Part of Canada anti-terrorism law tossed

[deadparrot]

TORONTO - The first person charged under Canada's anti-terrorism act won a partial victory Tuesday when a judge struck down a key portion of the law, ruling that the clause dealing with the definition of the law violates the country's bill of rights.

Terror suspect Mohammed Momin Khawaja, a 27-year-old software developer, is accused of participating in and giving assistance to an alleged terror ring based in Britain. He faces seven charges under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act, which was adopted in the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Khawaja, who has been in custody since his arrest in March 2004, had argued that the charges against him violated his constitutional rights.

Khawaja's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said in a telephone interview from Ottawa that he intends to call on the Supreme Court of Canada to drop the charges against his client.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/canada_terrorism_act

[sutz12]

1. Nice to hear that somewhere in the world....

Individual rights are being upheld.

[atreides1]

2. Individual rights are being upheld in the USA

It all depends on who the individual is and how much money they have.

[Mudoria]

3. The same is true of any country in the world..

[Lisa]

4. I think they mean "charter" of rights ...

The US has a "Bill of Rights", which is a bit different in wording from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which Canada adopted in the 1980s (we didn't actually have our own constitution until then).

"The charter", as it's referred to up here, been used in a number of situations recently, from appealing the anti-terrorism rulings to defending same-sex marriage.