by Unsigned editorial
Source: The Globe and Mail
URL: [link]
Date: September 26, 2009

It is galling that a suspected terrorist from Morocco is free to roam Canada because of a dispute between the country's spy service and a judge. In this clash between security and liberty, it is difficult to say who won. But Canadians are the losers, in the collapse of the case against Adil Charkaoui.

Canada needs to be able to detain and if possible deport suspected terrorists from abroad. The mechanism it has been using - security certificates signed by the immigration and public safety ministers - may now be unworkable. The dispute is over the public disclosure of information the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) says could help reveal the identity of confidential sources.

Canada has alleged for the past six years that Mr. Charkaoui, who had been living in Montreal, was linked to al-Qaeda. He had been jailed for two years, then released with a court order that he wear a Global Positioning System bracelet. The dispute that permitted him to remove the bracelet this week must seem baffling, and beside the point, to most Canadians. If he was suspected of being a security risk for so long, why is he suddenly free of GPS monitoring? How frightened should Canadians be?

Caution is needed in disclosing evidence in national-security cases. It is unclear, however, whether there is less than meets the eye to CSIS's complaints. It may be that its file on Mr. Charkaoui is thin, which would explain why, as Mr. Charkaoui's lawyer Johanne Doyon put it, it stole away like a thief in the night when aspects of its evidence were to be laid bare in open court.

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