by Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: May 16, 2011 OTTAWA — Five months after a judge declared him a terrorist threat to national security, Ottawa’s Mohamed Harkat is still waiting to plead his case in the Federal Court of Appeal. That appeal hearing will likely not begin until the late summer or fall. Lawyers for Harkat and the government will hold a conference call Tuesday to discuss the timing of the appeal. In the meantime, Harkat continues to collect signatures on a petition that demands an end to the secretive security-certificate process. It allows the government to present evidence gathered by domestic and foreign intelligence agencies in secret in an effort to deport people. Because it’s an immigration proceeding, not a criminal one, the standards are different. More than 3,000 groups and individuals have signed the petition, including Amnesty International Canada, the Law Union of Ontario, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Green Party of Canada. A host of New Democratic MPs, such as Paul Dewar, Pat Martin and Jean Crowder, have also added their names to the petition. “I think it speaks volumes: people don’t want secret trials in Canada,” said Mohamed Harkat’s wife, Sophie, in an interview Monday. “People want to see democracy in this country; people want to see fair and open trials.”She hopes the NDP, in its role as the Official Opposition, will make an issue of security certificates, which have been used against foreign-born terror suspects. Mohamed Harkat said he hopes his case reaches the Supreme Court of Canada so that he can challenge the current law, which was revised in 2008 after its predecessor was deemed unconstitutional by the high court. “That’s the only chance left for me,” said the Algerian-born Harkat, 42, who came to Canada in 1995 and claimed refugee status. Harkat said he has had trouble sleeping and concentrating during the past five months. He sees a doctor every two weeks. In December, Federal Court Justice Simon Noël branded Harkat a member of the Osama bin Laden terrorist network and a threat to national security. Noël concluded that Harkat had once operated a Pakistani guest house for Saudi-born terrorist Ibn Khattab; that he had maintained contact with members of the bin Laden network while in Canada; and that he had assisted two Islamic extremists travelling to this country. Harkat now faces deportation to his native Algeria where he contends he will be tortured or killed. The federal immigration department is now conducting a “danger assessment” to determine if Harkat can be safely returned. That assessment must consider whether Harkat faces a significant risk of torture in Algeria and whether that possibility is outweighed by the danger he poses to Canada. Harkat was the first terror suspect to have his security certificate upheld by the court since the revised law was passed. Two other men, Adil Charkaoui and Hassan Almrei, had their security certificates quashed. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen