. "My preference would be, if you are going to dismiss this appeal, do it fast." Harkat can now seek leave to join Charkaoui's Supreme Court challenge, which will likely be heard next year. Like Charkaoui, released on 50,000 dollars bail, Harkat will also seek bail in Federal Court. Sophie Harkat aims to raise at least as much to persuade a judge that her husband will abide by conditions if released. So far, sureties include Alexandre Trudeau, the son of the former PM, who was by her side yesterday. "We want to make it really hard for the judge to say no," Harkat said. But she admits that hopes of her ordeal ending soon are fading. "We're both at a point where we feel the process is taking a long time," she said. "We don't see an end to this." ALLEGATIONS DENIED
A judge concluded in March that the government has reasonable grounds to deport Harkat because he lied about supporting Islamic extremists in Canada and abroad and received terrorist training in Afghanistan, charges he denies. Experts testified Harkat may be tortured or killed in Algeria. The judge did not consider evidence that an accused al-Qaida terrorist had fingered Harkat as the proprietor of a safe house for Muslim insurgents in Pakistan. She couldn't say if the man had been tortured by U.S. captors. Harkat and his lawyer were unable to hear much of the evidence or question CSIS officials, even about their experience in Middle Eastern affairs or previous intelligence failures, Copeland argued. "A process where one side has his hands tied behind his back is not fundamental justice," Copeland said. megan dot gillis at ott dot sunpub dot com Copyright © 2005, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
