Security certificates needed for national security: government

Lawyers for the federal government argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that national security outweighs the rights of individuals.

The government side is defending the use of security certificates, which allow the indefinite detention of non-citizens who are accused of being threats to national security.

Three men who have been detained are challenging the practice.

On Tuesday, their lawyers argued the certificates violate the Charter of Rights.

Security certificate detainees are only allowed to see summaries of the case against them.

Some of the justices' most probing questions were on the issue of secret evidence.

Justice Rosalie Abella asked how a detainee such as Mohammed Harkat could defend himself from allegations he knew so little about.

"It just seems to be general allegations of the organizations, and how it works and how they recruit sleepers and so on. I don't see any specific information that Mr. Harkat could take home and say 'this is how I respond to this,' " she said.

But government lawyer Bernard Laprade responded that the need to protect secret information trumped the detainees' right to mount a well-informed defence.

"The summary is a breakdown of the raw information. You're not going to get that. That raw information is the very reason why the information is protected," he told the court.

Laprade said the first duty of a government is to protect national security. Without national security, he said, individual rights are meaningless.

But some of the judges took issue with that line of argument. Justice Louis LeBel appeared unconvinced and said if Canadians have security but no individual liberties, then they may as well be living in North Korea.

The Supreme Court isn't expected to rule for some months. But the outline of a decision may already be emerging.

The judges have asked repeatedly about the possibility of empowering a special advocate, with a clearance to hear secret evidence, someone who can look out for the rights of the detainee in the secret hearings.