Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 6 April 2006

Montreal, 6 April 2006 – Adil Charkaoui will be testifying in Federal Court this week in a bid to have the “preventive” conditions that have been imposed on him dropped once and for all. Alexandre (“Sascha”) Trudeau and over a dozen other citizens will testify on Mr. Charkaoui’s behalf.

“The conditions have hampered my ability to work, to practise my religion, to lead a normal family life and to enjoy leisure pursuits,” said the 32-year old father of three, who has been a Permanent Resident of Canada for over ten years. “Once again, I am asking no more than my right to a fair trial and to equal treatment. If the government has a case against me, it is free to bring charges against me in the normal way.”

In February 2005, Mr. Charkaoui was released from almost two years of arbitrary detention under a “security certificate,” only to be placed under conditions Amnesty International has described as “among the most restrictive ever imposed in Canada.” The conditions, widely perceived as precedent-setting, include a curfew, accompaniment by his mother or father when outside his home, a GPS-tracking bracelet as well as 24-hour access to his home at all time without mandate by all federal and provincial police agencies. Mr. Charkaoui has not been charged, and he has not undergone any trial, not even the limited judicial review provided under the security certificate process. Amnesty International has stated that, “His fundamental right to liberty and security of the person accords him the right to due process or release from the restrictive bail conditions that have been imposed on him.”

“Many of us remember what it was like in the 1970’s, when the War Measures Act was in force,” said Dr. Janet Cleveland, a researcher at the University of Montreal. “That is a period of our history we do not want to revisit.”

Dr. Cleveland, Mr. Trudeau, and 14 others have come forward in support of Mr. Charkaoui and his family by offering to join the pool of accompaniers if the condition of accompaniment remains in place.

“It is the least we can do to support the Charkaouis,” explained Martin Duckworth, a film-maker and friend of the family. “Mr. Charkaoui is defending some of the fundamental principles of our political system - habeas corpus, the presumption of innocence and equality,” he added. “The family should not have to face that struggle alone – they are doing it for all of us.”

Despite broad criticism – from the public in Quebec and Canada to the United Nations – the Canadian government has done nothing to address the Kafka-esque situation in which those under a security certificate are currently living. Instead, the government is preparing to transfer the four Ontario detainees, who have been held without charge for a combined 220 months, to a new detention facility in Kingston, Ontario, dubbed “Guantanamo North. At the same time, the government has continued to pursue deportation of the five men, even while acknowledging a substantial risk of torture or death.

The three government options on offer for security certificate detainees - house arrest (“house detention”), indefinite detention or deportation to torture – all fall short of Canada’s international legal obligations.

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