The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 8

A8 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN BREAKING NEWS AT OTTAWACITIZEN.COM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2008 CANADA Defence show cancelled over protests Harkat: Two special advocates win argument Vigil participants say PCO edict scuttled event, not threat of civil disobedience BY DAVID PUGLIESE WAYNE CUDDINGTON, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN sued government decree. "This cancellation relates to the federal election currently under way and restrictions placed on senior government officials participating in public conferences," a press release said. Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk was to have delivered the keynote address at the AFCEA Canada event, and other officers were making presentations as welL But the Privy Council Office recently launched an unprecedented clampdown on government business during the federal election, slowing the workings of the bureaucracy to a crawl in some areas. Meetings between bureaucrats and everyone from consumer advocacy groups to industry representatives have been cancelled out of concern such gatherings may taint the outcome of the federal election.

The PCO edict has also put a temporary halt to some Canadian Forces equipment projects and has required military officers and public servants to withdraw from long-planned defence conferences. Secure Canada 2008 was to have combined three industry events into one: Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Canada's conference, a conference for unmanned aerial vehicles and the Secure Canada trade exhibit. Mr. Tachuk said while the con ferences were running into problems because military officers were no longer available to speak, the trade show portion could have proceeded if not for the excessive security costs. Mr.

Tachuk said the trade show had been run at the Congress Centre and Ottawa hotels previously and there were no protests. He said the show does not exhibit weapon systems, but is concentrated more on equipment for domestic security and disaster response. But Mr. Sanders questioned that, noting that one exhibitor sells equipment, including silencers and other gear, for special forces teams. He said it appears the PCO clampdown is to blame for the cancellation of Secure Canada 2008, but that the defence industry is intent on blaming protesters.

He noted that the groups have held peaceful protests previously and applied for and received a permit from the City of Ottawa to hold their event outside Lansdowne Park. Mr. Sanders acknowledged that opposition to the Secure Canada show was late in getting starting and, as a result, the numbers of those involved were not that great. "We didn't feel we had the resources or enough people to organize a rally," he said, adding that was the reason the focus was on a candlelight vigil. Continued from PAGEA1 He had been scheduled to appear in court later this year for the hearing, which was to determine whether the federal government made a reasonable decision in declaring him a threat to national security.

If Mr. Harkat's security certificate is upheld as reasonable, a deportation order will be issued against him, which could return him to his native Algeria, where he says he will be tortured. The secret hearing before Judge Noel, during which the government laid out its case against Mr. Harkat, included testimony from four witnesses. Mr.

Harkat was represented in those hearings by the two special advocates, Mr. Copeland and Mr. Cavalluzzo, who could test the government's evidence. The special advocates also argued that certain material should be disclosed to Mr. Harkat as it does not compromise national security.

The role of special advocate was created by legislation passed earlier this year in response to a Supreme Court ruling that found the old security certificate process to be unconstitutional. The high court said the former process was fundamental- back and forth across Bank Street to slow traffic. But Rick Tachuk of Secure Canada 2008 said Ottawa police warned exhibit organizers there could be incidents of civil disobedience outside the trade show. "We had been notified by the Ottawa police that they had picked up intelligence on a potential security threat on the event and (they) brought this to our attention," he explained. "This came as a total shock to us." Mr.

Tachuk said the cost of providing security around Lansdowne Park would have been prohibitive. He declined to discuss the cost of security, but did add that event organizers were responsible for paying it. "We had a security budget, but this far, far surpassed any reasonable expectation of what would be required," he added. A defence industry official said the price tag was more than $80,000. But officials with Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Canada, hosts of one of three events taking place under the Secure Canada umbrella, blamed the cancellation of the association's event on a recently is The threat of civil disobedience by protesters at a defence trade show scheduled for next week in Ottawa was the reason for the event being shut down, according to one of its organizers.

But others who planned to take part in the two-day event at Lansdowne Park blame a Privy Council Office edict that prevented senior military officers and Defence Department officials from taking part in various aspects of Secure Canada 2008 because of the federal election. And one of the co-ordinators of a disarmament group opposed to Secure Canada 2008 says the trade show's officials are using the peace protesters as scapegoats. "I think they're totally exaggerating any kind of threat that we posed," said Richard Sanders of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade. "Our main thing was a candlelight peace vigil. That doesn't seem too threatening." Mr.

Sanders said seniors' activist group the Raging Grannies was also planning to set up a peace garden outside Lansdowne Park as well as walk Mohamed Harkat was working as a pizza delivery man when taken into custody on a security certificate in 2002. He now lives in Ottawa under very strict bail conditions. ly unjust because it denied accused terrorists the right to meet the case against them. CSIS alleges that Mr. Harkat travelled to Afghanistan in the early 1990s, operated a guest house for jihadists and posed a threat in Canada as an al-Qaeda operative.

Mr. Harkat was working as a pizza delivery man when he was taken into custody on the strength of the government-issued security certificate on Dec. 10, 2002. He denies any connection to terrorism and is now living under strict bail conditions in Always by your side A KILLER OFFER FROM FIDO vri7 iiSljk Radwanskiaide used the rules to best advantage, priest testifies BY CASSANDRA DRUDI Arthur Lamarche, who served as chief of staff to former privacy commissioner George Radwanski, is a community man who gets things done, his former priest testified yesterday. "He's a man who finds ways to use rules so they're for the best advantage," Msgr.

Peter Schonenbach said. "Art is a man who doesn't throw up his hands and say, 'It can't be done'." Mr. Lamarche arid Mr. Radwanski are on trial on charges of fraud and breach of trust. The charges carry maximum penalties of 14 and five years, The charges relate to a $15,000 travel advance Mr.

Radwanski received from the government that he used to pay back a maxed-out government credit card and the hospitality claims he made while in the appointed office of privacy commissioner. He resigned from the position on June 23, 2003. Msgr. Schonenbach, of Paroisse St-Joseph d'Orleans, testified that Mr. Lamarche had been one of a small group of people who was instrumental in helping him establish a church in Kanata in the 1980s.

"It took four years and we had a church," he said. "That was a bit of a record in the diocese." After building the church, it was soon discovered that there was a "hefty tax" on the property, Msgr. Schonenbach said. Mr. Lamarche found that there was an exemption to this property tax for places of wprship, and suggested the whole property could be claimed as a place of worship by holding an open-air service once a year.

This "saved a bundle of taxes," Msgr. Schonenbach said. Mr. Lamarche lent Mr. Radwanski $15,000, which the former privacy commissioner used to pay back a government travel advance of the same amount at the end of the fiscal year in 2002, so it wouldn't appear on the public accounts, court has heard.

Mr. Radwanski then acquired a second $15,000 travel advance that he used to pay back the loan. Norman Boxall, the lawyer for Mr. Lamarche, began and ended his defence case yesterday with Msgr. Schonenbach as his only witness.

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