*** CANADIAN ANTI-TERROR LAW HAS BEEN STRUCK DOWN BY ITS HONORABLE SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY ***

[stj911 at rock.com]

Top Ten Reasons Why Activists Shouldn't Be "Too Radical"

1. We must be careful not to offend the Average American (AvAm)
2. Self-righteousness is such a turn-off
3. We can't give ammunition to the right wing
4. The AvAm is doing the best he/she can and we shouldn't expect more
5. We can't blame the AvAm because she/he just doesn't know better
6. The AvAm will learn at his/her own pace
7. It's not our place to judge
8. Besides, it's not the AvAm's fault; the Republicans are to blame
9. The AvAm may be indifferent (at best) to reality...but they are
still
"the people"

On Feb 24, 8:22 am, stj... at rock.com wrote:
> Canada anti-terror law is struck down>From the Associated Press
>
> February 24, 2007
>
> OTTAWA - Canada's Supreme Court on Friday unanimously declared it
> unconstitutional to detain foreign terrorism suspects indefinitely
> while the courts review their deportation orders.
>
> Five Arab Muslim men have been held for years under the "security
> certificate" program, which the Justice Department has said is a key
> tool in the fight against global terrorism and essential to Canada's
> security.
>
> The court found that the system violated the Charter of Rights and
> Freedoms, Canada's bill of rights. However, it suspended its ruling
> for a year to give Parliament time to rewrite the part of the
> Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that covers the certificate
> process.
>
> The security certificates were challenged by three men from Morocco,
> Syria and Algeria - all alleged by the Canadian Security Intelligence
> Service to have ties to terrorist networks.
>
> The men have spent years in jail while fighting deportation orders.
>
> They risk being labeled terrorists and sent back to their native
> countries, where they say they could face torture.
>
> The court said the treatment of the suspects was a violation of their
> rights.
>
> "The overarching principle of fundamental justice that applies here is
> this: Before the state can detain people for significant periods of
> time, it must accord them a fair judicial process," Chief Justice
> Beverley McLachlin wrote in a ruling for all nine justices.
>
> "The secrecy required by the scheme denies the person named in a
> certificate the opportunity to know the case put against him or her,
> and hence to challenge the government's case," she said.
>
> The challenged law allows sensitive intelligence to be heard behind
> closed doors by a federal judge, with only sketchy summaries given to
> defense attorneys.
>
> The court said the men and their lawyers should have a right to
> respond to the evidence used against them by intelligence agents.
>
> Stockwell Day, the minister of public safety, noted that because the
> ruling does not take effect for a year, the certificates would remain
> in place. He said the government would address the court's ruling "in
> a timely and decisive fashion."
>
> Two of the men are out on bail and remain under house arrest. Three
> others are being held in a federal facility in Ontario.