The following is a motion argued by Me. Johanne Doyon on behalf of Adil Charkaoui in Federal Court on 22 August 2007, 11 September, and 24 September. The motion seeks a stay of the proceedings against Mr. Charkaoui in light of the leak of allegations in his case and in light of the undue delay in his application for protection.

    Michelle Shephard, The Toronto Star, September 2007

BATH, Ont.- Hassan Almrei strolls from his cell wearing a pressed cream shirt, dress pants and polished black shoes. If not for the barbed wire behind him, the 33-year-old Syrian could be on his way to a corporate board meeting, not an interview with a journalist as the remaining detainee in a prison dubbed "Guantanamo North."

Almrei has fought a series of public and legal battles to get to this point. Over the six years of his detention he has stopped eating, sometimes for weeks at a time, to pressure the government to grant him privileges like wearing a watch, or stopping the daily strip searches.

    by Sherene H. Razack, Professor, OISE, University of Toronto.
 
Abstract

In this article I examine three categories of people for whom race and national security considerations have come together to result in their eviction from political community. These groups are exiled to spaces in law where fundamental rights are suspended. The three categories are: security certificate detainees, "security delayed" non-citizens, that is, those kept in a formally indeterminate status due to the suspicion that they may present a danger to Canada, and finally individuals cast into a state of permanent suspicion who are either deported, branded as potential terrorists, or shipped to their countries of origin where they are tortured.

    BILL CURRY, Globe and Mail, 13 September 2007

NOTE: Although the article below does not mention it, on 4 June 2003, the Globe and Mail reported that a suspected CSIS mole, Surjan Singh Gill, was identified by the RCMP as one of six main suspects in the Air India bombing. The RCMP believed that he had the explosives and airline ticket with him shortly before two bombs were apparently checked onto flights in Vancouver. Gill left Canada in 2000 and has never been charged.

OTTAWA - Officials working at Canada's spy agency will explain next week why CSIS erased audio wiretaps of key suspects after the 1985 Air India bombing.

    Message from Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 11 September 2007

 
Thank you very much to all who came out to support the Charkaouis and help monitor CSIS in Federal court today. Apologies to all who came out after 10am and found that it was over.

The hearing wrapped up very quickly. The outcome was that the motion for a stay of proceedings will be heard on 24 September, beginning with a cross-examination of the two La Presse journalists who published the leaked secret information.
Read the legal argument here.
 
Background
 

    Ian MacLeod, The Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, September 06, 2007

The federal government is holding firm in ignoring a court ruling that declared a central piece of the Anti-terrorism Act unconstitutional over the requirement that authorities prove terrorism offences are motivated by political and religious causes.

The decision to spurn the 2006 Charter ruling of the Superior Court of Ontario, handed down in the case of accused Ottawa terrorist Momin Khawaja, is revealed in the government's response to the recent recommendations of a Commons' subcommittee that conducted a mandatory review of the sweeping 2001 anti-terror law.

Statement by Ahmed Zaoui, 3 September 2007
 
Further background on the Zaoui case here.

    Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, August 2007
 

23 August 2007

Adil Charkaoui was in Federal court for the past two days to argue that the conditions imposed on him since February 2005 should be lifted in light of the Supreme Court decision that the entire security certificate process is illegal.

Charkaoui argued that the Federal Court judge should set aside the secret evidence in Charkaoui's case both because of this decision and because of serious concerns about the conduct of CSIS in Arar's case and about the quality of the information the spy agency produces in general.

Charkaoui also presented the Court with substantial new evidence to refute the unproven allegations that have been made public in his court case (see summary of day one below).

The government response was very limited.

    Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 23 August 2007