Proceedings of the Special Senate Committee on
Anti-terrorism

Issue 4 - Second Report of the Committee

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Special Senate Committee on Anti-terrorism has the honour to present its

SECOND REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate) and to make a consequential amendment to another Act, has, in obedience to the order of reference of Thursday, February 7, 2008, examined the said Bill and now reports the same without amendment.

Your committee has also made certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

DAVID P. SMITH, P.C./C.P.

Chair

OBSERVATIONS
to the Second Report of the Special Senate
Committee on Anti-terrorism

Recognizing the impending February 23, 2008 deadline imposed by the Supreme Court of Canada for Parliament to rectify the unconstitutionality of the existing security certificate procedure, the Special Senate Committee on Anti- terrorism is adopting Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate) and to make a consequential amendment to another Act, without amendment.

The Committee would have appreciated more time to reflect upon all aspects of this bill and the views of those concerned, given the life-altering effects that security certificates have on those named in them, and the reflection the process has on Canadian society and values. Because of the tight timeline for examining Bill C-3, the Committee was not able to hear from all parties who requested to appear.

Some of the issues the Committee is concerned with are:

The inability of the special advocate to communicate with the person named in the security certificate, except with the judge's authorization, after the special advocate has received the confidential information;

The lack of a specific provision empowering the special advocate to require the Minister to disclose all documents the special advocate believes may be relevant; and

The absence of a requirement for Parliament to review the new security certificate process and the functioning of the special advocate within that process once it has been implemented.

Accordingly, we propose that the Senate provide this Committee with the opportunity to conduct a full study on the security certificate process in the months to come, in that the Minister of Public Safety wrote, in a letter dated February 12, 2008, addressed to the Chair:

In my appearance before you yesterday, the need for further Parliamentary review of Bill C-3, an Act to amend the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (certificate and special advocate) and to make a consequential amendment to another Act was raised. Once Bill C-3 has passed, I would welcome the Senate Special Committee on Anti-Terrorism continuing its study of the security certificate provisions of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and reporting any recommendations to the Government before December 31, 2008.

I welcome your work in this regard as this is an important piece of legislation and key to our efforts to build a strong and resilient Canada.