posted on March 19, 2008 | in Category CSIS | PermaLink
by Ian MacLeod Source: Canwest News Service (Canada.com) URL: [link] Date: March 13, 2008
OTTAWA - Countering the threat of terrorist radicalization at home is now the chief preoccupation of Canada's spy agency.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), in its latest annual report, says while the threat of terrorism from foreign extremists continues to pose the most immediate danger to Canada and Canadians, the agency's main focus is "terrorism inspired by the ideology of al-Qaida, and the issue of radicalization of citizens or residents."
CSIS played a critical role in last summer's arrests of several Toronto-area men and youths, all Canadians, charged by the RCMP with conspiring to bomb government buildings in the city and storm Parliament. The suspects deny the allegations.
"The radicalization issue is really on the top of the government's security agenda these days," says Wesley Wark, a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa and co-director of the Institute for Research on Public Policy's Security and Democracy Project.
"That's partly a reflection of what they're learning from overseas allies and partners, particularly the British, partly with ongoing concerns about the prospect of some form of ultimate blowback from Canada's involvement in Afghanistan and partly a reflection of the internal cases that we've had including," the pending prosecutions against the Toronto group and accused Ottawa terrorist Momin Khawaja.
Jonathan Evans, head of Britain's domestic MI5 security service, recently spoke of al-Qaida recruiting teenagers there as young as 15. Other British officials say "self-radicalizing kids" have become a more threat than professional terrorist operatives from overseas.
Several of the biggest terror attacks and threats in the west in recent years - from the transit attacks in Madrid and London - have come from previously unremarkable, law-abiding citizens largely unknown to authorities.
But a CSIS study found a "very rapid process" is transforming some youths from angry activists into jihadist terrorists intent on killing for their religion.
The study, obtained last year by the National Post under the Access to Information Act, says a few have embraced terrorism with frightening speed after becoming enraged over what they perceive as a western "war on Islam" and being coaxed on by extremist preachers.
"The most important factor for radicalization is the perception that Islam is under attack from the West.
Jihadists also feel they must pre-emptively and violently defend Islam from these perceived enemies," it concludes.
They are also one of the most difficult types of terrorists for security services to counter, forcing security intelligence and law enforcement to shift strategies.
The CSIS report, meanwhile, notes:
. The agency in 2006-07 countered "the efforts of state and non-state actors to acquire materials or technology in Canada that could be used for producing weapons of mass destruction." No details are offered.
URL: [link] Source: Canadian Press Date: March 16, 2008
TORONTO — With five suspected Muslim terrorists caught in legal limbo, a freshly minted group of special advocates tasked with testing the government's secret evidence against the men could find themselves stymied by an upcoming secret hearing that raises questions about Canada's revamped national security legislation.
Under the new law, foreigners detained as a security risk can appoint one of the advocates to gain access to the highly classified intelligence about them, although the information would remain off-limits to the accused terrorist and his lawyer.
by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: N/A
Date: March 15, 2008
Paul Copeland is determined to hear evidence from an al-Qaeda lieutenant being held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay
The federal government has said it will no longer rely on the evidence of waterboarded al-Qaeda lieutenant Abu Zubaydah -- but that does not end his involvement in the case of Ottawa terror suspect Mohamed Harkat.
Mr. Harkat's defence lawyer, Paul Copeland, has again petitioned the Canadian and U.S. governments to gain access to Mr. Zubaydah, who's now held in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
The Canadian government alleges in its re-issued security certificate that Mr. Harkat "has associated" with Mr. Zubaydah since the early 1990s, but offers no evidence to support that contention.
Mr. Copeland wants to know from Mr. Zubaydah himself whether the allegation is true.
Source: Canadian Press URL: [link] Date: March 10, 2008
TORONTO — Lawyers for five alleged terrorists who have long fought to see secret evidence against their clients may soon get that chance under Canada's newly revamped system of national security certificates.
Among key issues to be worked out at a meeting with the chief justice of the Federal Court on Tuesday is the appointment "special advocates" - lawyers who will have access to the highly confidential intelligence used to detain the men.
"It's a totally new field. Nobody knows what they're doing. Nobody knows anything yet," said Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland, who represents two of the five alleged terrorists and is on the list of special advocates.
by Matthew Behrens
Source: The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
URL: N/A
Date: March 11, 2008
Democracy Day in the Land of Secret Trials: Federal Court Tries to Speed Through New Security Certificate Proceedings While Detainees’ Special Advocates Now Face A Secret Hearing About Alleged Conflict of Interest
March 11, 2008—It’s Democracy Day in Canada, and liberal types on the CBC and in the papers are gushing about the wonders of this country. One wonders what they would have thought had they been attending the hearing today hosted by Federal Court Chief Justice Alan Lutfy in Ottawa, with affected parties listening in by speaker phone in Toronto and Montreal.
In essence, the discussion focused without any particular sense of irony on how best to fairly, compassionately, and expeditiously implement the next stage of a process that guarantees indefinite detention without charge on secret suspicions, two-tier justice, racial profiling, and deportation to torture.
by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: March 12, 2008
More secrecy added to already secret process
Closed hearing to decide if two lawyers can act as special advocates for clients held under security certificates
The already secretive security certificate process is about to add a curious new layer of secrecy.
Later this month, a secret hearing is to be held in Federal Court to determine whether two defence lawyers can act as special advocates in secret hearings on behalf of their clients.
The hearing, which will include the participation of a yet-to-be-named special advocate, comes at the request of government lawyers who told a case-management conference yesterday that lawyers Paul Copeland and John Norris should not be allowed to act as special advocates.
by Helen Burnett
Source: The Law Times
URL: [link]
Date: March 10, 2008
BILL C-3: Challenge of new legislation predicted
Challenge of new legislation predicted Bill C-3 amends security certificate process
Brought into force last month, Bill C-3 — the legislation designed to amend the security certificate process — will likely be the subject of a constitutional challenge, say lawyers.
The bill was created following the February 2007 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Charkaoui v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), which found that the procedure for judicial approval of security certificates (a certificate of inadmissibility leading to the detention of a permanent resident or foreign national deemed to be a threat to national security) infringed the Charter. The court gave the government one year to amend its legislation.
According to the Supreme Court, the person named in the security certificate has no right to see the material on the basis of which the certificate was issued. The judge has to provide the person with a summary of the case against him or her, although this summary could not disclose material that might compromise national security. If the judge determines the certificate is reasonable, there is no appeal and no way to have the decision judicially reviewed.
by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Source: Newsweek
URL: [link]
Date: March 5, 2008
Canada tosses CIA terror testimony obtained through waterboarding.
The Canadian government is no longer using evidence gained from CIA interrogations of a top Al Qaeda detainee who was waterboarded.
According to documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country's national-security agency, last month quietly withdrew statements by alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah from public papers outlining the case against two alleged terror "sleeper" operatives in Ottawa and Montreal.
The move, which so far has received no public attention, is the latest sign of potential international fallout from the CIA's recent confirmation that it waterboarded a handful of high-profile Al Qaeda suspects in 2002 and 2003. The use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques were approved by the Bush White House and Justice Department. Waterboarding, which critics charge is a form of torture, involves strapping a suspect to an inclined board and forcing water into his lungs, typically by pouring water through a cloth placed over his nose and mouth.
By Andrew Duffy, Canwest News Service
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: N/A
Date: March 11, 2008
Defence lawyers shouldn't be advocates in terrorist case
OTTAWA - The already secretive security certificate process is about to add a new layer of confidentiality.
Later this month, a classified hearing is to be held in Federal Court to determine whether two defence lawyers can act as special advocates in future private hearings on behalf of their clients.
The hearing, which will include the participation of a yet-to-be-named special advocate, comes at the request of government lawyers who told a case-management conference Tuesday that lawyers Paul Copeland and John Norris should not be allowed to act as special advocates.
Special advocates were created by the government's new security certificate law, which seeks to improve upon the original one struck down last year by the Supreme Court.
Federal lawyer Donald MacIntosh said the government believes the lawyers would be in a conflict-of-interest position if they take on the new roles.
Press Release Source: OmarAlghabra.ca URL: [link] Date: March 4, 2008
For Immediate Release
March 4, 2008
Alghabra tables a private member bill to amend Security Certificate Act
OTTAWA - Today, Omar Alghabra, Liberal Member of Parliament for Mississauga- Erindale, tabled Bill C-523 entitled an Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate).
In February 2007, the Supreme Court gave the government a full year to improve the law, at the time, citing a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Conservative government chose to delay the presentation of their proposed changes giving parliamentarians very little time to have a substantive debate.
"The Conservatives have suffocated that debate and Canadians deserve a candid discussion," said Omar Alghabra. "If I, a lone parliamentarian with modest staff, was able to draft a bill with the help of experts within two weeks, surely the Conservatives could have tabled theirs sooner and given Parliamentarians enough time to exhaustively debate it."
Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin publicly acknowledged that many parliamentarians had to hold their noses and adopt Bill C-3 because of the lack of time given by the government. Witnesses provided compelling evidence that the law is clearly flawed.
Click on the photo of Mohamed to see all items related to him. JUNE 2017: Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional.
This fight is not over. The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee will re-double its efforts to see that justice is done for Mohamed Harkat and that the odious security certificate system of injustice is abolished once and for all.
