Charkaoui, supporters outraged by specious attack

Montreal – Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui Coalition rejects the utterly unfounded and demonstrably false allegations against Charkaoui parroted by Radio Canada, La Presse and McLean’s starting on May 7th, 2013. The Coalition, which has worked alongside Charkaoui for almost ten years, denounces the disgusting tactics of defamation as well as the role played by an uncritical and uninformed media.

“These kind of unfounded and unproven allegations that CSIS continues to spread in the media against me only motivate me all the more to fight in the courts and all other fora” said Charkaoui

“I am not surprised at this new slander campaign; the Canadian government habituated us to this kind of thing during the almost 6 years of secret trial process. But today, before the Superior Court of Quebec, all unfounded allegations are only an additional proof of abuse,” added Charkaoui.

“This has everything to do with the fact that Adil is seeking accountability through a lawsuit and nothing whatsoever to do with public safety. It is completely contrary to our interests as a community to create this kind of fear, spread falsehoods, whip up Islamophobic hysteria, and inhibit use of a healthy mechanism of accountability – in fact, a lawsuit was the sole recourse available to Adil after the government refused to apologize or offer reparations for wrongfully imprisoning him, keeping him under house arrest for six years and repeatedly attacking his reputation,” said Mary Foster, an organizer with the Coalition Justice for Adil Charkaoui.

“Don’t forget that in 2009 the Federal Court threw out the security certificate against Adil for lack of evidence. The security certificate regime, which is part of immigration law, shares that system’s abysmally low standards, so lack of evidence in that context means that they had nothing whatsoever against him. Adil was never criminally charged with any of this stuff. We all know that standards of proof in criminal cases, and particularly terrorism cases, are exceedingly low. So how can anyone – even the most determined Islamophobe – take these 11-year old, extremely vague and unconvincing allegations in anyway seriously? It is of huge concern that Radio-Canada and La Presse were willing to run with this story,” added Foster.

“This is the third or fourth time that some of the Canadian media have gone on a runaway stampede sparked by leaks of dubious secret documents and unsubstantiated allegations against Adil Charkaoui. This is not a question of freedom of expression, it is a question of intelligent and responsible journalism: the media cannot allow itself to be manipulated by political authorities,” said Foster.