For Immediate Release
November 29, 2007
OTTAWA – The CBA says Bill C-3 (amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act) requires further changes to meet the constitutional standard outlined by the Supreme Court of Canada, and the CBA is recommending a number of improvements to help the bill meet that test.
The legislation is meant to rectify constitutional deficiencies with the security certificate regime identified by the Supreme Court last February. The Supreme Court held that the present security certificate provisions violated s. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Bill C-3 is the government’s response.
The CBA says that Bill C-3 is based on the British model of special advocates, and must take into account recent improvements to that system.
“The bill has incorporated several flaws in the special advocates system, and omits positive aspects of the Security Intelligence Review Committee process – a ‘made-in-Canada regime’ – which was successfully used to handle secret information in immigration proceedings before the introduction of the current legislation,” says Isabelle Dongier of Montreal, a member of the CBA’s National Citizenship and Immigration Law Section.
The CBA recommends a number of changes to improve the legislation, including:
- The government must disclose all relevant information to the court and special advocate, not just the evidence the government believes is helpful.
- Special advocates must have continued contact with the named person after reviewing the secret evidence, subject to an obligation not to disclose the secret evidence.
- Special advocates must have sufficient logistical and administrative support to effectively challenge the government’s confidential evidence.
Isabelle Dongier presented the CBA submission to the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007. The submission is available on the CBA website at:
http://www.cba.org/CBA/submissions/pdf/07-59-eng.pdf.
The Canadian Bar Association is dedicated to improvement in the law and the administration of justice. Some 37,000 lawyers, law teachers, and law students from across Canada are members.
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CONTACT: Hannah Bernstein, Canadian Bar Association, Tel: (613) 237-2925, ext. 146; E-mail: hannahb@cba.org.
