Keep accused names secret?

A reader (Savant) suggests that the names of accused should be withheld pending trial. Savant notes that the reporting of charges is usually big news while the report of an acquittal is minor.

There's some truth there -- I had a client who made the front page of the Sun on arrest and, when charges were stayed years later, had no media coverage at all.

That said, I must respectfully disagree with Savant here. To my mind our criminal system is too hidden as it is. The way wrongful convictions come to light, for example, is by publicity. Would Truscott have been vindicated without the press?

Still, Savant is right that being charged is not being convicted.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Crimes that society cannot forgive

There are certain crimes that are so repugnant to society that they are never forgiven.

The most obvious example is possession of child pornography. Someone convicted of that crime -- indeed even someone accused of that crime -- can never be rehabilitated.

A murderer can, after time, be re accepted back in society but not someone convicted of possessing child porn.

Now one can debate if this makes sense -- are there really good reasons to treat possession of child pornography so differently from other crimes -- but it is the reality. And recognising the reality we have to be specially careful not to rush to judgment in child pornography cases.

Here, of course, I am thinking of the Nova Scotia bishop.

He's been charged and accused -- but before he is labelled guilty let's have a trial. Perhaps the laptop seized was shared by several people -- the laptop I have at work is used by anyone in my office who has to travel. Perhaps there is some other explanation.

Let's see if we have a conviction before we conduct sentencing.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Everyone needs a hug

Teen mayor seeks recount after losing on a draw from a hat

This is silly. Choosing a mayor by drawing straws? I suppose it's impartial but somehow it doesn't feel right:

Canwest News Service 

Published: Saturday, October 03, 2009

Briefly the mayor of Paradise, N. L., Kurtis Coombs, 19, is seeking a judicial recount after losing the race to his opponent on a draw from a hat. "I'm going to fight it to the end. I mean drawing a name from a hat?" Mr. Coombs said. "I always thought it was supposed to be the people that spoke." The draw resulted when a recount of his three-vote lead in this week's municipal election in Paradise, outside St. John's, ended in a tie. According to the province's Elections Act, the resolution to a tie vote is to put both candidate's names on slips of paper -- the winner being the one whose name is drawn. That gave the election to the incumbent, Ralph Wiseman. Mr. Coombs is objecting to one of the ballots turned over to Mr. Wiseman's favour during the recount. If the matter goes to a judicial recount, that ballot could potentially shift the pendulum.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Bishop Desmond Tutu:

We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose.

Here the emphasis is on deterrence:

Two more years for 'Toronto 18' member, judge says Judge rejects defence arguments about how time in segregation should be credited

BRAMPTON, Ont. — The Canadian Press


A convicted member of the Toronto 18 terrorist group was sentenced to serve another two years in custody Friday for his role in a plot to wreak havoc on Canadian targets.

Both the Crown and defence had asked the judge to sentence Ali Dirie to seven years but differed on how much credit he should have had for time served.

In passing sentence, Ontario Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno said terrorism offences "strike at the heart" of Canadian values.

"His moral culpability is high," Justice Durno said.

"His degree of responsibility is also high because of the duration of his involvement (in the terror group)."

Justice Durno rejected defence calls for three-for-one credit for the time Mr. Dirie served in segregation in various prison facilities following his arrest in August 2005.

He also noted that Mr. Dirie continued his involvement with the group even after his arrest.

"It was his own misconduct (in prison) that contributed in part to his placement in segregation," said Justice Durno, adding that Mr. Dirie was "an unlikely candidate for parole."

The 26-year-old Dirie pleaded guilty to taking part in and helping the group obtain weapons and travel documents in a plot to attack Canadian targets, which included RCMP headquarters and Parliament.

James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Waterfall

Self employed vs employee

Today's Globe says the Conservatives may extent parental leave benefits to self-employed people.



Let's pass over the specific issue and look more generally.



Self-employed people generally do not get employment or similar benefits but have the advantage of tax deductions not available to employees.



Thus, as an employee I cannot deduct business expenses. As a result, if I make a salary of $65,000 I pay tax on $65,000. But if I am self employed I can deduct many "business" expenses that give me a personal benefit and which I'd pay regardless of being self-employed or not (look at auto or travel expenses).



In theory the business expenses should be deductible only to the extent they are not of personal benefit but that's not the reality.



What really happens with many "self-employed" is that people who are functionally employees become, say, a consultant, and take a smaller income which amounts to the same as an employment income once tax advantages are considered. It means the government is silently subsidising employment (albeit disguised as "self-employment").



Giving the "self-employed" the federal benefits of the employed merely increases the subsidy.



What is happening is a distortion of the labour market as a result of tax policy. This is a major issue that underlies the specific issue of parental benefits.

Wise old bear

When justice and security collide

Toronto Star



Courts have maintained proper balance between rights of the accused and national security







James Morton

past president of the Ontario Bar Association





Just a few weeks after Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised fears of left-wing ideologues on the bench, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said he fears for the government's ability to fight terrorism.



Van Loan complained of "an increasingly complex legal environment" in which judges are no longer deferring to the government in its efforts to deport foreign suspects. "It raises questions about whether we can protect national security," he said.



Certainly it has been a difficult few months for the government's anti-terrorism policy. Judges have not been notably supportive of government positions.



The Federal Court of Appeal recently upheld a ruling requiring the government to ask the Americans to bring Omar Khadr to Canada. That case is going to the Supreme Court but most observers do not see a government victory as likely.



Three security certificate cases, in which non-Canadians are subject to deportation on ministerial certificates, also look close to collapse.



But in each of these cases – the very cases Van Loan was commenting on – collapse has not been the result of judicial activism but because of weaknesses in the cases themselves.



http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/704121

Pensive bear with a ball

I just don't understand this love of guns

A gun is a tool, albeit a very dangerous tool. I don't think they should be banned -- anymore than a chainsaw should be banned -- but they ought to be regulated.

Justices to Decide if State Gun Laws Violate Rights 

By Robert Barnes 

The Supreme Court set up a historic decision on gun control Wednesday, saying it will rule on whether restrictive state and local laws violate the Second Amendment right to gun ownership that it recognised last year. 

To view the entire article, go to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/30/AR2009093001723.html?referrer=emailarticle
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Solicitor's Assessments

The factors to be considered in assessing a legal account are well known. Today's Court of Appeal decision in Sutts, Strosberg LLP v. Atlas Cold Storage Holdings Inc., 2009 ONCA 690 restates those principles clearly:

[15]         She then went on to list the factors that are relevant in determining the reasonableness of the fee at para. 51, including:

(a)       the time expended;

(b)       the factual and legal complexities of the matters to be dealt with;

(c)       the degree of responsibility assumed by the lawyer;

(d)       the monetary value of the matters in issue;

(e)       the importance of the matter to the client;

(f)        the degree of skill and competence demonstrated by the lawyer;

(g)       the results achieved;

(h)       the ability of the client to pay; and

(i)        the expectations of the client as to the amount of the fee.
...
[18]         In my view, the motion judge applied the proper test in considering the relevant factors enumerated above ... .
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Spell check follies

My spell checker changes "Niagara" to "Nigeria".

So for days I have been writing to people about an upcoming trial I may have to do next year in ... Nigeria.

Ooopsie.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Newspapers and deconstructing to reality

There is no question but that different newspapers give a different view of the world.

Reading one paper you would think the next government is bound to be [fill in a name].

You have to read each source (including me) with a view to the slant so you can deconstruct and find reality.

What I've noticed though is that the spin, if I can call it that, is largely based on story selection rather than on explicit bias. And story selection is an art.

Each story is fairly straight and unbiased. But put together?

Consider this -- you want to paint the Liberals in disarray. Easy -- do a lot of stories about malcontented Liberals and the concept emerges. You can always find malcontents in any Party. You want to paint the NDP as radical crazies? Easy -- do a lot of stories on radical proposals for change from NDP members. And every Party (even my own) always has radicals making radical suggestions.

When I have time I read Al Jezeera -- they have an obvious slant. But each story is fairly straight. So long as you recognize the spin you can deconstruct and get the news.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Deal with the devil

The story in the Globe is, frankly, incomprehensible. It seems to say a Federal probe (who, when, what???) has found credible evidence supporting the contention a man convicted of murder was framed by police and prosecutors. The story then doesn't deal with the "probe".

Leaving the story's flaws aside, the allegations are hair-raising and we do have a history of wrongful convictions in Canada. Certainly, there is a real danger of witnesses testifying falsely if they can use that testimony to avoid prison. Such danger can be minimised if deals made to secure testimony are open and subject to review by the jury -- here is seems such a "deal with the devil" was made and then hidden.

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/manitoba-police-crown-accused-of-cover-up/article1307740/?service=mobile


Manitoba police and prosecutors have been accused of covering up their use of tainted testimony to wrongfully convict a Winnipeg drug dealer of a 1986 murder.

After spending 23 years behind bars, Frank Ostrowski, a cocaine dealer convicted in the murder, sought bail Wednesday upon learning that a federal investigation found there is a "reasonable basis" to believe he was framed in the murder of Robert Nieman


James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

The presumption of a restrictive interpretation of penal statutes

The recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in R. v. Jaw, 2009 SCC 42 deals mainly with the value of post offence conduct in determining intent.

In dealing with that issue the Court, in passing, suggests that the strict construction of penal statutes, and, more broadly, the resolution of ambiguity in favour of an accused, is not the current law.

The Court attributes the restrictive interpretation to historical factors and thereby holds the interpretation outdated.

This author is of the view that at least some strictness is appropriate in the enforcement of criminal law -- the State should be held to "dot the i's and cross the t's" -- but it seems that view is not good law.

The Supreme Court holds:

[37]                        Regarding the charge, I take issue with my colleague's statement that "any uncertainty as to [the charge's] meaning and effect would surely have to be resolved in the accused's favour" (para. 90). This is not a case in which the trial judge used a word or phrase that was reasonably capable of more than one meaning and the jury was left to discern which of the possible meanings was intended.  When read in the context of the entire charge and of the evidence and the trial as a whole, the impugned statement has only one reasonable meaning.  The possibility of an appellate court divining another interpretation of the trial judge's words does not mean that the charge created uncertainty for the jury.

 

[38]                        Furthermore, although I need not resolve the issue, I have reservations about the proposition that any uncertainty in a charge must, as a matter of course, be resolved in favour of the accused.  This proposition seems to be based on the strict constructionist approach to interpreting penal legislation that developed in the eighteenth century, when criminal law sanctions were especially severe.  By the mid-1980s, however, the presumption of a restrictive interpretation of penal statutes had started to wear thin (R. Sullivan, Sullivan on the Construction of Statutes (5th ed. 2008), at pp. 472-74).  A restrictive interpretation may be warranted where an ambiguity cannot be resolved by means of the usual principles of interpretation.  But it is a principle of last resort that does not supersede a purposive and contextual approach to interpretation (R. v. Paré, [1987] 2 S.C.R. 618; R. v. Chartrand, [1994] 2 S.C.R. 864, at pp. 881-82; R. v. Mac, 2002 SCC 24, [2002] 1 S.C.R. 856, at para. 4). Even if the impugned statement in the instant case did disclose a true ambiguity, an attempt would first have to be made to resolve it by resort to general principles and methods of interpretation. For the reasons I have given above, an ambiguity in the charge should not automatically be resolved in favour of the accused. 
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Memories of quiet days!!!

A clown, an astronaut and a cosmonaut go into a bar ...

This would sound like a joke if it wasn't true -- but good on them! Live the dream!

Canadian circus billionaire heads to space station

By PETER LEONARD (AP)

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — A Canadian circus tycoon, an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off in a spacecraft from the Kazakh steppe Wednesday on a journey to the International Space Station.

That tree looks familiar?

A recent blog claims to have discovered where the recent forest videos of the Leader were filmed:

http://www.stephentaylor.ca/

I am not convinced -- yes, there is a fallen tree that looks similar to one behind the Leader in a video but, gosh, most forests have a lot of fallen trees.

But even so, I'm glad the Conservatives are spending their energy on the issue. It is one way to take up their energy on a harmless endeavour. What's more, it gives publicity to Canadian parks!!!

James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

In trial this week -- doing battle!!!

Security Certificates and the war on terrorism

Just a few weeks after Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised fears of left wing ideologues on the bench Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said he fears for the government's ability to fight terrorism.

Van Loan complained of "an increasingly complex legal environment" in which judges are no longer deferring to the government in its efforts to deport foreign suspects. "It raises questions about whether we can protect national security ... " Van Loan continued.

Are judges actually running amok?

Certainly it has been a difficult few months for the government's anti-terrorism policy.

The Federal Court of Appeal upheld a ruling requiring the government to ask the Americans to bring Omar Khadr to Canada.

Three security certificate cases, where a non-Canadian is subject to deportation on Ministerial certificate, also look close to collapse.

But in each of these cases, the cases Van Loan was commenting on, the collapse isn't because of judicial activism but because of weaknesses in the cases.

Adil Charkaoui, a Morrocan-born father of three, won his liberty in Montreal when federal lawyers withdrew much of the evidence against him in court saying it must be kept secret to protect national security. The Court's decision that some limited evidence should be subjected to review by Charkaoui, the accused, is hardly the conclusion of a judicial radical.

Mohamed Harkat, a former pizza delivery man from Ottawa, also secured more freedom than he has had since his arrest seven years ago.

The case against the Algerian-born man has been temporarily suspended after federal investigators misled the Federal Court about the credibility of an intelligence informant.

Syrian-national Hassan Almrei of Toronto may also have the case against him thrown out in light of recent revelations that federal investigators had admitted that one of their informants was deceptive and another source never took a lie-detector test, despite earlier claims that he had taken such a test and passed.

Judges have a difficult role when dealing with terrorism and claims of national security. They must balance the rights of those accused against the needs of the nation. Unlike totalitarian states, Canada has judges as a buffer to ensure a proper balance is maintained.

In security certificate cases the judge has the limited task of ensuring the certificate is "reasonable". The judge reviews the evidence prepared by the government. Hearsay is admissible as evidence. All or part of the evidence may be heard in secret, without the accused being present, if the judge deems that airing it publicly may hurt national security or put the safety of any individual at risk.

The task of review is assigned to the Court by statute -- a judge who merely signed off without full review would be neglecting their duty. And the judges have been fulfilling their duty. Even in the deportation context the right of an accused to see the case against them is fundamental. Limiting that right, as happens with security certificates, makes the judge's task even harder -- doing a careful and searching review of the evidence is precisely what a judge is supposed to do.

Unlike the form of government many terrorists seek to impose, Canada is a nation of law with rights and duties held in a balance by the Courts. That balance does act, as it is intended to act, as a check on unbridled State power.

Judges are doing their job in maintaining that balance.

Tobacco

Attorney General Chris Bentley today issued the following announcement regarding tobacco litigation.

Seeks $50 Billion In Tobacco-Related Health Care Costs

McGuinty Government Suing Tobacco Manufacturers

NEWS    September 29, 2009 (TBC)       Ontario filed a $50 billion lawsuit today against a group of tobacco companies seeking damages for past and ongoing health care costs linked to tobacco-related illness.

The Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, 2009, passed unanimously by the Legislature earlier this year, clarified the rights of the parties involved, and also set the framework for a lawsuit like this.The legislation:

• Allows Ontario to directly sue tobacco companies for alleged wrongdoing

• Allows for the recovery of past, present and ongoing tobacco-related damages

• Creates a method to determine health care cost damages incurred by taxpayers arising from tobacco-related illnesses

• Establishes the burden of proof required to link exposure to tobacco products to tobacco-related disease 

• Allocates liability among tobacco companies by market share.​While the legislation clarifies the process, the government still has to prove its allegations in a court of law.

The province's claim was issued today. Under Ontario law, companies must now file their intent to defend:

• Within 20 days if incorporated in this province

• Within 40 days if incorporated elsewhere in Canada and in the United States

• Within 60 days if incorporated in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. ​
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Happy Day

Application of Smoke-Free Ontario Act

The facts of Kennedy v. Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit,  2009 ONCA 685 are curious.

The appellant ran a sports bar. Once the Smoke-Free Ontario Act came into force the appellant closed the sports bar and opened a private club.

The private club had fairly open membership -- anyone could join for $4.00.

People were allowed to smoke in the "club"; the appellant argued the Smoke-Free Ontario Act did not apply because the club was not a public place.

The Court of Appeal disagreed:

[45]         Read as a whole, the Act is clearly designed to eliminate smoking in public places and thus protect members of the public from contact with second-hand smoke.  The word "public" is not defined in the Act.  There is no attempt to limit or restrict its application in any way.  As I see it, people who join the club are as much members of the public as are members of a swimming club or tennis club.

[46]         In this case members of the "smoking public" were approached and recruited to patronize the former sports' bar in the guise of joining a private club.  While the club was said to be a non-profit operation it ran essentially as before, except that admission was restricted to those members of the public who paid four dollars a month and accepted the club's simplistic rules.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Good character

OK, what do readers think? Can a convicted terrorist be of "good character" to practice law?

Certified by government as a danger to the public and with his immigration status still up in the air, a convicted Sikh terrorist will find out in the coming weeks whether he can practice law in Toronto.

Parminder Singh Saini, who has been fighting deportation from Canada since 1995, this month completed a "good character" hearing mandated by the Law Society of Upper Canada to determine whether he is eligible for a lawyer's license. He says he is rehabilitated and admits his participation in a hijacking plot 25 years ago was morally and legally wrong.

The hearing panel has reserved its decision indefinitely, and the society said it could be weeks or even months before a result is handed down.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

North Korea drops communism, boosts 'Dear Leader'

A small story in the Citizen but the historical implications are huge.

North Korea formally ditches communism!

Granted, communism has been barely a fig leaf in North Korea for years but still, who's is left "officially" communist?

China and Cuba?

Cuba may have some claim to remain communist but China's communism is pretty thin. Perhaps they too will drop the pretence?

The story:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/news/world-news/North+Korea+drops+communism+boosts+Dear+Leader/2042348/story.html


In a constitutional revision on Monday, the despotic state dropped the term "communism" while elevating Kim's status as Dear Leader.

...
Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim's power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defence Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity.

"The chairman is the highest general of the entire military and commands the entire country," according to a text of the constitution enacted by the reclusive North ... .

The chairman is now the country's "supreme leader". Though the position had become the seat of power under Kim, the previous constitution in 1998 simply said the chairman oversees matters of state.
...

But the Unification Ministry said the new charter removes all reference to communism, the guiding ideology when Kim's father Kim Il-sung founded North Korea — of which since his death in 1994 he has been eternal president.

Often in its place is "songun", the policy of placing the military first and which has been Kim junior's ruling principle.

South Korean media quoted an official from the North as saying that it made the change because it felt the ideals of communism are "hard to fulfil".

...
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Courts jeopardising terrorism fight: minister

Well, I suppose the issue is liberty or security -- but it's easy to blame judges who can't reply. My instinct is that terrorist crime is, first, crime and the terrorist label simply puts it into a specific category of crime. So, it should be prosecuted as crime and that means the accused has the usual rights.

By the way, an interesting factoid for those who believe Canada is soft on crime -- how many acquittals are there from a hundred charged?

Three

(See Professor Roach's new edition)

Generally people charged are convicted.

Courts jeopardizing terrorism fight: minister

Janice Tibbetts, Canwest News Service
Sunday, Sep 27, 2009

OTTAWA - Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan says he fears for the government's ability to fight terrorism in light of "an increasingly complex legal environment" in which judges are no longer deferring to the government in its efforts to deport foreign suspects.

"It raises questions about whether we can protect national security and I can tell you I am concerned," Van Loan told Canwest News Service. "I spend a fair bit of time thinking about it."

His comments followed a disastrous week in the courts for the Conservative federal government as it watched one of its key tools for fighting terrorism -- the power to detain non-Canadian suspects without charge or without knowing the case against them -- suffer critical blows that have left the regime in tatters.

On the approval of two cabinet ministers, the government can issue immigration "security certificates" that permit the incarceration of a suspect in "administrative detention" until a Federal Court judge determines whether he or she should be returned to his or her home country.

The program has been losing steam in recent months amid revelations of Canadian Security Intelligence Service gaffes, court orders for the government to disclose more information, and government admissions that it poses too much of a threat to state secrets to continue the pursuit.

"All this adds to the already tenuous legitimacy of the regime," said Mike Larsen, a security analyst at York University's Centre for International and Security Studies.

"They've never done anything to serve the intended purpose to facilitate a swift deportation process, through secret proceedings."

Van Loan would not comment on whether the Harper government is officially reviewing its security-certificate program.

Larsen scoffed at complaints, raised not only by Van Loan but also by former CSIS director Jim Judd, that overzealous judicial scrutiny of anti-terrorism intelligence is threatening national security.

Rather, court oversight is serving the purpose of revealing shoddy CSIS practices in the post 9/11 era rather than state secrets, Larsen said.

Last week, judges lifted strict bail restrictions on two of the five Muslim men whom the government is seeking to deport on allegations they have ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network.

Adil Charkaoui, a Morrocan-born father of three, won his liberty in Montreal when federal lawyers withdrew much of the evidence against him in court -- collected largely through wiretaps and foreign intelligence sources -- saying it must be kept secret to protect national security.

Justice Daniele Tremblay-Lamer declared the security certificate against him, issued in 2003, will inevitably fall after a closed-door hearing this week with federal lawyers.

Mohamed Harkat, a former pizza delivery man from Ottawa, also secured more freedom than he has had since his arrest seven years ago.

The case against the Algerian-born man has been temporarily suspended after a judge revealed last spring that CSIS misled the Federal Court about the credibility of an intelligence informant.

Lawyers for a third man -- Syrian-national Hassan Almrei of Toronto -- are also seeking to have his case thrown out in light of recent revelations that CSIS had admitted that one of its informants was deceptive and another source never took a lie-detector test, despite earlier claims from the spy agency that he had passed.

The seldom-used security-certificate regime has existed since 1989 and the government was successful in deportation proceedings in almost all of its cases until the program became a chief element of the federal "war on terror."

Under a security certificate, unlike a charge under the Criminal Code, accused terrorists and their lawyers do not have a right to see the intelligence gathered against them.

Van Loan says he is puzzled about the crash of the previously successful regime.

"It held up quite well until 2006,"he said. "We started getting different court decisions in the exact same facts."

It was in 2006 that the Conservatives formed the government, replacing the Liberals.

Lorne Waldman, Almrei's lawyer and vocal security-certificate opponent, credits the Federal Court's change of course to the presence of new "special advocates" for the accused who are permitted in the closed-door hearings to challenge government evidence.

The advocates were ordered by the Supreme Court of Canada in January 2007 when it struck down the security-certificate regime as unconstitutional and forced the government back to the drawing board.

Waldman also noted that the Federal Court, which decides in secret hearings whether the security certificates should stand, is demanding more federal accountability than it did in the early years following the 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

"We have seen the pendulum swing to a more balanced approach where you can't sacrifice the rights of individuals on the altar of national security," Waldman said.

The government has not issued a security certificate against a terrorism suspect for six years. A facility that opened in 2006 to detain the current suspects has been virtually mothballed and its future is under review.

All four of the men incarcerated at the facility's peak have been freed by the courts. The only remaining resident is Egyptian-born Mohammad Mahjoub, who voluntarily returned to detention last winter after convincing a judge he would rather be incarcerated than force his family to endure the strict surveillance that was a condition of his 2007 release.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

416 225 2777

Thornhill Provincial Liberal Riding Association picnic

What a wonderful picnic -- well attended and run to perfection. Congratulations to the Thornhill Provincial Riding Association!!!

(Special congratulations to Sandra Leung-Racco, Riding President (upper right) with Provincial Liberal Candidate, and former MPP, Mario Racco; also see (upper left) Karen Mock, Federal Liberal Candidate with Thornhill Young Liberals)

Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on Yom Kippur

On behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada, I would like to extend my best wishes to the Jewish community, as you mark Yom Kippur.

On this Day of Atonement, all Jews come together in reflection, to remember the year that has passed, and to pray that good health and happiness are inscribed and sealed for the year ahead.
Today, we join with all Canadian Jews in our hope that 5770 brings ever-greater health and well-being to our country.

The traditions of Yom Kippur -- from quiet reflection to the final t'kiyah g'dolah -- have enriched Canada's diversity for generations. Today, we recognise the remarkable contributions that our Jewish community continues to make to the life of our country.

Please accept my warmest regards on this High Holy Day, and my best wishes for an easy and meaningful fast.

G'mar hatimah tovah.

Hallo!!!

Human Rights -- The UTM Liberals and Students for Omar Alghabra hosted an event with the Attorney General Chris Bentley

The UTM Liberals and Students for Omar Alghabra hosted an event with the Attorney General Chris Bentley at the University of Toronto Mississauga campus discussing Human Rights, its history and future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIv8AUoviu8

On Lake Ontario's shore