Monday digest
- A Calgary Muslim professor has made some remarks on political correctness that are pretty much right on the money. Good thing he has brown skin because if he was white, he'd probably be fired. Heck, our Immigration Minister can't even explain why people who come from countries which use a different alphabet than the English-speaking world does may find it harder to learn the language without being called a racist.
What a joke.
- This week, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on the constitutionality of security certificates. Keep the following in mind when you hear the media do their usual half-baked analysis of this very important issue.
Security certificates are only applicable to refugees and permanent residents currently living in Canada - in other words, non-citizens who are deemed inadmissible to Canada because they pose a threat to national security. They have been around since the late 70s as a tool for the government to safeguard Canadians from those who would do us harm, and have only been used sparingly since. In fact, in an earlier hearing in the early 90s, the Supreme Court ruled that they were totally in keeping with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but because we're Canada, opponents of security certificates are getting another kick at the can.
Security certificates have nothing to do with the Anti-Terrorism Act. As far as "secret hearings" go, information against those held up on security certificates is given to the judge hearing the case by the government in private because if it were public, it would reveal the way our authorities go about collecting information against terrorists, thereby allowing terrorists to plan accordingly when they are considering launching their next attack.
When a certificate is upheld by the courts, the subject of the certificate is to be deported to their country of origin. However, the men who are currently held on certificates are claiming that they'd be at risk of torture if they were sent home. That's why calling it "indefinite detention" is dishonest. They are free to go to any country they want, but of course, they won't, and Canada can't boot them home because we don't send people to countries where they are at risk of torture, which has obviously become a defense for terror suspects post-Arar.
Before getting sucked in by all this talk of human rights from James Loney and friends, take the time to make the decision for yourself concerning the morality of how Canada treats non-citizens suspected of carrying out terrorist attacks.
posted by Road Hammer @ 12:28 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
First I heard of it was in the Post, which is a positive sign that people aren't paying attention to those kind of stunts anymore.
Perhaps the Gwyn Morgan thing has backfired on the Opposition.
Interesting that you put "secret hearings" in quotes to try and make it sound like a wing nut conspiracy to call the precdeedings "secret".
What else would you call it when the person who is picked up on the cerfiticate never gets to hear the case against him, and the proceeding is done behind closed doors (i.e. never made public).That's kind of like a "secret hearing", no?
Also I believe you are flat out wrong in saying that people held on a certificate are "... free to go to any country they want,". Uh really? I'm sure Harkat would be en-route to Hawaii if he were able to, but he ain't. So good spin but no dice.
"Secret hearings" is a loaded term used by the activists to imply that they are an intimidation tactic akin to the trial conditions found in Soviet Russia. Hardly.
The judge who hears the evidence provides a summary of the information to the person named in the certificate while not compromising the methods used to collect the intelligence, or, in other words, public safety.
Certificate detainees are indeed free to leave Canada to go anywhere they want as long as that other country will take them. That's not spin, that's fact. And why would they want to leave Canada to go to Sudan or some other hellhole when they're getting three squares a day and limitless appeals courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer?
And of course countries are lining up to take people painted as security threats... spin spin spin...
Look it up for yourself. You'll see that there is nothing preventing detainees from going to another country that will take them.
Moreover, those subject to a certificate are able to offer their own evidence and also to call witnesses before the judge decides on the certificate's reasonableness.
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