Public Safety committee  The model comes from the remainder of the Immigration Act. All judicial reviews of decisions made under the Immigration Act are subject to a limitation, which is the certified question of general importance. It is a request for leave procedure under the purview of the trial judge

Public Safety committee  The judge decides if there is a matter of general importance. However, once the judge has made that decision, the appeal is not necessarily limited to the certified questions. The filter is the need to convince the trial judge that there is a question of general importance, which

Public Safety committee  This is a system that has been in place for many years under the Immigration Act. Obviously, it shows a desire to move law forward regarding matters of general application while having a system that produces decisions as quickly as possible.

Public Safety committee  Sure.

Public Safety committee  I can try to answer. I haven't read the entire file, so I do not speak from that experience, but even in the current system and in the new system one important safeguard is the role of the Federal Court. The Federal Court reviews all of the information and only confirms the vali

Public Safety committee  Let me start with what the Supreme Court actually said in Charkaoui about this, because that involves your role as parliamentarians. The Supreme Court, in Charkaoui, found, as the minister said, essentially two flaws in the current security certificate process, one of them being

Public Safety committee  Absolutely. First of all, by statute, the role of the special advocate is to represent the interests of the individual, not to represent the government. The rules leading us to the selection of special advocates are geared to ensure independence from government. First, as I sai

Public Safety committee  They will see everything the court sees, which is everything.

Public Safety committee  I'm using vague language because this will be in the regulations, essentially. When you see the regulations, you will see what “significant” means. It will be in the number of years. What we are fairly certain will appear in the regulations is, at the core, litigation experience.

Public Safety committee  They do not. They do not have solicitor-client privilege.

Public Safety committee  To start with the question of compensation, they would not be paid at the legal aid rate. What we have in mind is that special advocates would be people of some experience, paid accordingly. They would have various types of experiences. Definitely, at the core, we think that sp

Public Safety committee  It is the judge who will decide on the special advocate, with submissions from both the individual concerned and the government. So the individual will have a say, but will not have the final say. The judge will decide. If there is a breakdown somehow in the relationship, it woul

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It's a dilemma.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  As I've said, despite not being a panacea, it is a very legitimate policy question for parliamentarians to consider, whether to add a special advocate. But I would suggest that this is a policy issue for parliamentarians, and it is not one for an official to answer at this point.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's the ultimate dilemma. What I can say is that as I've mentioned, the Federal Court has found that under the current law, so long as removal is possible—ie., while the risk of torture assessment has not been completed, including judicial review of the risk assessments—detent