Mar. 13, 2007: Security, Justice, Terrorists

Security, Canadian Embassy, visa

Warsaw embassy fraud rap -- "The arrest stemmed from a Toronto Sun article in February last year after Toronto-area Poles complained about having to pay bribes at the embassy to obtain Canadian documents." , Tom Godfrey, Mar. 10, 2007

www.torontosun.com/News/World/
2007/03/10/3725803-sun.html

A senior visa officer at the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw has been charged with 100 counts of fraud for allegedly using her position to smuggle hundreds of people -- including some criminals -- into the country without security checks.

Warsaw security police seized $175,000, jewelry and about $7,500 Cdn from a bag being carried by a suspect, who's identified in the Polish press as Michalina Hoffman, 61, a Polish citizen employed at the embassy for 30 years. [....]

Security, Crime Gangs

David Harris on Supreme Court decision on Security Certificates
On CBC's 'As It Happens', David Harris is interviewed on the Supreme Court decision on Security Certificates and the implications for preventing terrorist attacks while maintaining civil rights. Audio clip below ... , Posted by CCD on CBC Radio on 20:49:58 2007/03/03

From a series of articles in The Province, BC

SERIES:
Today: Wanted in Thailand, plus Canada's painfully-slow extradition process.
Monday: Fugitives from the Philippines find a way to stay in Canada.
Tuesday: A Mexican fugitive's fight changes the law.
Wednesday: Murder in India. A son's fight for justice.
Thursday: Chinese bankers stash their loot in B.C.
Friday: Your views on our series.
OUR TEAM
Fabian Dawson
Project Editor
Michael Roberts
Reporting

Note: Sometimes, articles have a different title. Dig around a bit.

Don't put out the welcome mat for foreign criminals , The Province, March 09, 2007

www.canada.com/theprovince/news/editorial/story.ht
ml?id=ba0e2b13-b4f7-457f-aa54-f687d9aa7df6

Part of the problem is the onerous obligation the Supreme Court of Canada has placed on those countries with which we have extradition treaties to provide comprehensive evidence in support of their extradition requests.

In the past, a simple statement of alleged facts was sufficient. Now extradition judges must insist that evidence is provided of an equivalent nature to that required in Canadian courts.

This is placing an extraordinary burden on countries ....

Charter of Rights ....

It is one thing to refuse to extradite a wanted killer to a country that applies the death penalty; quite another to afford lengthy sanctuary to an alleged multimillion-dollar bank fraudster on the sole grounds we don't approve of his or her country's court system. [....]

'Assassin' finds new life in T.O.
How accused killer found favour with our justice system , Mike Roberts, The Province, March 05, 2007

www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.ht
ml?id=93b02607-7e5e-44ae-bd3c-29f7849eb584&p=4

"You have to be smoking dope if you can't see the truth here," says Javier, 37, a Harvard-educated property developer.

"They [Canada] didn't bother to look with their own eyes, to read, to see that there was no persecution involved at all."

Gideon was 16 and living with his mother and brother in Los Angeles when his father was killed.

He had gone back to the strife-torn Philippines in 1983 for the "love of his country and people." [....]

EXTRADITION THAI OFFICIALS. What's the holdup, Canada? -- A SLOW PROCESS. For 10 years, we have provided a haven for two fugitives wanted in Thailand , Mike Roberts, The Province, March 04, 2007

www.canada.com/theprovince/news/news/unwind/story.ht
ml?id=f495b483-39b7-448b-916e-72325303087a

[....] Thailand has been battling for 10 years for the return of Rakesh Saxena, wanted for allegedly embezzling $88 million from the Bangkok Bank of Commerce, triggering the 1997 southeast Asian financial crisis.

It's also been a decade since Thailand first sought the return of Michael Karas, a Canadian national wanted for allegedly murdering his Thai common-law wife in the beach resort of Pattaya.

Both men are in the Lower Mainland, and have retained pricey lawyers to fight any step that might take them closer to extradition.

B.C. Supreme Court judges -- extradition judges -- have ruled that there is sufficient evidence to extradite both men. [....]

UK: No Charter For Terrorists , February 14, 2007, via newsbeat1

news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1251508,00.html

Human rights laws should not be used to scupper anti-terror legislation, the Lord Chancellor will warn today.

Judges and lawyers will be urged not to allow laws, which were designed to protect people, becoming a "terrorist's charter".

The comments Lord Falconer will make in his major policy speech are likely to be interpreted as a reference to human rights lawyers - and possibly judges - who have sometimes been blamed for frustrating the Government's attempts to bring in new laws on terrorism. [....]