National Security and The Law
One of the central challenges for Cotler during his time as Justice Minister was to address concerns about terrorism while guarding against arbitrary and unnecessary limits on rights. Part of his work in this regard, has included a review of Bill C-36, Canada's relatively recent Anti-Terrorism Act. The Anti-Terrorism Act has been criticized by some human rights groups and defense lawyers, as an unreasonable trade-off between security and freedom. Cotler believed that the legislation did, in fact, strike a balance between rights and national security concerns, but understood that further consultation was necessary in reviewing the legislation. On February 21, 2005, Cotler spoke of the important work that Bill C-36 involved, and invited experts and other groups to continue dialogue to improve the legislation in the review process.
Cotler presided over other legislative changes concerning national security. This included proposed changes to privacy legislation known as “Lawful Access” to give police and intelligence officers the tools to conduct surveillance of electronic communications for law enforcement and national security purposes.
Due to his position as Justice Minister, Cotler has received many appeals from various groups asking that so-called "secret" trials and detentions in Canada be abolished. But these "appeals" and protests are often based on false or inaccurate information. For example, the security certificates are subject to judicial review and constitutional scrutiny by the Federal Court of Canada and the proceeding is not "secret". Rather, only evidence deemed to relate to national security is protected from disclosure. Additionally, the Canadian federal court of appeal ruled, in December 2004, that security certificates were fully consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court heard the (related) appeals in June 2006, has reserved its decision.
Read more about this topic: Irwin Cotler
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