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ARCHIVED: Ottawa Citizen, Letter-to-the-Editor by Director Richard B. Fadden
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The following article appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on Wednesday, October 7, 2009.
Delicate balancing act between rights, security
The Ottawa Citizen
Gar Pardy’s recent article ("Missing the Target", September 29) misunderstands how security certificates work and confuses the reasons why the Government of Canada chose to withdraw certain information from the case against Adil Charkaoui.
The Government was faced with a dilemma: to withdraw information that would almost certainly cause a case that it had fought for many years to collapse; or to release highly sensitive information to the public that would give would-be terrorists a veritable road map to some of its sensitive sources and operational methods.
We chose the option that would hurt Canada the least in the long term, and withdrew information from the case. An intelligence agency that compromises its sources would cease to be credible and would lose a vitally important tool it uses to protect national security.
Mr. Pardy insists that CSIS has an obligation to stay the course and seek solutions through the courts. That is exactly why CSIS supports the decision to ask the Federal Court to certify questions that would allow elements of this case to proceed to the Federal Court of Appeal.
Why has CSIS persisted in fighting this case over so many years? The answer lies in the words of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, whose recent speech to the Ottawa Women’s Canadian Club has been selectively quoted by Mr. Pardy. Below are more words from that speech:
"Terrorism operates as a psychological weapon directed at both its immediate victims and society as a whole...Terrorists seek to achieve their ends by violence. They care nothing for individual liberties or democracy. If we prize our liberties and the history that enshrines them, we cannot let those who seek to destroy these very things prevail. It would mark the end of our ideals."
That is the other bookend to the delicate balancing act between rights and security to which Mr. Pardy alludes.
Richard B. Fadden
Director, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)
