Time to Deport Terror Suspects

Time to Deport Terror Suspects

By: Rachel Marsden

Mohamed Harkat, a terror suspect recently released on strict bail conditions pending the Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of deporting foreigners considered a security threat by the government, described his "nightmare" incarceration at a press conference.

During his four-year stay at the "Queen Liz Hotel and Resort," as in prison, apparently Harkat was exposed to the Canadian TV show, The Trailer Park Boys.

Where's Amnesty International? I would have blown my brains out after watching 10 minutes of that dumb show.

Harkat and other foreigners jailed in security certificate cases are singing the same tune: Don't send me back, or I'll be tortured. Look, if you can handle The Trailer Park Boys, you can handle any other kind of torture -- even CBC miniseries.

Harkat, an Algerian, came here on a fake Saudi passport, via Malaysia. Under the international legal principle of "first country asylum," that's where he should have stayed. Unless perhaps, he was looking for a more gullible country.

The U.S. would have been a poor choice, given that the Patriot Act not only permits deportation of foreign terror suspects, but even the stripping of U.S. citizenship if you can't restrain yourself from fraternizing with other non-infidels at www.jihadchat.com, for example.

Britain has a few Algerian terror suspects they're seeking to deport, too. But according to Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen, "It is particularly those alleged to be involved with terrorism who are at risk in Algeria."

I guess that means Algeria doesn't take too kindly to terror suspects either. Does anyone want these guys anymore?

Is there any country Amnesty can recommend that will gladly give them a place to hang out without putting the smackdown on them? Perhaps Amnesty can get right on that, rather than worrying about whether or not detainees are getting fluffy pillows here at "Club Fed."

British PM Tony Blair, recently explained to Parliament that he doesn't have a problem deporting foreign terror suspects: "We have the power under the Human Rights Act to override legislation if we wish to do so ... We are prepared to do so if necessary."

Canada's government needs to do the same, and use the Charter's notwithstanding clause to override the courts, if it comes to that.

Far be it for me to guess how our Supreme Court will rule on the deportation issue. But if we end up hamstrung by the Charter, then that document is about as current as a Tiny Tim 8-track. It's not the Magna Carta, or something sacred our country was founded on, as is the case with the U.S. Constitution. It was conjured up by the most liberal prime minister in Canadian history -- Pierre Trudeau.

And even he hated terrorists. The only smart thing Trudeau ever did was declare martial law during the FLQ crisis.

The Charter was drawn up at a time when the biggest threat to our national security was communism -- or everyone on Trudeau's Christmas Card list. Same thing.

But my guess is that terrorists would have been a different story for Trudeau, who once told his ex-wife Margaret, according to her autobiography, that if she and their kids were ever captured by terrorists, he wouldn't negotiate for their return.

It's time to pack up Harkat and his pals, and send them on their way. The global war on terror shouldn't be a game of tag where Canada is "home free."

Next time, try Cuba.

PUBLISHED: TORONTO SUN (July 13/06)