Ottawa

Suddenly topical blast from the past – Special advocates? Still not nearly special enough.

That’s what the lawyer for Mohamed Harkat told the Federal Court yesterday.

From the Ottawa Citizen:

A special advocate for accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat says government lawyers hold a “massive advantage” in Canada’s five security certificate cases by virtue of their ability to consult with other government lawyers on common legal issues.

As one of two special advocates in the Harkat case, lawyer Paul Cavalluzzo is responsible for protecting Mr. Harkat’s interests during secret evidentiary hearings, but Mr. Cavalluzzo told Federal Court Tuesday that restrictive rules imposed on special advocates make the new security certificate regime unworkable.

This revelation will come as no surprise to ITQ readers, however – at least, ITQ readers who tuned in for our coverage of the Senate Special Committee on Anti-Terrorism earlier this year.

Despite a shortage of Tory senators so severe that, at one point, Speaker Kinsella himself was forced to fill a seat on the Conservative side of the table, it turned out to be a highly enlightening — if unsettling — discussion of the security certificate process, including the special advocate system.

Anyway, if you somehow managed to miss it the first time around, what with zoning out at the very idea of realtime coverage of a sleepy Senate committee, you can catch up here:

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