Original author: By Kathleen Harris
Source: The Toronto Sun
URL: [link]
Date: February 15, 2005


Canada must cling to its controversial anti-terrorism law because the deadly threat hangs over Canada "unabated," says Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan. Facing a Senate committee conducting a three-year review of the Act, McLellan insisted the law's sweeping state powers strike the right balance between upholding human rights and keeping Canadians safe.

"I think it is the right legislation to deal with both the domestic and global threats of terrorism," she said.

Insisting the new authorities have been exercised "judiciously," McLellan said changing "circumstances" might warrant amendments in the future.

But Conservative Sen. John Lynch-Staunton accused the Liberal government of being too soft on some terrorists while trampling the rights of mere suspects. He slammed the practice of detaining people under security certificates with the "flimsiest" of evidence.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: TASC, tasc at web dot ca Source: Coalition Justice pour Adil Charkaoui listserv Date: February 14, 2005 Canada's Guantanamo Bay "Security Certificate Detainees" present Charter to CSIS at UVic Career Fair

Members of VIPIRG's No One Is Illegal campaign, dressed as Canada's political prisoners, presented CSIS representatives with a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at the UVic job fair last week in a call to end secret trials in Canada. Five muslim men have been detained a collective 184 months on secret evidence that neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see. Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harket, Adil Charkaoui, and Hassan Almrei are currently detained indefinitely under Security Certificates, a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that Amnesty International has condemned as "fundamentally flawed and unfair."

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: CBC News staff
Source: CBC.CA CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: February 8, 2005


MONTREAL - Suspected terrorist Adil Charkaoui testified in his own defence Monday at a bail hearing in federal court.

It's the first time since his detention that Charkaoui has taken the stand

Charkaoui has been held on a ministerial security certificate for almost three years, which means neither he nor his lawyers have seen the evidence against him.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen Date: February 07, 2005 Government seeks way to deport terror suspects held on security certificates

A federal official has conceded that the government does not have the legal right to indefinitely detain foreign-born terrorist suspects who cannot be deported. But Alex Swann, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan, said the government intends to aggressively pursue the deportation of terror suspects through the controversial security certificate process. And the question of when that pursuit formally ends is something that may have to be decided by the Supreme Court. "As long as we're working through the security certificate process with the aim of removal, that (detention) continues to be an option," Mr. Swann said. "When a deportation is unsuccessful, I don't know when that time comes," Mr. Swann said. Mr. Swann maintained the question of when the government must end its pursuit of a terrorist suspect's deportation remains hypothetical. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which sets out the security certificate process, allows the government to detain foreign-born terror suspects on the strength of secret evidence until they can be deported.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: N/A
Source: The Montreal Gazette, editorial
URL: N/A
Date: February 8, 2005

Adil Charkaoui has been held in jail for almost two years, and hardly anyone knows why. Some people in the Canadian security establishment know, and two cabinet ministers who signed a "security certificate" know, but nobody else does. There's got to be a better way.

Charkaoui, 31, is an immigrant from Morocco. The government wants to deport him back to that country - he is not a Canadian citizen - and he's fighting deportation.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: Sue Montgomery
Source: The Montreal Gazette
URL: [link]
Date: February 07, 2005


The government claims it's a necessary trade-off to protect Canada and its citizens, but a growing number of legal, human rights and refugee advocates decry the security certificate as discriminating against non-citizens.

There are now six men, five of them Muslim, being held without charge, with little or no knowledge of the evidence against them and risk deportation to their countries, where some face torture. They have no chance to appeal.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: Matthew Behrens, Campaign to Stop Secret
Trials in Canada
Source: TASC Email List
Date: February 1, 2005

Hey folks

In addition to the good news on the deportation decision with respect to Mohammad Mahjoub, we just got great news from the NDP, which at its weekend federal council passed the following resolution, Special thanks for the courageous work of Alexa McDonough,. who has shown great leadership on this issue (even stepping forward as a bail surety for one of the secrtety trial five!)

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: Canadian Press (CP) Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: January 14, 2005 Immigration minister resigns amid controversy, promises to fight

OTTAWA - Judy Sgro, who was already on political life support, succumbed today to a fresh allegation of wrongdoing and resigned as federal immigration minister. But she said she was only stepping down to allow her to prove she's innocent and fight to clear her name. She became the first casualty in Prime Minister Paul Martin's seven-month-old minority government, which limped back to power in June on promises of being squeaky clean after the sponsorship scandal. Sgro's departure came after allegations made by a Toronto pizzeria owner, reported in today's Toronto Star, that she promised him asylum in return for providing food and workers for her re-election campaign last June. Harjit Singh, who is fighting deportation to India, claims in a sworn Federal Court affidavit that when word of their arrangement leaked out, she ordered his deportation to "save her job."

[ Read the rest ... ]

Original author: Alexandre Deslongchamps Source: Bloomberg.com URL: [link] Date: January 14,2005

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's Immigration Minister Judy Sgro resigned the post, saying she wants to clear her name after an illegal immigrant alleged she had offered him asylum in exchange for help in her election campaign. Sgro, who will be replaced by Joe Volpe, was already under investigation for speeding up a Canadian citizenship application to a Romanian stripper who helped her campaign.

[ Read the rest ... ]

Linda Leibovitz of The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials and Deportations, Edmonton Chapter reports back on their recent action (January 11th) in front of MacLellan's constituency office:
Click to enlarge

"It was very cold yesterday but several tough activists met outside Ms. McLellan's constituency office. We protested from four to five thirty and as the demonstrators went into the office to send a personal message to Anne (which made more work for the staff who do very little) they closed early. Good speakers and free hot chocolate from the local coffee shop who know us very well. A very lovely Muslim family."