Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 3 July 2007
 
Montreal, 3 July 2007 – The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui is pleased by the government’s decision to ask the RCMP to open an inquiry into the leak of secret information in Charkaoui’s file. The decision to ask the RCMP to open the investigation was announced in a letter received by Charkaoui’s lawyers this past Friday. The letter also stated that an administrative inquiry would take place, along with an assessment of the impact of the incident on court proceedings.

The Coalition demanded a police investigation into the source of the leak when the Montreal newspaper La Presse printed allegations from a secret document on 22 June.

The Coalition is also calling for a public inquiry into the actions of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in Charkaoui’s case, and for the Minister to review and withdraw the certificate issued against Charkaoui without delay. 

“The leak didn’t happen by accident. We want to know who leaked it, who confirmed the authenticity of the secret document and why. At the same time, this is not the first time that dirty tricks have been played. That is why we are now calling for a public inquiry into the actions of CSIS in Charkaoui’s file,” said Mary Foster, member of the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui. 

“When it was revealed by the Journal de Montréal in April that Ahmed Ressam had retracted his allegations against Charkaoui, the Coalition, supported by civil liberties groups, community organizations and members of Parliament from all opposition parties, called for a fair and transparent review of Charkaoui’s security certificate. The Coalition asked the Ministers responsible to withdraw the security certificate against Charkaoui, drop all the conditions against him and clear his name of all suspicions subsequent to that review. This latest abuse, which strongly recalls the leak of secret information to Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill in Maher Arar's case, and which comes after a long string of embarassments for the government in Charkaoui's unravelling file, makes the need for the Minister to take this step all the more apparent,” added Foster.

The leak came as Charkaoui prepares for a second Supreme Court hearing, this time on the grounds that CSIS destroyed evidence in the file. The Supreme Court will hear the appeal in January 2008.

The Supreme Court of Canada recognized that the security certificate process is unconstitutional in February 2007. The Court gave the government one year before the law – sections 34, and 77 to 85 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act -- falls. The Coalition has joined other organizations in calling on the government to refrain from introducing new security certificate legislation. In the meantime, Charkaoui, as well as Mohamed Harkat, Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohammad Mahjoub remain under severe conditions or house arrest as well as continued threat of deportation, while Hassan Almrei remains in “Guantanamo north” prison in Kingston.

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Source: Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui