by Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: May 16, 2011 OTTAWA — Five months after a judge declared him a terrorist threat to national security, Ottawa’s Mohamed Harkat is still waiting to plead his case in the Federal Court of Appeal. That appeal hearing will likely not begin until the late summer or fall. Lawyers for Harkat and the government will hold a conference call Tuesday to discuss the timing of the appeal. In the meantime, Harkat continues to collect signatures on a petition that demands an end to the secretive security-certificate process. It allows the government to present evidence gathered by domestic and foreign intelligence agencies in secret in an effort to deport people. Because it’s an immigration proceeding, not a criminal one, the standards are different. More than 3,000 groups and individuals have signed the petition, including Amnesty International Canada, the Law Union of Ontario, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Green Party of Canada. A host of New Democratic MPs, such as Paul Dewar, Pat Martin and Jean Crowder, have also added their names to the petition. “I think it speaks volumes: people don’t want secret trials in Canada,” said Mohamed Harkat’s wife, Sophie, in an interview Monday. “People want to see democracy in this country; people want to see fair and open trials.”

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