Comme pour justifier le secret de la condamnation de Mohamed Harkat, le juge Noël a depuis publié plusieurs notes de bas de page « top secrètes », nouvelles et caviardées sur ce jugement qui, selon les avocats du gouvernement, mettraient en péril la sécurité nationale si elles étaient publiées. Leur disponibilité récente n'a pas fait tomber le ciel sur nos têtes, mais quiconque est intéressé à les lire découvrira que la chose la plus dangereuse à leur propos est la quantité d'encre utilisée pour imprimer page après page de larges blocs noirs pour garder secret ce qui se trouve en dessous, ponctués seulement de temps en temps par un mot ou deux. La page 7, par exemple, est incroyablement utile. Sous le chapitre « Armes », pas un seul mot, seulement beaucoup d'encre noire. Sous la section « Afghanistan », on ne peut lire que : « Harkat nie être allé en Afghanistan », suivi d'un tiers de page d'encre noire. La section « Ressources financières » est un autre grand bloc d'encre noire suivi de la phrase éclairante du juge Noël qui se lit : « Sur la base de ces informations, la Cour conclut que Harkat avait d'autres ressources financières à sa disposition au Pakistan ». Les pages 13 et 14 sont entièrement caviardées.
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Le gouvernement soutient qu'il n'a pas à être de bonne foi lors des audiences secrètes
posted on March 16, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkThe Interview: Mohamed Harkat
posted on March 01, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkby David Julian Wightman
If you want to interview Mohamed Harkat you have to reach him at home on his land-line. As part of the federal security certificate against him, Harkat is not allowed to use a computer or the Internet, or even a cell phone. He’s not allowed to leave Ottawa area without permission---he was recently denied permission to travel to Montreal for a dinner in his honour---and must wear a GPS tracking unit on his ankle.
The restrictions against him are lighter than they used to be. Until the government mysteriously lifted the more severe stipulations in September 2009, Harkat could not be left alone at home without the supervision of one of his three court-appointed sureties. Canadian Border Security officers used to watch the house where Harkat lives with his wife Sophie. Two surveillance cameras were installed in the living room and front entrance, and all visitors had to be pre-approved by security officials. Their phone was tapped and mail was intercepted. Family Christmas cards were finally delivered in January, if at all.
With conditions like that, you’d think Mohamed Harkat stands accused of the most terrible crimes imaginable. Not so. CSIS alleges that he’s a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda but Harkat hasn’t been charged with anything. The evidence against him is secret. There is no due process accorded to Harkat under the security certificate against him. Instead, the federal government and CSIS can label him---and anyone else, presumably---a threat to national security, and conduct secret trials in which the accused has no right to hear, let alone challenge, the evidence against them.
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Secret Trials, Blackmail and Other Adventures
posted on March 01, 2011 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink+++++++++++++++++++++++ In the Hands of Canada’s Secret Service
Secret trials, blackmail and other “dirty tricks” were on the table at “CSIS: Who needs them?” an event held at Concordia’s Hall Building over the weekend.
Panelists, offering first-hand accounts, spoke about the history of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, kicking off the People’s Commission Network Popular Forum on national security on Saturday morning.
Sharing the panel were Laurentian University professor and editor of Whose National Security? Gary Kingsman, lawyer Yavar Hameed, Kanehsatake activist Clifton Arihwakehte Nicholas and Palestinian-rights activist Marie-Ève Sauvé.
Hameed, who acts as counsel for Muslims and Arabs in CSIS investigations, is currently representing Mohamed Mahjoub, one of the last remaining security certificate cases in Canada.
Security certificates allow for permanent residents and refugees in Canada to be imprisoned indefinitely on secret evidence, with the presumption that they are connected in some way to a threat to national security.
Evidence is not disclosed to the defendant or their legal counsel, and once a judge upholds the certificate there is no access to an appeals process. The result of an upheld security certificate is deportation, often to countries where the defendant faces torture.
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Fighting Security Certificates
posted on March 01, 2011 | in Category Security Certificates | PermaLinkSource: The Link (Concordia University, Montreal)
URL: [link]
Date: February 8, 2011
Representatives from respective community groups lashed out against the issuance of Canadian security certificates and other immigration security measures during a panel discussion in the Hall Building on Sunday.
The Government of Canada has issued security certificates to foreign nationals it deems can pose a threat to Canada. While no actual charges have been laid, the government has used secret evidence to reach a decision. The outcomes of approved security certificates consist of detention and deportation. Twenty-eight security certificates have been issued since 1991.
The common fear for those issued security certificates is that, upon being deported back to their country of origin, they will run a high risk of being to tortured.
“Ask any Canadian, left or right, if [he or she] thinks it’s correct to throw someone in jail without knowing why,” said Hassan Almrei, a Syrian-born refugee from Toronto who was detained for nearly seven-and-a-half years on suspicion of having terrorist links.
Almrei staged three hunger strikes during his detention in various Ontario prisons from 2001 until his release 2009—the last ending after he fasted for more than five months at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre.
“My mouth was my only weapon,” said Almrei in regards to his aim of attracting public attention. He still has no idea why he was detained.
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PHOTOS from The Peoples Commission Forum, Montreal, Feb. 2011
posted on February 18, 2011 | in Category Security Certificates | PermaLinkOnline Photo Archive: http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenell
Wedding Photography: http://photooxygene.com
Auditorium in The Hall Building, Concordia University.
Ellen Gabriel, activist from the community of Kanehsatake
Mary Foster, one of the chief organizers of the event.
Lots of warm meals were served by volunteers.
Longtime Harkat Committee member Jo Wood speaks as Sophie Harkat and others listen.
All images: © Darren Ell 2011
Justice for Harkat: no deportation to torture
posted on February 16, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLink© 2011 Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated).
THE REAL NEWS: Canadian Secret Trial
posted on February 08, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkMohamed Harkat barred from attending dinner in his honour
posted on February 03, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkMontreal, 3 February 2011 – A community dinner in Montreal in support of Mohamed Harkat – engaged in an eight-year battle against deportation to torture on the basis of secret suspicions - will have to go ahead without its guest of honour. Mohamed Harkat learned late last week that the Canadian Border Services Agency refused his request to attend the dinner, organized as the closing event of a Montreal conference on national security.
CBSA, which is in charge of enforcing the strict bail conditions imposed on Mr. Harkat, stated that Mr. Harkat could not attend because of the “the nature of the proposed event, its anticipated participants, as well as its venue”. The event, a free vegetarian dinner, will take place at a Montreal university.
The agency referred specifically to Mr. Harkat’s condition of non-association with “any person whom Mr. Harkat knows, or ought to know, supports terrorism or violent Jihad or [...] who poses a threat to national security.”
"The way in which national security can be used as a blanket justification for such abusive, arbitrary decisions is exactly why it is necessary to hold this important forum," stated the People's Commission Network, which is organizing the Whose Security? Our Security! conference.
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Alternatives sought to deporting terror suspects
posted on January 28, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkSource: CBC News
URL: [link]
Date: January 27, 2011
The federal government is quietly studying alternatives to deporting terrorism suspects under the much-maligned national security certificate as attempts to remove them get bogged down in the courts.
The effort reflects candid federal admissions that it's almost impossible to send non-citizens with alleged terror links to their home countries because they may be tortured or killed.
Currently, three people arrested under security certificates — Mohamed Harkat of Algeria, and Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub, both from Egypt — are out on bail under strict surveillance as their cases slowly grind through the courts.
Harkat was recently served with a deportation order, but his lawyers argue he should not be removed while the security certificate system is still under judicial review.
A federal interdepartmental body known as the Alternatives to Removal Working Group began meeting in March 2009 to explore policy options for managing people deemed a threat to national security, documents disclosed under the Access to Information Act show.
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Documents outline senior federal officials’ discussions on security certificates, alternative measures
posted on January 28, 2011 | in Category Mohamed Harkat | PermaLinkSource: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: January 27, 2011
OTTAWA — Even as the federal government was aggressively pursuing security certificate cases against Mohamed Harkat and others in court, senior officials were quietly reviewing the system and considering alternatives, newly released access to information documents show.
Highlighting the dilemma facing the government on the controversial security certificate system, the documents show that a number of high-level inter-departmental meetings were held in 2009 and last year to consider changes. The working groups, which included assistant deputy ministers, discussed:
• Alternatives to Removal (of people considered a threat, from Canada).
• Diplomatic Assurances (from countries that they will not torture returned detainees.)
• Evaluation of the Security Certificate Initiative and
• Alternatives to Removal Options in the Criminal Law, an attempt to explore criminal code provisions that could be used against those who pose a threat to the country.
Large sections of the documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, obtained by York University researcher and PhD student Michael Larsen, are heavily redacted. But it is clear that the meetings were seeking new ways to deal with people held under the security certificates.
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