Anti-terror law before top court
Lawyers argue rules breach charter rights
OTTAWA — The constitutionality of Canada’s anti-terrorism law comes under the microscope Friday when the Supreme Court of Canada delivers a series of major rulings on the legal definition of terrorism.
The high court will rule on a handful of charter challenges brought by a convicted terrorist and two accused terrorists, key among them whether Canada’s post-9/11 anti-terrorism law violates the constitutional guarantees to freedom of expression, association and religion.
The ruling also will decide the fate of former Ottawa software engineer Momin Khawaja, the first person charged under the law, and two other men, awaiting extradition to the United States, where they face charges of supporting the Tamil Tigers, a banned group that fought a civil war in Sri Lanka.
Khawaja is now serving life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years, after the Ontario Court of Appeal took the unusual step of increasing his original 10½-year sentence to send a message about terrorism.
The high court will also rule on whether Khawaja’s stiffened sentence should be upheld, and whether the extradition order against Suresh Sriskandarajah and Piratheepan Nadarajah should be overturned.
Lawyers for Khawaja, Sriskandarajah and Nadarajah argued that the law’s so-called motive clause constitutes a rights violation because it targets a particular thought and expression.
Federal lawyers countered that the free-speech protections offered under the charter are not absolute and do not extend to protecting violence or threats of violence.