Ottawa has endorsed a Commons subcommittee recommendation that only evidence considered "reliable" and "appropriate" should be allowed in court. The idea is to ensure evidence obtained through torture cannot be used against an accused terrorist held on a national security certificate.
"The government supports the proposed amendment," says the federal response released Wednesday to the subcommittee's report.
MPs studied the security certificate regime, used in more than two dozen cases since 1991, while reviewing anti-terrorism legislation ushered in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Non-citizens suspected of being a threat to national security can be held indefinitely under certificates and do not have a right to see details of the case against them.
The Supreme Court ruled the scheme unconstitutional in February, saying more must be done to protect individual rights.
The high court gave Ottawa one year to overhaul the certificate process.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in a recent interview that "we have drafts ready to go that I'd like the opposition to see" when Parliament returns.
"I'd like their input on those," he said.
"We'll be ready to move very early in the fall."
The response says the government is "currently reviewing how best to meet the principles established by the Supreme Court," which declared the certificate regime inconsistent with the Charter of Rights.
Regarding concerns the certificate system denies the accused the right to see the full evidence against him, some have suggested a special advocate be appointed as a check on the process.
The government says it's studying the possibility, "guided by the need to ensure procedural fairness and to safeguard rights and freedoms under the Charter, consistent with the direction received from the Supreme Court."
Requiring that evidence be reliable and appropriate in security certificate proceedings would be no guarantee the information was not extracted through torture, said Paul Copeland, lawyer for Mohamed Harkat, one of five Muslim men facing deportation on certificates.
"All of these are sort of buzzwords," Copeland said. "And unless somebody is actually asking, 'Who's the people who are giving it to us? Do they engage in torture? Let's ask some questions about it,' - you can regard anything, I think, as reliable and appropriate."
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says Abu Zubaydah, allegedly a senior al-Qaida lieutenant, identified Harkat as the operator of a guest house in the Pakistani city of Peshawar for extremists travelling to Chechnya.
U.S. authorities captured Zubaydah in Pakistan, and there has been persistent speculation he was tortured into giving up information.
Copeland has pressed Canadian officials to reveal whether Zubaydah's statements about Harkat were elicited through torture, arguing that would render them unreliable.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over CSIS, recently concluded an examination of Copeland's assertion the spy agency showed a "total lack of concern" about evidence obtained by torture.
The review committee rejected that claim, but did find that, at the time of Copeland's complaint, "CSIS lacked specific directions aimed at eliminating any possible Canadian complicity in torture."
A commission of inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor has recommended changes to CSIS policies regarding dealings with countries that have questionable human rights records.
In its reply to Copeland, the review committee said CSIS is committed to ensuring compliance with O'Connor's recommendations, adding "it will take some time."
