Billions of dollars invested, not a penny lost.

Fed. Court upholds special advocate regime
PLAIN LANGUAGE

Harkat inadmissible to
Canada and a ‘danger
to national security’

The Quebec Barreau
hopes to spur lawyers
to communicate better

PAGE 2

CHANUMAS

CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

The Federal Court has for the first time affirmed the constitutionality of the country’s revised security certificate regime in a decision which finds Mohammed Harkat inadmissible to Canada because he is a danger to national security.

In three detailed rulings totaling 401 pages, Justice Simon Noel upheld the Algerian national’s security certificate as “reasonable” after accepting, on the balance of probabilities, most of the government’s evidence.

The judge also threw out the Ottawa resident’s abuse of process claims and his s. 7 Charter challenge to the new security certificate regime.

Taken together, the rulings are a major court victory for the federal government, whose actions and conduct during 32 months of proceedings drew fire from Harkat’s counsel and spe-

CRISTIN SCHMITZ / THE LAWYERS WEEKLY

Mohammed Harkat

cial advocates, and the judge (see also story p. 8).

Justice Noel rejected Harkat’s
denials that he engaged in ter-
rorism and became part of the
Bin Laden terror network by
operating a guest house in
Peshawar, Pakistan in 1994/95
for the Khattab group which was
“involved in terrorist activities
in Chechnya.” The judge also
cited Harkat’s association with
terrorists and Islamist extrem-
ists such as Ahmed Said Khadr
and Abu Al Shehre. He said
Harkat behaved in ways charac-
teristic of a sleeper agent by
arriving in Canada with false
documents, using various anti-
surveillance techniques, and
initially concealing the aliases
he used in Pakistan.

come through.”
He criticized Harkat for
delivering testimony that was
inconsistent, incoherent and
implausible.

Overall, he found Harkat “not
truthful, honest or transparent.”
“From his arrival in Canada
in the fall of 1995, Mr. Harkat
lived a life full of unanswered
questions,” the judge found. “As
the evidence shows, he was here
to obtain Canadian status and
then be ‘ready’. To be ready for
an unknown objective is of con-
cern to the court and it would
have been extremely helpful to
understand more about it. His
silence and denials on such
important facts is troubling.”
Justice Noel’s trio of rulings,
handed down Dec. 9, mark the
first time a security certificate
issued under the new regime
implemented Feb. 22, 2008 has
been upheld on the merits.

This will boost the morale of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) whose credibility was damaged last year when the Federal Court quashed two of the five new security certificates the government has issued against Arab nationals since 2008 (the Federal Court is still scrutinizing

See Harkat Page 8

Jeffrey Miller on why the Judaeo-Christian traditions should rejoin hands

PAGE 5

FRAUDSTERS
How to deal with
real estate fraud

PAGE 9

EXITING LAWYERS

R: A CANADIAN PARIAH
TION BUREAU RESOLVES MLS FIGH T
MART FIRMS ADAPT TO SMARTPHON
TAMIL MIGRANTS TRIGGER CONTROVER

Year in Review

AL SCC BILL WILL IMPAC T NOMINEES

Law Society of BC rejects bar against benchers holding external positions

Are exit interviews worth the effort for law firms?

PAGE 20

2010

MERGERS GO MEGA

JEREMY HAINSWORTH VANCOUVER
Furlong on changes
to legal world in 2010

YEAR IN REVIEW
Read our review
of big legal news
stories of 2010

PAGES S1-S12

Law Society of B.C. benchers rejected Dec. 10 a code of conduct revision that new benchers resign other professional executive positions in order to serve on the profession’s governing body in the province.

The purpose of the proposal
was to ensure that the mandate
of lawyers’ interest organiza-
tions not be perceived to be in
conflict with the society’s roles
of regulating and upholding the
public interest.

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