Adil Charkaoui’s struggle for justice in Canada

Timeline

1995 Charkaoui arrives in Montreal, Canada as a Permanent Resident with his mother, father, and sister.

1999 Charkaoui applies for citizenship and to sponsor his wife, with whom he was married the previous year.

2000 Charkaoui, his mother and wife return to visit family in Morocco. At the airport in Montreal they are surrounded by RCMP officers and searched. They are released.

2001 Returning from Morocco in January via JFK airport in New York, Charkaoui is forced off the plane by armed FBI agents. They interrogate him, telling him that they have nothing against him, but have been contacted by CSIS - Canadian intelligence - about him. He is released.

2003 On the request of CSIS, Denis Coderre (then Immigration Minister) and Wayne Easter (then Solicitor General) sign a security certificate against Charkaoui.
    On May 21, Charkaoui is surrounded by police on the highway and arrested. He is brought to prison, where he is shocked to hear himself described on television as a “terrorism suspect”.
    The court releases a public summary of allegations against Charkaoui. The few paragraphs in the summary which actually relate to Charkaoui state that he has the profile of a sleeper agent. The evidence for this is that he is trying to integrate into Canadian society; he got married and opened a pizza restaurant. The summary also notes that he is a practising Muslim, practices Karate and that he has visited Pakistan, and it lists names of supposed associates.
    Charkaoui launches a constitutional challenge to the security certificate process.
    Following rallies in support of Charkaoui and increasing public opposition to the security certificate legislation, further information about the case against Charkaoui is released. The new public summary states that both Ahmed Ressam and Abu Zubaydah have recognised photos Charkaoui under a pseudonym.
    In August, a Ministry of Immigration official signs a Pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA) for Charkaoui. The PRRA states that there is a “probability of torture, risks to life, and risk of being subject to cruel and unusual punishment” if Charkaoui is deported to Morocco. However, the assesment is withheld from Charkaoui and his lawyer (until 4 April 2004).
    The first pan-Canadian day of action against security certificates is held in October.

2004 In January, Charkaoui requests release on bail for a second time. As a Permanent Resident, he is permitted to apply for release every six months. His request is refused.
    On 18 February, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs sends a letter to the Moroccan Department of Foreign Affairs asking for diplomatic assurances that Charkaoui would not be ill-treated if returned to Morocco. On 16 April, newspapers around the world pick up an article which has been published in a Moroccan newspaper, Aujourd’hui le Maroc, known as being close to the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior. The article claims that Charkaoui has been named by a Moroccan prisoner, Nafiaa, as the head of a sleeper cell. (According to other newspaper reports, Nafiaa himself is on hunger-strike, claiming that he was tortured.) On 18 April, Morocco replies to Canada’s request for diplomatic assurances. Their letter states that under Moroccan law, torture and ill-treatment are prohibited and, in any case, there is no arrest warrant for Charkaoui in Morocco.
    In July, Charkaoui asks for release on bail for a third time. Abdhurrahman Khadr testifies in court that he has never met Adil Charkaoui, and that he would have done so if Charkaoui really had gone to Afghanistan in 1998 as Ressam and Abu Zubaydah are alleged to have claimed. Khadr further testifies that he never saw Ressam in Afghanistan either.
    In August, the Minister of Immigration refuses Charkaoui’s application for protection, despite the finding of Immigration Canada that Charkaoui risks torture or death if deported. The refusal relies on Morocco’s assurances that they have nothing against Charkaoui. The decision also states that even if Charkaoui were at risk, Canada should still deport him.
    An open letter against security certificates, signed by over 70 prominent lawyers and legal associations, including the Canadian Bar Association, is published in the Globe and Mail. In November, Charkaoui publishes an open letter in the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir, “J’accuse.”
    A second pan-Canadian day of action is held in December.

2005 The NDP passes an emergency motion calling for the abolition of security certificates. A Parliamentary Subcommittee agrees to review security certificates as part of its review of C-36, the anti-terrorist legislation hastily passed in 2001.
    Charkaoui enters a fourth detention review in January 2006. At this point, several MPs, celebrities such as film producer Denys Arcand, former Cabinet Ministers, and many members of the community are publicly offering bail for Charkaoui’s release. Charkaoui presents the result of a lie detector test indicating that he has never been to Afghanistan and that he has never been part of a terrorist network. CSIS introduces new information in a secret hearing with the judge just days before the hearing, aimed at undermining the bid for release. The timing of the new information is criticized by the Judge, who nevertheless continues the hearings. In the course of the hearing, the government admits that CSIS has destroyed evidence in Charkaoui’s file.
    Charkaoui is finally released on 18 February 2005, after almost two years in prison without charge. He is placed under draconian conditions that affect the liberty of his entire family. His sister, who has campaigned without stop for two years, is hospitalized for several months.
    On 21 February, the judicial review of Charkaoui’s security certificate finally begins. Charkaoui asks to cross-examine Ressam and Abu Zubayda, as he has already done in detention reviews, but permission is once again not granted. Just days into the hearings, Radio Canada announces that it has a letter from Nafiaa denying that he knows Charkaoui and asserting that he was forced to sign a confession blind-folded and under torture. Radio Canada also reveals that Morocco does have an arrest warrant against Charakaoui after all. The judge suspends the hearings on 25 February, pending answers from the Canadian government. In March, the Canadian government admits they have to re-evaluate the decision on protection in light of the concealed Moroccan arrest warrant. The judicial review of Charkaoui’s certificate is suspended pending a new decision on protection by Immigration Canada.
    A major march takes place in Montreal, calling for the release of the five security certificate detainees and the abolition of security certificates. Human Rights Watch issues a report on diplomatic assurances which studies Charkaoui’s case and endorses the call for Canada to abolish security certificates. The UN Committee against Torture releases a report reviewing security certificates and calls on Canada to bring its legislation into conformity with international standards. The UN Subcommittee on Arbitrary Detention meets with Charkaoui and the other security certificate detainees. A seven-day march  from Montreal to Ottawa organized by Solidarity across Borders for the regularization of non-status people calls for the abolition of security certificates. A prolonged hungerstrike by Hassan Almrei brings national and even international attention to the plight of the security certificate detainees.
    In October, Charkaoui launches a second constitutional challenge. This time,  Charkaoui makes the case that the sections of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) which permit the government to threaten him with deportation to torture are in violation of the UN Convention against Torture and his Charter rights.

2006 A People’s Commission on Immigration Security Measures takes place in Montreal; three days of public hearings with thirty witnesses testifying before nine community Commissioners (www.peoplescommission.org) about the unjust treatment of immigrants in the name of “national security”.
    In April, Mohamed Harkat, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub and Hassan Almrei –the four Ontario security certificate detainees-  are transferred to the new, specially built “Kingston Immigration Holding Centre”, known as Guantanamo North.
    In June, the Supreme Court hears Charkaoui’s challenges to the security certificate legislation. Mohamed Harkat is transferred to house arrest during the summer.
     Sogi Singh, held under part of the immigration law similar to the security certificate, is deported under secret suspicions after almost four years in prison without charge or trial. His deportation takes place despite an assessment of Immigration Canada that he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment if deported, and despite a request from the UN Committee against Torture that Canada halt the deportation.
    US President George Bush makes an extraordinary speech acknowledging the existence of secret CIA-run prisons and the use of what he calls “an alternative set of procedures” to encourage prisoners to talk. He cites Abu Zubaydah as an example of a prisoner who has been subject to this treatment.
    The Arar commission releases a heavily censored report, which implicates CSIS and the RCMP in the state kidnap and torture of Canadian citizen Maher Arar.

2007 A march takes place in Montreal calling for the closure of Guantanamo North, the release of all security certificate detainees if they are not provided with a full and fair trial, an end to deportation proceedings against the five, the abolition of security certificates, and an end to deportations to torture. The march is endorsed by over 70 organizations, labour unions and community associations.
    On 23 February, the Supreme Court releases a ruling that security certificate legislation is unconstitutional. However, it gives the government one year before the law falls. The government announces that it will introduce new security certificate legislation.
    Mohammad Mahjoub and Mahmoud Jaballah are transferred to house arrest in Toronto. Hassan Almrei remains alone in Guantanamo North, where he is on hungerstrike. He remains on a juice and water hungerstrike for over 150 days.
    The Supreme Court announces that it will hear a second appeal by Charkaoui, based on the destruction of evidence by CSIS in his case.
    In April, the Montreal newspaper Journal de Montreal publishes a letter from Ahmed Ressam stating that he lied and now retracts his testimony.
    In June, the Montreal newspaper La Presse, publishes unproven allegations against Charkaoui from a top secret document that has been leaked by someone in the government. CSIS announces that it is carrying out an internal investigation into the leak and that it has asked the RCMP to open a criminal investigation into the leak.
    Selections of the Arar report that were previously concealed from the public are released. Among them is the admission that CSIS believed that the US was trying to get Arar to Jordan to “have their way with him.”
    In August, Charkaoui is once again in Federal Court, this time requesting that all his conditions be lifted on the basis of the Supreme Court decision and on the evidence refuting the public case against him. The motion is rejected.
   In September, Charkaoui is in Federal Court to ask for a stay of proceedings, arguing that the leak of top secret allegations against him by a government official constitutes a violation of his charter rights and an abuse of procedure.
  In October, the government introduces C-3, a new security certificate legislation that, according to the Quebec Bar Association's testimony before the Parliamentary Standing Committee, "is not different enough from its predecessor to be considered constitutionally valid."