Halifax, NS

Adil Charkaoui speaks in Halifax

Security certificate detainee wins major court battle

7:00pm
Monday June 1 2009

*Featuring a special performance by the Halifax Theatre Collective*

Adil Charkaoui, a Montreal teacher and father of three children, has been at the forefront of an important struggle for justice in Canada for over six years.

Arrested in 2003 under an immigration "security certificate", Charkaoui spent two years in prison and four years under draconian conditions, pending a court hearing of his certificate which, to date, has never taken place. The interim conditions forced his mother or father to accompany him each time he left home, prevented him from using any phone except the one in his home, and imposed many other restrictions on him. All of that time, he has lived under the threat of deportation to Morocco, where Immigration Canada recognizes that he would be at risk of torture or death.

Charkaoui has never been charged with any crime nor had any trial whatsoever. Under the security certificate process, specific allegations and the information used against the detainee can be kept secret. In February 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the security certificate legislation was unconstitutional, but left the law in place until February 2008, when Parliament ratified almost identical new security certificate legislation.

In February 2009, the Federal Court finally lifted most of the interim conditions imposed on Charkaoui. However, Charkaoui is still forced to wear a GPS-tracking bracelet. He also continues to live under the label of "suspected terrorist" - which has cost him his job and much else - and under the threat of deportation to torture. Charkaoui thus continues his struggle to clear his name and achieve justice in Canada.

Charkaoui is among five men in Canada who are subject to security certificates. Over the coming months, some of their cases will be reviewed in Federal Court under the new, but no less unjust, security certificate legislation.

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