Gazette, Marian Scott, 5 December 2011

MONTREAL — Advocates for five men arrested under security certificates said they were stunned to learn that Canada’s spy agency believed cases against them could fall apart if it could not use information obtained by torture.

On Saturday, the Montreal Gazette revealed that in 2008, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) warned the minister of public security that it could become impossible to use security certificates to arrest and deport suspected terrorists if it was prohibited from using information from foreign regimes known to use torture.

In a letter obtained by the Montreal Gazette, former CSIS director Jim Judd warned that a proposed bill then before Parliament “could render unsustainable the current security certificate proceedings.” A security certificate is a means by which the government may detain and deport non-citizens perceived as a threat to national security.

The letter calls into question CSIS’s assurances that it did not countenance the use of torture abroad.

On Sunday, an advocacy group representing men who have been detained under security certificates hailed the report as proof that CSIS and top government officials knew terror cases might not stand up without information obtained under duress.

Document leak to media brings back 'nightmare'

KATHERINE LALANCETTE, Montreal Gazette, 11 August 2011

MONTREAL - Adil Charkaoui says he's tired of having his name dragged through the mud, calling the latest terrorism allegations against him "a recurring nightmare."

Along with the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui, the Montreal teacher and father of four is calling for a public inquiry into last week's document leak.
On Aug. 4, what appeared to be a Canadian Security Intelligence Service document from 2004 was anonymously released to the media. The document, which CSIS would not confirm was its own, alleged Charkaoui and Abousfian Abdelrazik had plotted to bomb a Montreal to Paris flight over a decade ago.

Both men, once suspected of terrorism but later cleared by Canadian authorities, vehemently denied the allegations.

Charkaoui, a Moroccan-born permanent resident of Canada, succeeded in getting his name cleared in 2009 after he was detained under a security certificate - a seldom used measure allowing authorities to arrest and hold non-citizens without charge and without disclosing the evidence against them.

Reg Whitaker, Prism, 12 Aug 2011

The recent leak to La Presse of an alleged CSIS document implicating Adil Charkaoui and Abousfian Abdelrazik in a plot to bomb an airliner raises the most serious issues.

These emphatically do not include the specific allegation nor the implication that either man represents an actual terrorist threat. These are without substance, as the government’s own conduct of the Charkaoui security certificate appeal and its handling of Abdelrazik’s case clearly demonstrate.

The real issues surround the behaviour of Canadian security agencies in apparently violating the Security of Information Act to defame individuals whom they have been unable to convict in the courts

The real issues surround the behaviour of Canadian security agencies in apparently violating the Security of Information Act to defame individuals whom they have been unable to convict in the courts; media complicity with such behaviour; and finally the potential responsibility of high government officials in either deliberately failing to investigate and charge the leakers, or by covertly authorizing such actions by their appointees.

Aug 7th, 2011, Maher Arar, Prism Magazine
http://prism-magazine.com/2011/08/bomb-plot-leak-to-la-presse-and-the-mi...

The latest bomb plot information (or misinformation) that was leaked to La Presse implicating both Charkaoui and Abousfian should make every Canadian concerned about how national security information is being disseminated in the public domain without checks and balances, and most importantly, without going through the proper judicial channels.

To start with let us briefly and carefully review this information which is now found on almost every major news web site in Canada.

In summary, the information, part of which seems to be recycled, relates to an alleged “encrypted” phone conversation that took place in the year 2000 during which both Charkaoui and Abousfian discussed a potential bomb plot to blow up an unspecified commercial plane. Moreover, it states that shortly after the interception of this alleged phone conversation CSIS found traces of explosives in Abousfian’s car.

Without arriving to a conclusion on the credibility of this information, which only a judge with full access to all documents can do, the timing and the nature of this leak raises very important questions of national importance:

Document surfaced as UN considering whether to take client off terror list

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Lawyer+attacks+plane+plot+leak/52151...

Sue Montgomery, Montreal Gazette, 6 August 2011

MONTREAL - A 2004 document from Canada's spy agency alleging that Abousfian Abdelrazik and Adil Charkaoui conspired more than a decade ago to blow up a plane from Montreal is a blatant attempt by government officials to use old and unfounded information to continue to brand Abdelrazik a terrorist, his lawyer said Friday.

The document was leaked anonymously to the media Thursday, as the United Nations Security Council deliberates whether to remove Abdelrazik, a Canadian citizen, from their terrorist blacklist where he has appeared since 2006, even though he was cleared in 2007 of allegations of terrorism by CSIS and the RCMP.

"The government senior officials would be aware (that a decision is coming soon) and suddenly in the midst of that, this document comes out," Paul Champ said in a phone interview. "The official who released this was trying to sabotage Mr. Abdelrazik's delisting application."

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press, 13 March 2010 http://www.thestar.com/mobile/canada/article/779433

MONTREAL–A simple "sorry" and an offer to pay his legal fees might have sufficed, but Adil Charkaoui said he didn't even get that courtesy from the federal government.

So the Moroccan-born Montrealer who was accused by Ottawa of being a terrorist and who spent several years living under tight restrictions believes he was left with little choice but to sue the federal government.

Charkaoui said Friday he intends to sue for $24.5 million to restore his reputation after failing to get an apology from Ottawa.

He said the civil suit, filed in Quebec Superior Court on Feb. 22, is not about the money.

"I'm doing it to clear my name. This is very important for me," Charkaoui told The Canadian Press in a phone interview between teaching classes.

He said he sent a letter asking for an apology, his Canadian citizenship and compensation for lost income and legal fees after a federal judge quashed a security certificate against him.

The response he says he received was that the government was just doing its job. "To me, it meant `Go to hell,'" Charkaoui said.

"This is about accountability. I want to restore my name and they made a mistake and destroyed my life in Canada and outside Canada and they have to pay for what they did."

Ruling another blow to controversial certificate system

TU THANH HA, Globe and Mail, 15 December 2009

New disclosure obligations set out by the Supreme Court of Canada have played a key part in the collapse of a federal security certificate case against a second terrorism suspect.

In quashing the certificate against the Syrian-born Toronto resident Hassan Almrei, a Federal Court judge said yesterday that the material the Canadian Security Intelligence Service disclosed to the court under the new rules contradicted information from its informants.

In his ruling, Mr. Justice Richard Mosley also said CSIS filed outdated, unreliable information about how al-Qaeda operates.

The ruling is the latest blow to the controversial certificate system, which relies on evidence heard in secret to detain and deport foreign residents.

"This decision proves this process is a flawed process," said Mr. Almrei's lawyer, Lorne Waldman. The new rules have helped, he said, but "I still don't believe it is a fair process."

Mr. Almrei is a former mujahed who went to Afghanistan in the 1990s. His arrest in 2001 was justified, but he's no longer a security threat, Judge Mosley wrote.

Sidhartha Banerjee, THE CANADIAN PRESS, 14 October 2009

MONTREAL - Adil Charkaoui spent more than six years under suspicion of being a terrorist operative, spent 21 months in jail, had his movements tracked with an electronic bracelet, and missed the birth of his son.

Now he wants the federal government to pay.

After a Federal Court judge ruled his security certificate null and void Wednesday, the Montreal man said he'll be seeking reparations for the years he spent trying to clear his name.

In the meantime, the Moroccan native said he simply wanted to celebrate.

"Finally, after six and a half years, I can enjoy not only freedom, but justice," he told a news conference.

"We'll be organizing a huge party and everyone will be invited."

Charkaoui, a married father of three who has steadfastly denied any links to terrorists, said he's elated by Wednesday's judgment.

Federal Court Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer wrote that the certificate must be quashed and that Ottawa has no right to appeal.

Tremblay-Lamer said the notion of national security is a question of perspective and that grey zones can exist.

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.

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.