Residents of Toronto up early on Saturday morning might be forgiven for thinking they were either on the set of Arnold Schwarzenegger shoot-’em-up flick or in the middle of a growing police state.

Traffic reports warned drivers of a police motorcade making its way through downtown streets, accompanied by about 15 motorcycles, related police vehicles, and a helicopter flying overhead.

The eventual stopping place for this motorcade was the Courthouse at 361 University Avenue, where two acts of criminalization were taking place: in one courtroom, jurors were deliberating on whether or not three members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty should be thrown away for resisting the deadly policies of the Ontario government.

In another, and this was the reason for the sudden display of police force, was a bail hearing for Mohamed Mahjoub, a convention refugee from Egypt who has been in jail since June, 2000, much of it in solitary confinement, on a CSIS security certificate.

Anyone who wishes to attend the bail hearing must have a strong stomach for heavily armed tactical RCMP units--some sixty officers are stationed throughout the building--many dangling submachine guns as they stroll through the halls of injustice. Some are so loaded up with weapons of mass human destruction it’s a wonder they can move and, as we watch some of them go into the men’s room, an even greater wonder that they are able to answer nature’s call.

Backpacks are not allowed, despite the presence of x-ray machines (many thanks to OCAP supporters who watched over a long row of backpacks on the courthouse steps!). Some people are told they are not allowed upstairs unless they are a witness. Muslim men, even one whose beard consists only of five o’clock shadow, are subjected to facial scrutiny.

Those who "pass" this stage are given a special court pass, escorted to an elevator operated by yet another court officer, and then taken in small groups to the seventh floor of the courthouse. Once there, they are escorted down a hallway with heavily armed RCMP stationed here and there, and then through another airport-style security screening system.

Remember, this is all for a man who has never been charged or convicted of anything. People who attend the trials of white guys who have murdered their wives are not subjected to such abuse.

This show of force is completely unnecessary for "security reasons," as Mahjoub is already bound with chains around his waist, leg irons, and handcuffs throughout the hearing. None of this was on display when Mahjoub’s original hearing was held. It has not been in such powerful evidence at similar security certificate hearings at 361 University (though there still has been a significant step-up in security for those hearings).

On the other hand, though, the display of force is completely necessary from a political angle. The judge at the bail hearing, the media, those coming to support, have to be convinced that Mahjoub somehow poses a danger to the public, and what better way than to have scary looking officers, some with their ever-ready hands on the trigger of their submachine guns, do the rounds of the courthouse. The idea that Mahjoub might be released on bail is distasteful to CSIS and the RCMP, so creating an atmosphere of fear is their way of trying to prevent this from happening.

It is part of a propaganda barrage that begins with ridiculous hints in the media that a man responsible for the assassination of Anwar Sadat is in court, and continues as the four corners of the courtroom are jam packed with the biggest display of self-important looking white men and women since Clint Eastwood’s last "protect the president" film. These guys are dressed to the nines, all with wires going into their ears, and serious, "this could be the end of the world" gazes on their faces.

Again, someone chancing upon this whole scene is not exactly sure whether this is real life or a Hollywood film shoot. In the end, it doesn’t matter, for the effect is the same. All that firepower is likely to loosen the bowels of any judge entering the court. It immediately places the question of the day--whether Mr. Mahjoub meets the same requirements set out for anyone else seeking bail--far beyond the mere facts of the case onto another plain.

The RCMP and CSIS are telling this judge: if you release this Muslim man, chained and surrounded by men with machine guns, you will be held responsible if he acts out. Don’t make any wrong moves.

But facts do not matter in such proceedings. Appearances do. And in a society where the evildoer-du-jour is the Muslim male, Mahjoub is not only up against the wholesale shredding of civil rights which, in the case of the security certificate, has been ongoing since 1992. He also must face a deeply ingrained racism repeated daily in Hollywood films, "responsible" newspapers, and the daily, polite round-the-water-cooler racism of Canadian society: sure, they may look nice and peaceful, and the one at the corner store gives my kids free gummy bears, but, ya never know...

The assertion that facts do not matter is not a lefty conspiracy theory. It is the basis of the security certificate. Under that certificate, neither Mr. Mahjoub nor his lawyer, Rocco Galati, was allowed to see the heart of the "evidence" against him. All they are given is a "summary" of allegations and beliefs put together by a CSIS whose agents display an alarming amount of ignorance, bias and, when the occasion is called for, out and out perjury. On the basis of this, Mahjoub could be deported to Egypt, where he is certain to face arrest, torture, and murder.

Even the Security Intelligence Review Committee( SIRC)--a weak-kneed "oversight" committee which generally concludes CSIS is a bunch of hard workin’ boys doin’ their best to protect Canada against evil forces lurking somewhere out there--has raised concerns about their, er, um, truthfulness.

SIRC reports have raised concerns about "some beliefs the Service [CSIS] has about the nature of the threat. We are of the opinion that these beliefs are sometimes overdrawn." SIRC also is concerned that in some instances, CSIS applications for warrant powers contained "a number of overstatements"; that in another case, "information put forward was more than a decade old and the information adduced was derived from one source's 'feelings’; that "One source's speculation was quoted. Some assertions that the target engaged in 'suspicious activities' appeared to us to be misleading or exaggerated."

SIRC continues, "For another person targeted, [CSIS] failed to include in the affidavit significant information of which it was aware which contradicts its own position on the person." In yet another case, a hyperactive CSIS treated activity that "seemed to be routine diplomatic behaviour" as a threat while in another case, "with little corroborating information, CSIS ascribed intelligence gathering motives to apparently normal consular contacts."

Against such a backdrop of past abuses, how is a judge to rely on secret evidence presented by an organization which has no qualms about sending a refugee back to a country to face torture and death based on someone’s "feeling"? If CSIS deliberately hides information which contradicts its own theory, then the presence of a defence lawyer questioning this would be pretty inconvenient. So the secrecy stuff comes in pretty handy when your agenda is not so much security as it is political: create a scare, deport some easily demonized Muslims to justify your growing budget, and keep the Yankees on your sunny side.

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