The most widely read magazine for Canadian lawyers
Issue link: https://digital.canadianlawyermag.com/i/50841
Momin Khawaja is transported from the Ottawa courthouse Oct. 29, 2008. He was the first Canadian to be charged under the Anti-terrorism Act and was found guilty of plot- ting to bomb targets in London and elsewhere. He is appealing his life sentence. repercussions for freedom of association that I think has the potential to really undermine freedom of participation." Meanwhile, in the criminal law realm, lower courts in Canada have also shown that crimes linked to terrorism are not to be treated lightly. Judges have handed down a wide range of sentences to more than a dozen people convicted in terror- ism cases in Canada since Sept. 11, rang- ing from six months for Ontario resident Prapaharan Thambithurai for fundraising for the Tamil Tigers, to life imprison- ment for Khawaja and the ringleaders of the Toronto 18, the "homegrown" cell charged in 2006 with plotting to blow up Ontario targets, including CSIS and the CBC. Eleven members of the group were convicted, including four minors. "The courts understand, as we did at the time and I hope Canadians do now, is that you have to understand the nature of global terrorism and that we are not immune," says McLellan. As the courts continue to grapple with the anti-terror laws, so does the federal government. As a tradeoff for quick pas- sage in 2001, the ATA contained a sunset clause, in which the two most conten- tious elements would expire in five years if they were not specifically renewed by Parliament. The opposition parties, which dominated the House of Commons when the act came up for review in 2007, refused to revive the provisions. The new Harper majority government intends to bring the act back to full strength later this year, adding the two lapsed provisions as hip- pocket measures in case they are needed. Des Rosiers is among those who believe there is no need to revive two "outrageous" measures that have not been used in a decade. "The legislation was a message of empowerment for the security industry," she says. "It created a culture that the end justifies the means. It set a tone and the tone was not good. It seemed like the ATA was like giving a car that goes 300 kilo- metres an hour and saying only use that if you have to." If the federal government has largely succeeded thus far with its anti-terrorism legislation, its heavy use of immigration law as a key component of its anti-terror strategy is arguably another story. Its secu- rity-certificate regime, which empowers the federal government to detain non-Ca- nadian terror suspects indefinitely pend- ing deportation proceedings, has been heavily litigated and it has been dealt several blows by the courts, leaving the Harper government to consider alterna- tives for the last two years or more. "Even the government has acknowledged they should be put out of their misery," Roach says of the certificates. The security certificate is an immigra- tion proceeding from the days of the Cold Former prime minister Jean Chrétien recieves a standing ova- tion from his caucus during his speech of a take-note debate on international actions against ter- rorism in the House of Commons on Oct. 15, 2001. www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com SEPTEMBER 2011 27 REuTERS/ChRIS WATTIE REuTERS/POOL JY/ME