Ottawa — The security provisions the RCMP invoked to probe an alleged leak to an Ottawa journalist are so sweeping they might be struck down as unconstitutional, experts say.
Use of the anti-leakage provisions of the Security of Information Act to conduct a search of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill's home has raised serious questions about whether the law is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Scott Anderson, the Citizen's editor-in-chief, argued this week the searches contravened the guarantees of press freedom in the Charter of Rights.
Others familiar with the security law agreed Thursday.
“I think there's a very strong Charter argument here,” said Alan Borovoy, head of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
“It is one piece of awful legislation,” said Mr. Borovoy, calling it “dangerously and fatuously overbroad.”
The Security of Information Act makes it a crime to improperly disclose or receive information that the government “is taking measures to safeguard.”
Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto history professor, said the definition is rather amorphous and therefore worrying. “What does ‘safeguard' mean exactly? That strikes me as a very broad blanket that you can throw over all manner of information,” Mr. Wark said.
“I can't believe that the Security of Information Act is Charter-proof in some of its dimensions.”
The constitutional case may be strengthened by an Ontario court ruling this week stressing that freedom of the press outweighs the needs of a criminal investigation, Mr. Wark added.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice quashed an RCMP search warrant issued against a National Post reporter, a move hailed as a victory for press liberties.
The Security of Information Act, passed in late 2001 following the terrorist attacks on the United States, is modelled on the former Official Secrets Act, one of the most roundly criticized pieces of legislation on federal books.
“It's essentially a new label for old wine, and in this case the old wine has not improved in taste,” Mr. Borovoy said.
“Legislation that is capable of fettering the flow of information to the public should be subject to much more severe restrictions than this is.”
The civil liberties association would consider participating in any challenge of the security law that might flow out of the Citizen case.
Liberal MP Derek Lee, who headed the Commons sub-committee on national security in the last session of Parliament, said Thursday he believes the panel should review the security law.
The RCMP relied on the security act in searching for the source of an alleged information leak stemming from a November story Ms. O'Neill wrote about Maher Arar, an Ottawa telecommunications engineer who became caught up in the global fight against terrorism.
Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who hails from Syria, was deported to the country of his birth by U.S. authorities after he was stopped at a New York airport on suspicion of links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Mr. Arar says he was tortured behind bars in Syria. He denies any involvement in terrorism.
Ms. O'Neill's Nov. 8 article cited “a security source” and a leaked document offering extensive details of what Mr. Arar allegedly told Syrian military intelligence officials during his incarceration.
The Mounties launched a criminal probe into leaks about Mr. Arar last fall.
