OTTAWA — The House of Commons justice committee is poised to overhaul Canada’s extradition system — a move welcomed by critics who have long called for reforms to the process of sending people abroad for incarceration and prosecution.
Although the dates of the hearings have not yet been set, the committee plans to hear witnesses in at least three sessions that could begin before the end of the year.
“There have been a lot of academics and human rights organizations that have made very specific proposals about what needs to happen,” said New Democrat Rep. Randall Garrison, a member of the committee that proposed the study.
“And so my idea was that we should put them in front of the justice committee and let them make those proposals and hopefully we could get the government excited to move forward with that.”
Legal and human rights experts say Canada’s extradition procedures need a thorough overhaul to ensure fairness, transparency and a balance between the desire for administrative efficiency and essential constitutional protections.
In a report released last year, voices calling for change highlighted several problems with how proceedings are conducted under the 1999 Extradition Act, criticizing the system as inherently unfair.
In the Canadian system, courts decide whether there is sufficient evidence, or other applicable grounds, to justify committing a person for extradition.
When someone is committed to extradition, the Minister of Justice must personally decide whether to order the extradition of the individual to the foreign state.
Critics say the compromise process jeopardizes a person sought for extradition’s ability to meaningfully challenge a foreign case, reducing Canadian judges’ ability to rubber-stamp and not use reliable material.
In addition, they argue that the surrender decision taken by the Minister of Justice is a very discretionary and explicitly political process, and that it unfairly weighs on extradition.
Advocates for reform point to the case of Ottawa sociology professor Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen who was extradited to France and imprisoned for more than three years before being released before trial.
Despite all this, Diab, who has returned to Canada, will be tried in France next April for the bombing of a Paris synagogue in 1980.
Diab denies any involvement, and his supporters have long argued that there is ample evidence to prove his innocence. Let the Trudeau government flatly reject any new extradition requests from France.
Diab is not “the only victim of this broken process,” said Tim McSorley, national coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group in Ottawa.
“Multiple studies have already shown that there are deep problems in Canada’s extradition system, and several experts have already proposed clear solutions,” he said. “We hope the committee will take this opportunity to develop concrete legislative solutions that will help the government move quickly to introduce amendments to the Extradition Act.”
Liberal MP Randeep Sarai, chair of the justice committee, said MPs want to ensure Canada’s extradition regime protects the rights and civil liberties of citizens and permanent residents.
Sarai said that while he will not prejudge the outcome of the review, even when laws have been constitutional, “they should be tweaked from time to time.”
In a changing global climate, extradition is increasingly being used as a political tool, Garrison said. “And so we need better safeguards.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 14, 2022.
