Adil Charkaoui speaks in Vancouver, at the Civil Liberties Association Office, as part of a cross-Canada tour.

Credit: Doug Shanks

NEWS (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE): Canadian Muslim speaks of government mistreatment

Adil Charkaoui, a Morocco-born Muslim who was arrested and detained without charge in 2003 under Canada’s security certificate program, completed his first cross-Canada speaking tour in Vancouver last week (June 26). The tour provided a platform from which Charkaoui could tell his story and publicly ask the federal government for an apology for its treatment of him. As part of the program, he continues to wear an electronic monitoring device, is not allowed to speak to or be associated with individuals with a criminal record, cannot use the internet outside his home, and must advise the Canadian Border Agency 48 hours before travelling outside the island of Montreal, where he lives.

Nevertheless, Charkaoui says his current restrictions feel like freedom compared to what he has experienced during the six years since he was arrested. At that time, the security certificate program allowed for the preventative arrest and detention of non-Canadian citizens. Charkaoui had been living in Montreal with his family since 1995. He is currently working on a PhD at the University of Montreal and is employed as a French teacher.

After years of public condemnation of the security certificate program, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2007 that the program violated three sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In February 2008, a new security certificate legislation, Bill C-3, was established, but it was criticized by national and international human-rights organizations.

“Until now, I could not defend myself in fair trial,” Charkaoui told reporters at a press conference on June 25. “For all those years, I was asking for fair trials. But after six years of suffering, of jail, of house arrests, I’m not asking anymore about fair trial — it’s too late. I’m asking for this government to make a public apology to me.”

Charkaoui and four other Muslim men living in Canada have been held in this way under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. “I think [the government] has to change their policy. Give minorities like immigrants — Arabs and Muslims — fair treatment to have the same rights like any Canadians,” he said.

Fernand Deschamps, who has been working on Charkaoui’s campaign for years, accompanied him on his trip to Vancouver. “You cannot have, in Canada, a two-tiered justice system, where on one you can be innocent until proven guilty, and on the other you are under constant allegations of being a threat to national security based on secret evidence, heresy, information gathered under torture, et cetera,” he says. “Security certificates, once and for all, should be finally abolished, because secret trials are unacceptable for all Canadians who value the rule of law. Our security lies in the defense of the rights of all.”