by Press Release Source: Independent Jewish Voices URL: [link] Date: May 15, 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 15, 2014 Independent Jewish Voices Appalled by Court Rulings on Hassan Diab and Mohamed Harkat

OTTAWA – With the decision to extradite Hassan Diab to France affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal, human rights supporters across the country are appalled by the decision, and fearful of the precedent this sets for Canadian citizens. “Independent Jewish Voices is stunned by the Kafkaesque trial against Dr. Diab, who has been wrongly accused of a heinous crime committed decades ago,” says IJV spokesperson Sid Shniad. “Despite the fact that Dr. Diab’s fingerprints, palm prints, handwriting and physical description do not match those of the suspect, he still faces extradition to a foreign country. What kind of democracy are we living in?” Due to Canada’s extradition laws, it makes no difference that according to an Ontario judge, the evidence levelled against Dr. Diab is “confusing,” “weak,” and “suspect.” The request — however unreasonable — of a foreign country, takes priority over the rights of a Canadian citizen. Dr Diab’s extradition is opposed by countless civil society organizations that support human rights. There is, however, one organization in particular that has been publicly supportive of Dr. Diab’s extradition: The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). “Independent Jewish Voices is deeply disturbed that the pro-Israel lobby group CIJA — which falsely claims to represent Canada’s diverse Jewish communities — has been supportive of Dr. Diab’s extradition,” says Shniad. “It is an affront to the Jewish tradition of support for universal human rights, including due process under the law, to support the extradition of a man accused of a crime despite the absence of any valid evidence against him.” This decision directly follows the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Security Certificate process in the case of Mohamed Harkat. “Canada’s treatment of Dr. Diab and Mr. Harkat are reflective of the same systemic flaws,” says Shniad. “Our government and judicial system are in the business of violating international law, demonizing Arabs and Muslims, and branding them terrorists while denying them the right to a fair trial. All those who believe in justice should be outraged. We should demand that Parliament intervene immediately to abolish Security Certificates and end unjust practices like the extradition proceedings against Dr. Diab.” For more information contact: Sid Shniad, Steering Committee member of Independent Jewish Voices – Canada 604-314-5589, ijv-vancouver AT ijvcanada.org

by Alma Norman Source: The Ottawa Citizen, letter to the editor URL: [link] Date: May 17, 2014 Re: Harkat promises fight 'to the end,' May 16.

Where has my Canada gone now that Mohamed and his wife, Sophie, have lost their struggle for justice? As a result of secret trials where he saw neither the evidence nor his accuser, Harkat is to be deported to Algeria, where he may face possible torture and death. Do we really feel safer because their battle for justice has been lost? Is democracy more secure in Canada because secret trials have been Ok'd? Or has democracy been sacrificed to the so-called "war" on terrorism? Oh Canada, my shameful chosen land. Alma Norman

Ottawa © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Here is a photo submitted by one of our amazing supporters. It was taken on the morning of the release of the Supreme Court's decision in Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration v. Harkat.

Click on the photo above to see more pics from the rally that morning.

Thank you to those dedicated supporters who came out on Wednesday morning to hold up our banners and let the world know that regardless of what 8 Supreme Court judges may think security certificates are not acceptable to Canadians. They are a blight on our reputation as a country that purports to stand for human rights. And they must be abolished.

by Michelle Zilio Source: iPolitics URL: [link] Date: May 14, 2014 The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled the security certificate issued against accused al-Qaida sleeper agent and Ottawa resident Mohamed Harkat reasonable, making proceedings for his deporation imminent. In a ruling issued Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the controversial security certificate process. The decision, issued by all eight Supreme Court judges, marks the end of the security certificate appeal process for Harkat, who has been fighting the government on this front for more than 12 years. It’s a worst-possible outcome for Harkat, who now faces deportation. “The ruling is difficult to describe in words. It’s more than disappointing. It’s devastating for Mr. and Mrs. Harkat,” said Boxall. “This does bring an end to the security certificate proceedings, but I’m sure it doesn’t bring an end to Mr. Harkat’s right to clear his name and maintain his right to live here.” Harkat and his wife Sophie first heard the news from Boxall Wednesday morning. While they were at the Supreme Court when the ruling was issued, they did not speak with reporters. Harkat was born in Algeria and moved to Canada as a refugee in September 1995. The former pizza delivery man was arrested outside his Ottawa home in 2002 on a national security certificate. The security certificate regime allows the federal government to detain and deport non-citizens deemed security threats without presenting all evidence against them.



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Watch this 12 min. television interview on CBC News. Host Evan Solomon talks to Mohamed Harkat and wife Sophie Harkat about their reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision:

Source: ICLMG News Digest URL: [link] Date: 14 mai, 2014 Communiqué de presse: L'arrêt Harkat de la Cour suprême maintient un processus injuste pour les non-citoyens

14/05/2014 - La Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles (CSILC) et le Conseil canadien pour les réfugiés (CCR) sont déçus de la décision de la Cour suprême du Canada dans l'affaire Harkat qui maintient un processus fondamentalement injuste s'appuyant sur des preuves secrètes pour décider d'expulser un non-citoyen, potentiellement vers un risque de torture. Dans sa décision, la Cour suprême confirme la constitutionnalité du régime des certificats de sécurité, affirmant que les avocats spéciaux peuvent adéquatement compenser la non-divulgation aux personnes concernées de certaines preuves utilisées contre elles. La CSILC et le CCR regrettent que cette décision affirme l'inégalité de la protection des droits fondamentaux offerte aux non-citoyens. Lorsque ces droits sont en jeu pour les citoyens, comme dans les procédures pénales, nous ne tolérons pas l'utilisation de preuves secrètes. Les non-citoyens méritent une chance égale de connaître les preuves utilisées contre eux, et d'y répondre. La Cour ne s'est pas prononcée sur les aspects discriminatoires de ces dispositions. La Cour a également omis de se référer au droit international relatif aux droits humains, qui devrait servir de cadre essentiel pour le droit canadien.

Lire plus

Press release: Supreme Court Harkat decision maintains fundamentally unfair process for non-citizens

La Cour suprême maintient le certificat de sécurité contre Harkat

Mohamed Harkat says he'll be tortured, killed if sent back to Algeria

Harkat «anéanti» par le jugement de la Cour suprême

Mohamed Harkat could remain in 'immigration limbo' for years

Globe editorial: Supreme Court comes close to squaring circle on security certificates

(c) International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

by Tonda MacCharles Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: May 14, 2014 OTTAWA—The Supreme Court of Canada unanimously upheld revised security certificates laws Wednesday along with the use of secret evidence to deport foreign-born terrorism suspects as constitutional. In doing so, the 8-0 decision also concluded a security certificate — a kind of special immigration warrant — issued against Algerian-born Mohamed Harkat is reasonable. It is a major nod to the Conservative government’s 2008 redesign of the security certificates that brought in the use of security-cleared special advocates who have access to secret state evidence although they are not allowed to disclose that evidence to the defence. However, it may not be the end of a long battle for Harkat, pegged by Canada’s security agencies as a suspected Al Qaeda sleeper agent. For years, Ottawa has sought to deport Harkat insisting he is a threat. But Harkat’s lawyers say Canada cannot deport anyone to face a risk of torture as they argue he would be in Algeria, and are expected to fight further efforts to remove him.


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by Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: May 14, 2014 Ottawa’s Mohamed Harkat once again faces deportation to his native Algeria after the Supreme Court of Canada on Wednesday declared the federal government’s security certificate regime constitutional. In a unanimous ruling, the high court said the security certificate regime crafted by Parliament in 2008 – although an “imperfect process” — offers a fundamentally fair process that also protects national security information. The Supreme Court ruling provides a detailed roadmap for trial judges to ensure that future security-certificate cases are conducted fairly. In upholding a key element of the government’s anti-terrorism strategy, the Supreme Court decided that Harkat’s lawyers had failed to show that his security certificate hearing was unfair or had undermined the integrity of the justice system. “In the present case, Mr. Harkat benefited from a fair process,” the court declared in a ruling that puts Harkat back on the legal road to deportation. The high court reinstated the December 2010 judgment of Federal Court Judge Simon Noël, who deemed Harkat a terrorist threat to national security. Noël said Harkat was a member of the al-Qaida network and linked him to a number of Islamic extremists, including Saudi-born Ibn Khattab, Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr, a key al-Qaida figure, and Abu Zubaydah, a facilitator in the Osama bin Laden network. The ruling represents a much-needed victory for the government at the Supreme Court and a devastating loss for Harkat, who had been hoping the court would put an end to his almost 12-year legal odyssey.


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by Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: May 11, 2014 [PHOTO: Mohamed Harkat speaks with his wife Sophie in front of the Supreme Court of Canada, Thursday, October 10, 2013 in Ottawa. Harkat is challenging the constitutionality of the security certificate provisions in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.] The Supreme Court of Canada will decide Wednesday whether to strike down the federal government’s security certificate regime for the second time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In making that ruling, the court will also decide the immediate fate of Ottawa’s Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian-born terrorism suspect who has been fighting against his deportation under terms of the law, and its predecessor, for more than a decade. The government contends Harkat, 45, is a member of the al-Qaida network and has been trying to deport him since December 2002, when he was arrested outside his Ottawa apartment building. “I have always kept my faith in the Supreme Court, but I am extremely anxious right now,” said Harkat’s wife, Sophie, when informed of the pending high court decision. Harkat refused to speculate on how the court will rule. “We’ve been wrong every single time,” she said. “The ideal outcome for us is that it’s found unconstitutional for the second time and that we finally see an end to this. . . . But this will change our entire lives — one way or the other.” The first version of the federal law to deport foreign-born terrorism suspects was struck down by the high court in 2007. The law had been introduced in 1978 as a means to deport foreign nationals and permanent residents tied to terrorism but against whom the government did not have enough evidence to charge criminally. It attracted little attention until 9/11 when it suddenly became a central plank in the government’s anti-terrorism strategy. The Supreme Court, however, said the legal process it created was so secretive that it denied terrorism suspects the constitutional right to defend themselves. That ruling nullified a Federal Court judge’s finding that Harkat, a former pizza delivery man and gas station cashier, was a dangerous al-Qaida terrorist. Harkat has lived in Ottawa as a refugee claimant since September 1995. He came to Canada from Pakistan, where he spent five years after fleeing Algeria. He has always maintained that he has no connection to al-Qaida and will be tortured or killed if deported to the country from which he fled as a university student. In 2008, Parliament introduced a revised security certificate law that gave foreign-born terrorism suspects more information about the cases against them, and afforded them better legal representation during secret court hearings where national security information was presented. In December 2010, using the new rules, Federal Court Judge Simon Noël declared Harkat an active and dangerous member of the al-Qaida network. He ruled that Harkat operated a guest house in Pakistan for Saudi-born terrorist Ibn Khattab, and had links to Al Gama’a al-Islamiyya, an Islamic extremist group in Egypt. But in April 2012, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the findings. It said Harkat’s right to a fair trial had been compromised by the destruction of 13 wiretap recordings made by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service between 1996 and 1998. Written summaries of those conversations offered critical evidence against Harkat, but without the full original recordings defence lawyers had no way to challenge their context or accuracy, the court said. At the Supreme Court, government lawyers asked that Noël’s original judgment against Harkat be restored, while Harkat’s lawyers argued that the entire security certificate regime should be torn down again as unconstitutional. When the government revised the security certificate law, it introduced “special advocates” — security-cleared lawyers assigned to protect the interests of the accused. The advocates attend the secret hearings and have access to some of the classified evidence. But Harkat is contending that restrictions placed on the advocates prevent them from mounting an adequate defence, and therefore that the regime is unconstitutional. The advocates cannot communicate with a named person or their “public” lawyer about the evidence presented in secret or the advocate’s legal strategy. They are not allowed to know the identity of or cross-examine crucial government informants. They cannot call witnesses or gather their own information and are limited to working with only the information the government chooses to share with them and the court. The government contends, for its part, that protection of national security secrets needs to be given priority. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

by: Jim Bronskill (CP) Source: CTV News Website URL: [link] Date: May 13, 2014 [PHOTO: Mohamed Harkat pauses during a press conference on Parliament Hill marking the 10th anniversary of his arrest and detention on a security certificate in Ottawa, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. ] OTTAWA -- The fate of terror suspect Mohamed Harkat -- and the controversial security certificate system being used to deport him -- will become clearer Wednesday when the Supreme Court of Canada issues a long-awaited ruling. But the Ottawa man's case has taken so many twists and turns over the last dozen years that the end of the road may still be some way off. The high court will rule on the constitutionality of the certificate regime, a rarely used means of removing non-citizens suspected of involvement in extremism or espionage. It is also slated to decide crucial issues related to evidence in the certificate case of Harkat, an Algerian refugee accused of terrorist ties. As a result, the ruling could have implications that reach far beyond the world of security certificates, said Norm Boxall, a lawyer for Harkat. "There's a tremendous number of issues involved in the case," Boxall said Tuesday. "It's very complex." Harkat, 45, was taken into custody in December 2002 on suspicion of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent. The former gas station attendant and pizza delivery man lives quietly in the national capital with wife Sophie. Last year border agents removed an electronic tracking bracelet from his ankle. Harkat was also given more freedom to travel but he can't leave the country and must check in with authorities regularly. The person named in a security certificate receives only a summary of the case against them, stripped of supporting details to protect sensitive intelligence sources and methods. The federal government issued a revised certificate against Harkat in 2008 after the secretive process was struck down by the courts and subsequently overhauled to make it more fair. The Supreme Court will decide Wednesday whether those reforms went far enough. In revamping the system, the government introduced special advocates -- lawyers with access to secret material who serve as watchdogs and test federal evidence against the person singled out in the certificate. Harkat's counsel argued during a Supreme Court hearing last year that the special advocates do not make up for weaknesses in the certificate process, noting these lawyers are greatly restricted in what they can say about the case and cannot initiate their own investigations. Federal lawyers told the high court the certificate process was fair, meeting the guarantee of fundamental justice under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In April 2012, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the constitutionality of the security certificate system, but ruled that summaries of some 1990s conversations be excluded from evidence against Harkat because the Canadian Security Intelligence Service destroyed the original recordings. The appeal court also said that human sources recruited by CSIS do not have the sort of blanket protection that shields the identities of police informants, even from the judge. In the case of CSIS, the issue is instead decided on a case-by-case basis. Neither side was pleased with the ruling, and each asked for a hearing in the Supreme Court. One of three scenarios is likely: The court upholds both the security certificate system and rules the certificate against Harkat reasonable, opening the door to the next step in deporting him. The judges find the security certificate regime constitutional but rule that the case against Harkat must be re-examined or even tossed out. The court rules the security certificate system unconstitutional, making the certificate against Harkat invalid as well. Two other men -- Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohamed Mahjoub, both originally from Egypt -- could face removal from Canada in long-running certificate cases. © 2014 Bell Media All rights reserved.