October, 14, 2009, THE CANADIAN PRESS

MONTREAL - A security certificate against a Montreal man ((formerly)) accused of having terrorist ties has officially been declared null and void.

Adil Charkaoui says he is elated about the judgment which he received today.

He says the certificate has been quashed and that the federal government does not have the right to appeal.

Charkaoui tells The Canadian Press he has been waiting for six years to officially be a free man again.

Federal Court Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer removed the remaining conditions against Charkaoui at the end of September and said the security certificate would fall.

Charkaoui says he is demanding an apology and compensation from the federal government.

Charkaoui and his supporters are planning a news conference in Montreal later this afternoon.

He says he'll have more to say when he's had a chance to read the 68-page decision.

Federal Court issued a ruling this afternoon: the certificate against Adil is quashed and the government is denied an appeal after Judge Tremblay Lamer decided that there was no basis for an appeal. The Charkaouis' six+ year for justice is over at last!

Press conference:

4pm, Wed., October 14th 2009
Centre St-Pierre, Montreal

Video from press conference

Mr. Adil Charkaoui, joined by Ms. Monia Mazigh, Mr. Bill Siksay (MP, NDP-Burnaby Douglas), Mr. Thierry St-Cyr (Immigration critic for the Bloc Quebecois), and Mr. Salam Elmenyawi (President, Muslim Council of MOntreal), asked for an official apology during a press conference which took place in federal Parliament on Tuesday, 29 September 2009.

View press conference: click here.

Courts have maintained proper balance between rights of the accused and national security

James Morton, Toronto Star, 2 Oct 2009

Just a few weeks after Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised fears of left-wing ideologues on the bench, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said he fears for the government's ability to fight terrorism.

Van Loan complained of "an increasingly complex legal environment" in which judges are no longer deferring to the government in its efforts to deport foreign suspects. "It raises questions about whether we can protect national security," he said.

Certainly it has been a difficult few months for the government's anti-terrorism policy. Judges have not been notably supportive of government positions.

The Federal Court of Appeal recently upheld a ruling requiring the government to ask the Americans to bring Omar Khadr to Canada. That case is going to the Supreme Court but most observers do not see a government victory as likely.

Three security certificate cases, in which non-Canadians are subject to deportation on ministerial certificates, also look close to collapse.

Toronto Star editorial, Sep 30, 2009

Is Canada's ability to fight terror being hobbled by Federal Court judges who are making it hard for officials to keep foreign suspects in detention indefinitely, or on a tight leash?

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan worries that may indeed be the case. "It raises questions about whether we can protect national security and I can tell you I am concerned," he told Canwest News Service this week. "I spend a fair bit of time thinking about it."

Van Loan's remarks came in the wake of judicial blows last week to Canada's controversial "national security certificate" regime – the law that allows Ottawa to hold foreign terror suspects in preventive detention indefinitely, or under close watch, until they can be deported.

One judge ordered Adil Charkaoui, an alleged Al Qaeda sympathizer, unshackled from his tracking device, leaving him a free man. That was after government lawyers chose to withdraw evidence against him rather than comply with an order to release a public summary of it. Speaking for the government, the lawyers disputed the judge's view that disclosure wouldn't harm national security.

Hints at compensation as well

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 5:22 PM
 
OTTAWA — Adil Charkaoui, fresh from securing his freedom from federal surveillance, came to Parliament Hill on Tuesday shopping for an apology from the government for his "years of suffering" after being branded a terror suspect.

He also hinted that he could seek financial compensation.

The Montreal schoolteacher's appeal for Ottawa to drop its fight against him and to make amends came on the eve of a closed-door court hearing in which a judge is expected to quash a federal "security certificate," issued in 2003 on accusations that Charkaoui had ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

The rarely used certificates permit indefinite "administrative detention" of non-Canadians, without being charged or knowing the full case against them, while judges decide in closed-door hearings whether the suspects should be deported.

Press Conference
Tuesday, 29 September 2009, 11am
Charles Lynch Room, Centre Block, Parliament, Ottawa

Confirmed speakers:
Mr. Adil Charkaoui
Mr. Salam Elmenyawi, President, Muslim Council of Montreal
Ms. Monia Mazigh, human rights activist
Mr. Bill Siksay, MP (Burnaby Douglas, NDP)
Mr. Thierry St-Cyr, Porte-parole de Bloc, Citoyenneté et immigration

Mr. Adil Charkaoui, joined by several human rights organizations and members of opposition parties, will respond to last Thursday's Federal Court decision to remove all of the remaining conditions imposed on him under a security certificate.

On Wednesday, a secret hearing will take place between the judge, the federal government lawyers and the special advocates. Following the secret hearing - from which Adil Charkaoui, his lawyers, and the public will be excluded - the judge has promised to throw out the certificate and decide whether to grant the government leave to appeal.

Independently of the decision about the certificate, which could come out as early as Wednesday, Adil Charkaoui’s lawyers have asked Federal Court Judge Tremblay Lamer to sanction the government for the many violations committed in his case, including use of information obtained under torture, use of unreliable information, lies, and bad faith.

Read motion here.

Target of terrorism investigation feels 'naked' without ankle monitor
 
By SUE MONTGOMERY, The Gazette, 26 September 2009
 
Adil Charkaoui's first night of freedom was peaceful, until his 6-year-old son woke up crying.

After four years of sleeping with the base of his father's global tracking system in his room, Abdallah suddenly felt lost without the glowing light that emanated from the black machine the size of a toaster.

Charkaoui, too, felt a bit "naked" on his first day after Federal Court Judge Danielle Tremblay-Lamer quashed the security certificate under which the schoolteacher has been living for six years - and its accompanying bail conditions, including an electronic ankle bracelet that tracked his every move.

After cutting off the bracelet with a large pair of scissors, Charkaoui was able to go to bed Thursday night barefoot, instead of wearing a sock to ease the uncomfortable feeling of the metal and plastic against his skin.

"I keep looking for my GPS all the time," he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

"It's like when you forget your cellphone and you reach in your pocket and it's not there.