RSS FeedCSIS tapped phone despite order
Can you blame people if their response to this kind of news is cynicism?
CSIS tapped phone despite order
Agents violated solicitor-client privilege, recorded 171 calls involving accused terroristBy Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa Citizen
November 16, 2010Federal security agents recorded 171 phone calls between suspected terrorist Mahmoud Jaballah and his lawyers after they agreed to halt the practice in December 2008.
That revelation is contained in a recent order issued by Federal Court Judge Kevin Aalto, who condemns the repeated breaches of solicitor-client privilege.
“Solicitor-client privilege is virtually sacrosanct in the Canadian judicial system,” Aalto said in ordering two federal agencies to turn over a raft of documents to Jaballah’s defence team.
I’m also concerned about how this implicates the federal lawyers who had access to this privileged information. What role might the Law Society have in rectifying this abuse of power?
Another evidence flop in a security certificate case
Judge orders CSIS to hand over file
Bill Curry writes for the Globe:
The Federal Court is ordering Canada’s spy agency to disclose a second human source in the Mohamed Harket case, an exceptional decision taken after finding the Canadian Security Intelligence Service “filtered” evidence and failed to tell the court that a first key source had failed a polygraph test.
Charkaoui is free
Judge formally strikes down security certificate against Charkaoui
Charkaoui is a landed immigrant who was arrested in Montreal in 2003 under security-certificate legislation that allows Canada to expel foreign-born individuals if they are considered a national security risk.
One correction, Canadian Press: the security certificate law applies only to non-citizens, not “foreign-born individuals.”
Try again?
Third security certificate is double jeopardy, court told
Mahmoud Jaballah was first detained under a security certificate in 1999. He was released after the courts found the certificate to be unreasonable. Jaballah was re-arrested in 2001 under a new certificate. He was released in 2008 after the Supreme Court struck down the security certificate law. After Parliament passed a new law, the government signed a third certificate against Jaballah.
Brendan Kennedy writes for the Toronto Start:
[Jaballah's lawyer] argued in court that proceedings against Jaballah should be stayed, because there was no new evidence to justify the second and third certificates.
“The essence of the allegations against Mr. Jaballah, and the nature of the proceedings remain unchanged from 1999 to today,” he said in court.
Ottawa abandons case against Charkaoui
Divisive terror law losing traction
Can we trust secret evidence, often borrowed from foreign countries, to throw people out of Canada?
Colin Freeze explains the security certificates:
… federal ministers sign off on a certificate after viewing secret CSIS information, which allows officials to immediately jail, and eventually deport, a non-citizen.
The “intelligence” used to do this is disclosed to judges but never fully revealed to the accused, drawn as it usually is from secret agents and wiretaps, sometimes placed within Canada but also frequently “loaned” from foreign governments on condition that the provenance be kept secret.
Charkaoui: the name every Canadian law student knows
Charkaoui, however, is the legal star of the five. He’s won two Supreme Court challenges and, as he gradually demolished Ottawa’s case against him, managed to make the government look like an idiot.
