Mahjoub 'Detention Review' Decision Comes Down

First of all this is a brief report of the last day of the Mahjoub Detention Review hearing which took place on Tuesday, December 20. Both Monday Dec. 19 and Tuesday Dec. 20 were given over to ‘Final Submissions’ by both Ministers’ Counsel (M.C.) David Tyndale and Public Counsel (P.C.) Paul Slansky. I was not in attendance on Monday but several people did attend including Alison Jean from Kitchener-Waterloo and Frank Barningham from Durham. There were five people who were present for at least some of the day on Tuesday. Without going into detail, the submissions just maintained the positions held throughout by M.C. and P.C. M.C. said that Mr. Mahjoub must continue to be considered a threat and therefore there should be no change in his detention conditions. M.C. held that the considerable evidence brought by Criminologist Professor Stéphane Leman-Langlois that Mr. Mahjoub could no longer be considered a threat to anyone according to criminology theory and therefore his Charter rights were being violated by continued punitive bail conditions. P.C. also reviewed the findings of psychiatric witness Dr. Payne whose evidence suggested that continuing the isolating conditions on Mr. Mahjoub were just making him more and more unhealthy. Judge Blanchard at one point asked M.C. if they could imagine a way of doing surveillance monitoring of Mr. Mahjoub – ‘differently’. M. C. also brought up a minor issue with a used laptop that Mr. Mahjoub had purchased at Goodwill and then sent to CBSA to see if it could have any internet capacity disabled so he could use it to store his voluminous court filings. CBSA then sent a letter to the court accusing M. of purchasing the laptop without permission. P.C. pointed out the absurdity of M. ever being able to use the internet while having no internet connection and not being able to visit a library or internet café.

The next hearings will have to do with the ‘Stay of Proceedings Motion’ which Judge Blanchard has allowed Mr. Mahjoub since the commingling of M.C. and P.C. documents last summer. These documents are slowly being separated – with great difficulty and delay under the supervision of Protonary Judge Aalto as a separate procedure since the fall of 2011. Right now the ‘Stay of Proceedings Motion’ hearings are scheduled to begin around February 20, 2012.

The press release below is by Mary Foster of the ‘People’s Commission Network’ of Montreal regarding the ‘Detention Review Decision’ - http://www.peoplescommission.org/en/mahjoub/

There is some cautious reason to rejoice!

Press Release:

Court: Government fails to show that it is reasonable to keep Mahjoub under conditions.

Detained without charge for almost 12 years, Toronto man gains significant freedoms.

Toronto, 3 February 2012 -- A Federal Court decision says the government failed to show that it is reasonable to maintain intrusive conditions of control and surveillance on Mohammad Mahjoub, arrested under a security certificate almost twelve years ago. The decision is the outcome of detention review hearings that took place in late 2011.

"People who care about justice and are not frightened by vague, unproven and unconvincing allegations must call for Mr. Mahjoub's immediate release from ALL conditions. The court is clear: the government has failed to show that he should be kept under his current conditions. The question is then why are any conditions maintained? His full liberty must be restored to him immediately," said Mary Foster, an activist with the People's Commission Network.

While the decision does not free Mr. Mahjoub entirely, he has nevertheless won considerable concessions. For the first time since 2000, he will be able to go anywhere in Toronto without supervision or notifying the CBSA; in addition, his curfew will be lifted and a camera in front of his house removed; and he will be able to travel anywhere in Canada.

"I am looking forward to enjoying more freedom," said Mr. Mahjoub, "Maybe for others it doesn't seem like much, but to someone who has been denied the right to walk about or travel freely for twelve years it is very precious. It gives me a foretaste of the day when this nightmare will be behind me entirely and my name will be cleared from false allegations and malicious labels."

Many intrusive conditions nevertheless remain, such as a prohibition on use of internet and cell phone, phone tapping, and supervision outside Toronto.

"It is very disturbing that the Court says the presumption of innocence does not apply in security certificate cases because there are no charges," added Foster. "That is a very dangerous logic. Where are we headed with this?"

A series of scandals rocked Mr. Mahjoub's case over the last year. In December 2011, media reports revealed the existence of a secret CSIS memo in which the spy agency admitted that "the bulk of information" in Mr. Mahjoub's security certificate file was tainted by torture. During the summer, Department of Justice staff seized confidential documents belonging to Mr. Mahjoub and his lawyers from the Federal Court, mingling it with their own. Mr. Mahjoub has applied for a permanent stay because of the serious and ongoing breach of client-solicitor privilege. Neither of these issues were considered in this week's decision.

Mr. Mahjoub is a torture survivor who was accepted as a refugee in Canada in 1996. The 51-year old father of two was arrested under an immigration "security certificate" on the request of CSIS in June 2000. After his release from prison, he was placed under intrusive house arrest conditions, pending the final outcome of his case.

Two other men remain under security certificates in Canada: Mohamed Harkat in Ottawa, an Algerian refugee who has been fighting a security certificate for nine years, and Mahmoud Jaballah in Toronto, a torture survivor from Egypt who was arrested in 1999, released, and then re-arrested on the same information in 2001. Certificates against Hassan Almrei and Adil Charkaoui were thrown out in 2009; both men are now suing the government for reparations.

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Source:
People's Commission Network
www.peoplescommission.org/en/mahjoub
https://twitter.com/#!/peepcomm