Some people have pointed out that the detainees are "free" to leave Canada but this freedom is to go to countries where they face torture or perhaps even death.
Detainee ruling comes after 'years of hell'
Last Updated: Friday, February 23, 2007 | 3:37 PM ET
CBC News
Relatives of the men arrested under the federal government's national security certificates praised a high court ruling Friday ordering a new system, while expressing fear that their legal battles are far from over.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously the certificate system is unconstitutional and has given the federal government one year to rewrite the law.
"It's the happiest day of my life," said Mohamed Harkat, who was interviewed by CBC Newsworld from his home in Ottawa.
He said he was "crying for 3½ years in jail" as he continued asking authorities what evidence they had against him.
Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing for the court, said the process of hearing such cases behind closed doors without a lawyer for the accused present is a violation of fundamental justice.
The court suggested Parliament could solve the problem by allowing special security-cleared lawyers to attend the hearings to challenge the evidence and protect the rights of the accused.
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Harkat was recently released on bail and remains under house arrest. He can leave his home on three supervised outings for a total of four hours a week, with advance notice.
Appearing at an Ottawa news conference, his wife, Sophie, choked back tears, then laughed and said, "I thought I could do it without crying this year."
"It's been four years of hell for us," she said.
Strict bail conditions, hunger strikes continue
Diana Ralph, a supporter of another detainee, Hassan Almrei of Mississauga, Ont., said the ruling "finally starts to correct this grotesque law," which she said includes the "vicious" threat of deportation.
Ralph said Almrei is on day 78 of a hunger strike in which he has refused solid food at the immigration holding centre in Kingston, Ont.
"We call for their release and the complete end of bail conditions and for a discontinuation of the continuing threat to deport these men to countries where they are likely to face torture," said Kevin Skerritt of the Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee.
With the unanimous ruling, there is at least a year of uncertainty for five men who were detained under the security certificates for alleged links to al-Qaeda.
One-year grace period
However, Johanne Doyon, counsel for Moroccan detainee Adil Charkaoui, described the judgment as a "nearly total victory" for the challengers and predicted the government wouldn't dare deport any of them during the one-year grace period it will take to revise the law.
Ahmed Jaballah, the son of a Toronto detainee from Egypt who is staging a hunger strike with Almrei, said he's worried that freedom is a long way off for his father, Mahmoud.
"It's a step in the right direction, but I'm still concerned with what will happen to these men."
He said even if the security certificates are quashed after the one-year period, their cases could go back to court and proceedings could continue for years.
Jaballah said his father is on the 81st day of a hunger strike.
Detainees await government reaction
In the House of Commons, Bloc Québécois MP Monique Guay asked the Conservative government if it would "abandon its George Bush approach" and amend the law allowing secret trials of non-citizens.
The government is still reviewing the court decision and will respond in a "timely and decisive fashion," Dave MacKenzie, parliamentary secretary for public safety, told the Commons.
Charkaoui, who was arrested in Montreal 2003 under a security certificate and released on bail in 2005, said he is "anxious" to see whether a government with "former Reformers who want to limit the role of the judiciary" will adopt the court's recommendations.
He said the law under which he was detained but never charged is unfair
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