Action report-back and update on "ordinary rendition" cases in Canada

In January 2001, Adil Charkaoui was arrested at JFK airport while on the way home to Montreal from a visit to Morocco. He and his wife were forced off the plane at gunpoint by FBI agents. He was held and subjected to questioning for hours: to his bewilderment and anger, he was informed that he had come under suspicion of Canadian authorities as a potential risk to" national security". The FBI agents asked him questions displaying an intimate knowledge of his life in Canada; in his words, "they knew everything about my life". It seemed that Canadian intelligence had passed information to the FBI about him.

    Allison Hanes, CanWest News Service; National Post, September 12, 2006

TORONTO - After five years of fighting to have a suspected terror cell member deported to his native Egypt, government lawyers on Monday unexpectedly asked the judge in the case to weigh whether it would be constitutional to send Mahmoud Jaballah back to a country where he may face torture.

Lawyers and supporters of the Toronto father of six - who has been detained on a national security certificate since August, 2001 - were caught off guard by the sudden turn of events. But perhaps no one was more taken aback by Monday's surprise pitch than Federal Court Justice Andrew Mackay.

"I don't know what's come over you," he quipped to the Justice Department lawyer who made the plea. "It's been a most unusual afternoon.''

    Radio Canada, 31 août 2006
 
Dossier: Le Canada après le 11 septembre
www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/National/2006/08/31/017-11sept-canada-8.sh...

    Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 9 June 2006

9 June 2006, Montreal – Adil Charkaoui is permitted to travel to Ottawa for three days to attend his constitutional challenge to the “security certificate” process at the Supreme Court, the Federal Court announced on Wednesday. Charkaoui’s conditions, imposed on him without charge or trial, would normally prevent him from leaving the island of Montreal.

“I am heading to the Supreme Court with optimism,” stated Mr. Charkaoui. “Despite the difficulty, we have succeeded in bringing this issue to the fore and gaining an impressive level of support, both in Canada and internationally. Now we are heading to the top court. I do not believe Canadians want measures such as security certificates.”

    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.”

    Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, 4 April 2006

Montreal, 4 April 2006 - Disappointment greeted today's Federal Court ruling on Adil Charkaoui's latest bid for freedom. During court hearings on 6 and 7 April, Mr. Charkaoui urged that the severe court conditions which were placed on him without charge or trial be dropped, in accordance with his fundamental rights to liberty, security of the person, and equal treatment. Today the court granted Charkaoui three slight modifications, but refused to remove the restrictions altogether, citing the fact that the Court has not ruled on the validity of the allegations against Mr. Charkaoui.

    Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui & Ligue des Droits et Libertés, 16 Feb. 2006

Montreal, 16 February 2006 – Even as Adil Charkaoui celebrates the first anniversary of his liberation from prison, over thirty organisations and individuals declare their support for his efforts to modify the extremely severe conditions under which he still finds himself. In fact, Mr. Charkaoui has been subject to a series of conditions among the most draconian that Canada has known.

Canada mars international human rights day (10 December) for third year running

Montreal, December 10, 2005: In 2003, Canada marked international human rights day by arresting refugee Mohamed Harkat under a "security certificate"; they have held him without charge under threat of being sent to torture ever since. On 10 December 2004, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected Adil Charkaoui's constitutional challenge to security certificates. (The appeal will be heard by the Supreme Court in June 2006.) And yesterday, the Federal Court failed to uphold the absolute, international ban on torture.

Yesterday, the Federal Court rejected a motion from one of the victims of security certificates, Adil Charkaoui, heard in October 2005. The Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) excludes people who have been labelled "security threats" from provisions to guarantee that no one is deported to torture. Johanne Doyon, one of Charkaoui's lawyers, argued that keeping a person under threat of torture violates Charter rights to life, and security of the person, the protection against cruel and unusual punishment, as well as equality before the law.