Cristin Schmitz, Lawyers' Weekly, March 28 2008

A longtime military lawyer, and a civil litigator whose major client is the federal Department of Public Works, are among the latest lawyers with links to the government of Canada who have been appointed as independent special advocates for those held under security certificates.

Lieutenant-Colonel Denis Couture of Ashton, Ont., who retired in 2003 after 27 years in the Office of the Judge Advocate General and who continues to work as a lawyer in the Canadian Forces (CF) reserves, and Sylvain Lussier, a Montreal civil litigator who was lead counsel for the federal government at the Gomery Commission of Inquiry into the sponsorship scandal from 2004 to 2006, were among the six new special advocates named by Justice Minister Rob Nicholson March 4.

Andrew Duffy, Canwest News Service, February 28, 2008

OTTAWA - Five men publicly accused by the federal government of being "terrorists" want the right to contest allegations posted on the Federal Court of Canada's website.

In an open letter to Chief Justice Allan Lufty, two groups representing the terror suspects argue it is "unprecedented for a court to post 'evidence' for public review until it has been tested in court."

"The structure is just nonsensical and I suppose people who are in this business, and are following this, would think why would I apply for a job that Mickey Mouse should be doing?" -- Me. Ronald Poulton

"They're clowns, these special advocates . . . it's a hoax to describe it as a special advocate. It's absolute rubbish." -- M. Adil Charkaoui

February 27, 2008

Chief Justice Allan Lutfy,
Federal Court of Canada
Ottawa, ON

Dear Chief Justice Lutfy,

We are writing with the profoundest of concerns about the unprecedented placement on the front page of the Federal Court website of the public summaries of the security intelligence reports with respect to the five men subject to security certificate.

Richard Foot, Canwest News Service, 17 February 2008

Cristin Schmitz, Lawyers Weekly, February 2008

Fifty lawyers have answered the federal government's call to join a roster of "special advocates" for immigration security certificate cases, but the legitimacy of their proposed new role is still hotly debated.

Lawyers remain split over whether the proposed independent counsel regime contemplated by Bill C-3 will improve the lot of detained foreign nationals and permanent residents accused of being security threats based on secret government evidence, or whether special advocates will be mere window-dressing for a legislative scheme that the Canadian Bar Association and other legal groups have slammed as "seriously flawed" and constitutionally dubious.

Wanted: lawyers to defend accused terrorists

Richard Foot, Canwest News Service, Monday, January 28, 2008

The federal government is having trouble recruiting an experienced pool of lawyers to work as "special advocates" on behalf of terror suspects under Canada's security certificate law.

So far, only 50 lawyers have responded to a month-long, national recruitment campaign by the Department of Justice, aimed at finding a list of experienced practitioners who can defend people facing deportation in secret judicial hearings.

Those 50 applications may be enough from which to find a list of advocates, but they represent only a tiny fraction of the 57,000 practising lawyers in Canada.

Last week, as a result of the poor turnout, the Justice Department extended the application deadline from Jan. 15 to Feb. 1.

Montreal, 23 January 2008 -- The Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui
deplores the attack on Mr. Charkaoui's reputation in an article by Graeme
Hamilton which appeared in the National Post today under a sensationalist
headline. This attack follows the publication of other defamatory
allegations against Mr. Charkaoui this past June in the Montreal newspaper
La Presse, after the criminal leak of a secret, CSIS-sourced document. The
Coalition repeats its call for a government inquiry into the actions of CSIS
in Charkaoui's case.

The National Post article is based on a public summary of an alleged
interview with Mr. Charkaoui in 2001 which was disclosed earlier this month to the
Federal Court in a secret hearing. The interview was not provided to the
Ministers who signed Mr. Charkaoui's certificate, nor previously to the

Reporters ordered to reveal sources

TU THANH HA, Globe and Mail, January 19, 2008

MONTREAL -- The Montreal newspaper La Presse will appeal a judgment ordering two of its reporters to answer questions about who leaked them a damaging document about terror suspect (("terror suspect": Charkaoui has never been charged with anything, and "terror" is not even defined in the law under which he has been arrested)) Adil Charkaoui.

In a ruling yesterday, Mr. Justice Simon Noël of the Federal Court said that finding the sources behind a June 22 La Presse story that says Mr. Charkaoui spoke to an associate about hijacking a plane is the only way to address Mr. Charkaoui's contention that he was the victim of a smear campaign by government officials.

Judge orders reporters to reveal Charkaoui sources

Sue Montgomery, Canwest News Service, 18 January 2008

MONTREAL - A Federal Court judge has ordered two reporters from Montreal's La Presse to reveal their sources for a damning article about Adil Charkaoui, a Montreal man arrested in 2003 under a security certificate and accused of having ties to terrorists.

Charkaoui's rights and the administration of justice take precedence over freedom of the press and protection of sources, Judge Simon Noel wrote in his judgment, released Friday.

While the courts try not to obstruct the work of journalists, this was an "exceptional case requiring a solution out of the ordinary," Noel said.

The newspaper said it would appeal Noel's decision.