Charkaoui v Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2007 SCC 9 (23 February 2007), Docket 30762, 30929, 31178

Abstract

A BEACON AGAINST THE PASSAGE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF REPRESSIVE LAW Following the felling, by aircraft, of the twin towers of the New York World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001, Western democracies have each passed a raft of ‘anti-terrorist’ or security legislation consistently criticised for breaching human and civil rights. On February 23rd 2007 the Canadian Supreme Court unanimously determined that provisions of Immigration and Refugee Protection Act 2001 (Canada) purporting to protect citizens from terrorism and terrorists infringe the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ‘the Charter’).1 Albeit not going as far as the Applicants wished, the decision is an affirmation that governments and parliaments do not have carte blanche for restricting the rights of persons within a state’s borders in the name of protection and security.