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.

On Friday, 18 January, the Federal Court of Canada issued an important ruling in the Charkaoui case. Judge Simon Noel will allow Charkaoui to continue a cross-examination of two journalists who published information from a secret CSIS document that was leaked to them, apparently in an effort to attack Charkaoui's credibility during a sensitive time in his case and the campaign against security certificates. The Arar commission found that a similar tactic had been used by the RCMP against Maher Arar.

The Federal Court decision can be found here.

Background:

- on the criminal leak of information

- on the legal motion

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.

    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
 

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.

22 August 2007

The following is a motion argued by Me. Dominique Larochelle on behalf of Adil Charkaoui in Federal Court on 22 August 2007. The motion seeks to have the conditions imposed on Mr. Charkaoui lifted in light of the Supreme Court ruling that security certificates are unconstitutional and in light of information that has shown the allegations against Mr. Charkaoui to be unfounded.
 
REQUÊTE POUR OBTENIR LA LIBÉRATION PROVISOIRE SANS CONDITION  DE L’INTÉRESSÉ, (art. 82 et 83 de la L.I.P.R., art. 7, 9  et 24(1) et 24(2) de la Charte)
Règle 359 des Règles des Cours fédérales (1998)

SACHEZ QUE L’intéressé, Adil Charkaoui, présentera une requête, à la date qui sera déterminée par la Cour, au 30 rue Mc Gill à Montréal.

    Update on 1 May 2007

Challenge to Security Certificate Process

Charkaoui's constitutional challenge to the process, initiated in June 2003, was heard by the Supreme Court in June 2006. In February 2007, the Supreme Court ruled that the certificate process violated sections 7, 9 and 10 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and struck down the law (sections 33 and 77 to 85 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act).

Challenge to Destruction of Evidence in Charkaoui’s File