by Tonda MacCharles
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: December 9, 2010

[PHOTO: Mohamed Harkat, middle, and his wife Sophie, right, wait outside Federal Court in Ottawa, in June, 2009. A federal court ruled Thursday there are reasonable grounds to declare Harkat a security threat, paving the way for his possible deportation.]

OTTAWA — Algerian-born Mohammed Harkat and his Canadian wife Sophie wept when they got word in his lawyers’ office that a judge has upheld CSIS claims he is a terrorist “sleeper agent.”

“He and his wife are devastated,” said lawyer Norm Boxall. They “never dreamed it possible.”

Despite eight years of legal battles, four of which Harkat spent in jail followed by strict house arrest, the man whom a Federal Court judge concluded was a member of the Osama bin Laden “network” thought a Canadian court would free him.

“To them, they know the truth,” said Boxall.

Harkat and his legal team are determined to appeal the ruling to the Federal Court of Appeal, said lawyer Matt Webber.

Harkat will argue that a judicial process that heard secret evidence against him and denied him access to the “special advocates” who were permitted to view evidence summaries behind closed doors is fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional.

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