| Submit your comments on this article |
| Great White North |
| Canadian court strikes down anti-terror law |
| 2007-02-24 |
| The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday struck down the government’s right to detain foreign terrorism suspects indefinitely and without trial, saying the system violates the country’s bill of rights. The Justice Department had insisted that the “security certificate” programme was a key tool in the fight against global terrorism and essential to national security. But in a 9-0 judgment, the high court found the system violated the Charter of Rights and Freedom. It suspended the judgment from taking effect for a year, to give parliament time to rewrite the part of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that deals with the certificates. The certificates were challenged on constitutional grounds by three men from Morocco, Syria and Algeria – all alleged by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to have ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. “The overarching principle of fundamental justice that applies here is this: before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process,” Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote in the ruling. Opponents of the system say it violates the human rights of those who have no access to the evidence against them and who would face torture or death if deported to their native countries. Barbara Jackman, an attorney who represents one of the men detained for six years, said the Supreme Court decision in no way compromised national security. “It only strengthens our democracy,” she said. “It’s an indication to other countries that to detain people and mistreat them is not satisfactory. There are ways to provide fair hearings in the face of national security concerns.” The federal law currently allows sensitive intelligence information to be heard behind closed doors by a federal judge, with only sketchy summaries given to defence attorneys. If those foreigners choose to fight deportation, they can spend years in jail while the cases go through courts. Even if they are freed, they risk being labelled as terrorists. Though the security certificate programme has been around since the 1970s, its use became more contentious after 9/11, and since Ottawa used faulty intelligence in a case that led to a $9 million apology to a former terrorism suspect, Maher Arar. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 I can agree with this in principle, especially if the people arrested are Canadian citizens or resident aliens. This is totally different from the US situation with prisoners in Guantanimo. The US prisoners were "unlawful combattants", which are forbidden by the Geneva conventions, and can be detained or killed without further judicial interference. Maybe the attorneys general of Canada and the US need to get together and work out a law that will satisfy both governments, and then work to get that law implemented. Working together,they can also establish reciprocity, so that criminals in one jurisdiction can be transferred to another jurisdiction without all the red tape. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-02-24 14:31 |
| #2 What the court did was extend the rights of Canadian citizens to all of their enemies. The same faulty thinking would have done that for our Gitmo detainees as well. This is a fault, not a feature of our legal hubris and a weapon the jihadis use against all developed countries. |
| Posted by: DanNY 2007-02-24 05:33 |
| #1 What a shame. Canadian forces are doing an absolutely supurb job in Afghanistan. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2007-02-24 00:34 |