Canada's spy agency is taping conversations between men held as terrorism suspects and their defence lawyers, according to a Federal Court Judge, who suggests state agents cease such wiretaps and delete the tapes. Madame Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson's written summary of secret evidence released Thursday left defence lawyers saying they were "apoplectic" with rage that hundreds of their conversations had been snooped on, and that one of the most basic and fundamental legal protections, solicitor-client privilege, is being flouted by the government. Reviewing the case of an Egyptian living under house arrest because he once ran a farming operation for Osama bin Laden, Judge Layden-Stevenson released a summary of secret testimony given by a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent. The testimony revealed just how CSIS is helping another federal agency keep tabs on the security-certificate detainee, Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub. "The CSIS analyst listens to all intercepted communications, including solicitor-client communications, if any, to the extent of being satisfied that the communication does not involve a potential breach of the terms of release of a threat to national-security," the judge's summary reads.Mr. Mahjoub consented to wiretapping in order to get released from six years of jail to house arrest in 2006. But lawyers say there was an implicit understanding that conversations with lawyers - a basic right protected for hundreds of years - would not be recorded.

That basic right should have been clear to the government, they say. "I feel like my house has been broken into, it's incredibly invasive," said Barbara Jackman, a lawyer for Mr. Mahjoub.

Co-counsel Marlys Edwardh said she explicitly began every phone call to Mr. Mahjoub by immediately identifying herself as his lawyer, which she felt was an overt signal for spies to turn off their tape recorders.

The lawyers said they now feel that hundreds of their conversations were overheard, they don't know how they'll next be able to communicate with their client after a court hearing ends Thursday. They said it's possible that any conversation with Mr. Mahjoub will be used against him, by any number of a host of security agencies.

Similar concerns have been raised in the another case, that of Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian security-certificate detainee living in Ottawa.

In more typical cases, CSIS and police seek judges to endorse warrants to allow for any wiretapping and only can listen to conversations with lawyers under the most extreme circumstances.

But the cases at hand are not typical. The Canadian government has branded five Muslim immigrants as potential al-Qaeda agents, under the security certificate law that allows for indefinite jailing or monitoring so long as they are in the country.

While the Canada Border Services Agency is in charge of monitoring the suspects, CSIS is lending the border guards expertise in wiretapping. Until today, government lawyers fought to keep that precise CBSA-CSIS relationship a secret.

The highly controversial security-certificate process also allows for secret hearings. Judge Layden-Stevenson released the summary of the CSIS evidence a day after a unnamed senior agent testified in camera.

Her summary suggests the release order be amended so that government agents delete tapes and cease listening in on such conversations.

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