New Security Certificates Law Escapes Both Public Scrutiny and Democratic Dissent

posted on March 05, 2008 | in Category Security Certificates | PermaLink

By Wade Deisman and Mike Larsen
Source: Embassy: Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly
URL: [link]
Date: March 5, 2008


When the Supreme Court last February declared security certificates to be unjust, the mood amongst the five men currently held by such certificates was cautiously optimistic, though a far cry from festive.

Although the high court concurred with the petitioners in finding the then-extant security certificate process unconstitutional, its judgment fell short of fully denouncing the practice.

The decision contained caveats that quashed any hope for the men's immediate release, and placed their fates in a kind of suspended animation.

In fact, the high court suspended applying its judgment for a year to allow lawmakers time to decide how to proceed, and even outlined some ways the process might be modified.

The high court said that a better balance between the state's desire to protect secret information and an individual's right to a fair hearing might be achieved by introducing a special advocate into the security certificate process.

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