I think there is a whole host of things that need to happen. Absolutely the process itself needs to be completely overhauled to ensure that it means fair trial standards, which obviously involves issues around access to evidence, effective legal representation, the standard of proof that's applied, and the kind of review that's put in place of decisions made around security certificates. I think it needs to be combined with some sort of policy that, at the very least, actively prefers criminal prosecution over the use of immigration remedies, for the reasons I've highlighted before. Immigration remedies very often will lead to human rights abuses, but they also almost always don't adequately address security concerns.
There needs to be clearly adopted in Canadian law an absolute ban on returning anyone to a situation of torture. That still doesn't exist in Canadian law, and it's long overdue. There should be a maximum length set for detention. As I was saying earlier, I'm not in a position to propose what that period of time should be. I think you'd need to hear from authoritative experts around this, but I think that needs to be part of it. There need to be, obviously, considerable improvements in the conditions around detention, and I'd highlight that this is not only of concern for security certificate detainees. There are others individuals held in immigration proceedings on security-related charges, not using security certificates, for whom detention also goes on and on and on, who are held in provincial correctional facilities without access to programming, with clear problems around family visits, etc. So there's a broader concern there.
I think I would add that there really is a need for some improvement to the kind of monitoring there is in place around immigration detention, particularly in security certificate cases in this country. We need monitoring by some sort of impartial officer or agency who on an ongoing basis stays on top of concerns around conditions and programming. Such an impartial officer or agency would be in a position to receive complaints about abuse and ill treatment, ensure that they are effectively and independently investigated, and that there are actually remedies.