Gazette, 29 May 2009

MONTREAL - With conditions of his security certificate detention now eased, Adil Charkaoui is to begin a cross-country speaking engagement June 1 in Halifax.

The Moroccan-born Montrealer was arrested in May 2003 under a security certificate - a seldom-used tool under immigration law allowing authorities to detain non-citizens indefinitely without charge and without seeing the evidence against them. At the time of his arrest, Ottawa maintained that Charkaoui was a sleeper agent for Al-Qa'ida. He has always steadfastly denied it.

In February 2009, the Federal Court lifted most of the interim conditions imposed on Charkaoui following his release from jail in 2005, pending his court case.

Charkaoui, one of five men in Canada undergoing the security certificate process, must still wear a GPS-tracking bracelet.

The cross-Canada speaking tour wraps up in Victoria June 25.