Lawmakers amended Canada's anti-terror law on Monday, one year after its top court quashed the original that allowed Ottawa to detain foreigners suspected of terror ties without charges for many years.
The new measures contained in its immigration and refugee protection act would still permit secret court hearings and indefinite incarceration.
But a special advocate would be assigned in each case to challenge Ottawa's refusal to disclose secret evidence for reasons of national security or public safety, and to question the relevance and sufficiency of the information.
Critics say the slightly modified law will still not pass constitutional muster.
Opposition members of parliament who backed Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government to pass it before the old act expires on Feb. 23 said it was the best they could hope for in such a time frame.
Five men accused of terrorist links since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US are currently in jail or living under strict bail conditions, facing deportation from Canada under the security regime.
Lawyers for three of the men suspected of being al-Qaeda sleeper agents asked Canada's top court in June 2006 to review the use of so-called security certificates. They were backed by 11 civil rights groups.
Canadian lawmakers said the extraordinary measures were absolutely necessary to thwart possible terrorist attacks, but critics argued they breached civil liberties.
The nine justices of the Supreme Court sided with the appellants, but allowed parliament one year to amend the law, as requested by government attorneys.
Parliamentarians on Monday voted 191 to 54 in favor of the amendment.
Meanwhile, a military judge on Monday was examining the legality of a case brought against a young Canadian held in Guantanamo Bay after being arrested at age 15 in Afghanistan, military sources said.
Omar Khadr was seized in Afghanistan in 2002 and taken to the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as part of the drive to round up extremists in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Now in his early 20s, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a hand grenade as he was being arrested for making explosives.
It was not known when the judge would make his ruling, but defense lawyers argue the special military courts set up in Guantanamo have no authority to try minors.
They maintain that if Khadr's case goes to trial it will be the first time in Western history that a person will have been tried for war crimes committed while still a child.
"In the six years since the first prisoners arrived at Guantanamo, the Bush administration has failed to bring a single military commissions case to trial because it insists on using a system with fatal due process flaws," said Hina Shamsi, an attorney with the powerful American Civil Liberties Union.
"That one of the first tests of this illegitimate system is the prosecution for war crimes of someone captured as a child shows just how much of a moral and legal failure Guantanamo is," Shamsi said.
Canadian parliamentarians and law experts, as well as human rights groups, have all supported Khadr's lawyers.
"UNICEF is concerned that such a prosecution, in particular in front of a military commission not equipped to meet the required standards, would set a dangerous precedent for the protection of hundreds of thousands of children who find themselves unwittingly involved in conflict around the world," the UN children's fund said in a statement.
So far, only four out of the 275 prisoners held in the remote military base have been brought to trial -- two of them were minors at the time of the alleged events.
Another court hearing is also planned for the end of the week when Yemeni national Salim Hamdan, who worked as a driver and bodyguard for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is due to appear.
His appeal to the US Supreme Court resulted in the first military courts in Guantanamo being ruled as invalid in June 2006.
A new hearing is not planned for June, but his lawyers have continued to argue that new tribunals hastily set up by the US Congress in late 2006 still have no authority.
They also argue that Hamdan has been too traumatized by his years in Guantanamo to be tried.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
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