There is some good news. After four years of running scared, people are beginning to realize that, hey, maybe it's not a good idea to eliminate civil liberties entirely in the name of fighting terror. The cheering news this week was the decision of Alexandre Trudeau, the late prime minister's son, to testify on behalf of Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei, who has been held without charge in a Toronto jail for almost four years. Almrei and the other four Muslims held under the provisions of so-called security certificates haven't aroused a wave of sympathy in Canada. The government wants to deport them because it says it has evidence that they are connected to terrorism. But it won't say what that evidence is. It has admitted that it does not have enough to charge them in criminal court with terrorism. This puts the five in the unenviable position of trying to fight shadows. In most cases, they don't know where Canada's security forces obtained the information being used against them. Even when they do, they cannot cross-examine the source. What if he got his facts wrong? What if he provided information under torture? What if he is lying? What exactly did he say? The accused can never know. In a normal world, there would have been an outcry long ago. But like Americans, Canadians were frightened by 9/11. They feared the CN Tower would be blown up by Al Qaeda. They secretly, and sometimes not so secretly, mistrusted swarthy men with moustaches. So there was not much sympathy. And, in the media - with a few notable exceptions - there was not much coverage.

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