by Colin Freeze
Source: The Globe & Mail
URL: [link]
Date: September 21, 2009


Ottawa will scuttle one of its high-profile "security-certificate" terrorism cases later this week [ the case of Adil Charkaoui], amid a growing reluctance to use the extraordinary power to deport suspected terrorists, according to recent court filings.

The move is likely the beginning of the end of the controversial tool that Ottawa has relied upon since the end of the Cold War, to kick out foreign spies and alleged terrorists. This position follows several embarrassing court-ordered revelations, including that the country's spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, has buried information from its own dubious sources and repeated evidence from U.S. allies who subjected al-Qaeda suspects to the harsh interrogations.

The security-certificate tool has been used about once a year since it was put on the books in the late 1980s, but no new cases have been launched in three years.

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