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Canada to review anti-terror security certificate system: report

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Canadian government has begun reviewing its security certificate system, which allows the government to deport residents who pose a threat to national security, the Canadian Press (CP) reported Sunday. The government may consider making significant changes to the law or abolishing it completely, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan told the CP. As it is currently constructed, the law allows the government to issue certificates to non-citizen residents it deems a threat to national security but does not require that the government reveal to the resident classified information used against him or her. A special advocate may protest the certificate before a judge in closed proceedings. Critics of the law claim that the system violates residents' fundamental rights by failing to reveal the full charges against them. Complicating matters is a 2002 Canadian Supreme Court ruling preventing the government from returning residents to countries in which they are likely to face torture. Between the time the certificate is issued and the case is resolved, the immigrant remains free from jail, but subject to strict regulations. At least one immigrant, according to the report, has faced restrictions on his movement for more than a decade since he became subject to a certificate but cannot be returned to his country country of origin due to the likelihood he will be tortured. The report does not mention a timetable for completion of the review. Last year, the Federal Court of Canada dismissed a lawsuit challenging the security certificate program, ruling that it was too early to determine whether 2007 amendments to the program would violate immigrants' rights. The Canadian House of Commons passed the provisions allowing the use of special advocates in February 2008, after introducing the bill in October 2007. The changes came in response to a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that found the government's prior use of security certificates to indefinitely detain and deport foreigners with suspected ties to terrorism violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Three Arab Muslim men, Adil Charkaoui, Hassan Almrei, and Mohamed Harkat, had argued before the high court that their indefinite detentions were unconstitutional. The court said in its ruling that indefinite detentions under security certificates were permissible as long as evidence that detainees themselves could not see could be challenged.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on December 14, 2009 (boomark / email).