Reporters ordered to reveal sources

TU THANH HA, Globe and Mail, January 19, 2008

MONTREAL -- The Montreal newspaper La Presse will appeal a judgment ordering two of its reporters to answer questions about who leaked them a damaging document about terror suspect (("terror suspect": Charkaoui has never been charged with anything, and "terror" is not even defined in the law under which he has been arrested)) Adil Charkaoui.

In a ruling yesterday, Mr. Justice Simon Noël of the Federal Court said that finding the sources behind a June 22 La Presse story that says Mr. Charkaoui spoke to an associate about hijacking a plane is the only way to address Mr. Charkaoui's contention that he was the victim of a smear campaign by government officials.

"The judicial system cannot be handcuffed," Judge Noël said in the 53-page ruling.

He said he was aware of the importance of confidentiality for journalists. "However, considering the facts and all the stakes here, the greater public interest demands revealing the origin of the leak of a secret document," he wrote.

In a statement, La Presse managing editor Éric Trottier said the paper would appeal because of the impact on freedom of the press. "Protecting sources is a fundamental value for La Presse," he said.

The Moroccan-born Mr. Charkaoui is awaiting a court decision about the validity of a security certificate that alleges he should be deported because he is an al-Qaeda agent. ((in fact, the official public allegations are vaguer and more tenuous - 'reasonable grounds to think that he has the profile of ...'))

Last June, La Presse reported that it obtained a classified Canadian Security Intelligence Service report that says Mr. Charkaoui spoke to an associate about hijacking a plane. Mr. Charkaoui denies the allegation and is comparing the leak to what happened with Maher Arar, the Canadian engineer who was sent to his native Syria and tortured. A commission of inquiry found that federal officials had fed the Ottawa Citizen false information linking Mr. Arar to terrorist activities.

Mr. Charkaoui says the leak in La Presse has tainted his case and he wants Judge Noël to quash the certificate against him. "The request to annul the certificate because of abusive procedures is serious and certainly not a frivolous move," Judge Noël wrote.

At a previous hearing, one of the two journalists, Joël-Denis Bellavance, testified that he got the report from a source and that a second source confirmed its authenticity. He denied telling Mr. Charkaoui that he got it from a retired CSIS agent.

The unsigned document is classified as secret and comes from the CSIS intelligence assessments directory, Judge Noël wrote, adding that Mr. Charkaoui is only mentioned briefly in it.

The judge ruled that he won't allow a question from Mr. Charkaoui's lawyers regarding whether Mr. Arar is also mentioned in the document. However, the judge rejected objections from La Presse on all other questions.

This means Mr. Charkaoui's lawyers will get to ask who La Presse's sources are, whether those sources work for the government, what their motivations could be, and how the document's authenticity was confirmed.