By Nicole Findlay
Tina Langdon is putting theory into practice in her fight to end the use of security certificates in Canada. Langdon has been working on behalf of one of the men affected by the certificates to raise awareness of his situation.
Langdon, a fourth-year major in the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies’ Human Rights program became aware of Canada’s use of security certificates when she saw a documentary about Mohammed Harket’s case in November 2005.
Harket is one of five men currently incarcerated under a security certificate issued under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Security certificates are used to indefinitely detain non-Canadian residents and foreign nationals in the interest of national security
Harket immigrated to Canada from Malaysia in 1995 and was granted refugee status in 1997. While in Canada he met and married Sophie Lamarche. Detained since December 2002, the Algerian-born man is accused of suspected terrorist links. Other than a summary of the evidence against him, neither he nor his lawyers have been given access to the key witnesses or full evidence upon which the case for his defense hinges. If the security certificate is upheld, Harket will be deported to Algeria, where it is feared he will be tortured.
In July 2005, Langdon met Sophie Harket at a fundraising event for her husband. This encounter had a profound impact on Langdon and she began to take a more active role in the case. Since then, she has been to the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre to meet Harket himself and has become a member of the Mohammed Harket Committee, a group that advocates on his behalf. Through the committee and Amnesty International Carleton, Langdon has helped organize events, vigils and a post card campaign. She is now setting her sights on lobbying the Federal Government.
“We would like to see the end of the security certificate process,” said Langdon. “We would also like to see the men in detention either charged and presumed innocent until proven guilty of a specific crime under the Criminal Code and within the normal bounds of the law or be set free to live their lives.”
Security Certificates were legislated under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) in 1978. Of the 27 certificates issued since 1991, five of these were employed after September 11, 2001. In 2004, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled the use of the certificates were constitutional as “non-citizens and permanent residents can be subjected to a different standard of legal treatment than citizens.”