http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050201.wmahj0201/BNStory/National/Toronto — Deporting a terror suspect to Egypt where he would more than likely be tortured is patently unreasonable despite allegations that he poses a risk to national security, a Federal Court judge has ruled.
The ruling in the case of Mohammad Mahjoub leaves open the question of whether Canadian authorities can ever be justified in sending someone to a country in which they face horrendous physical abuse, the judge said.
However, she did say there are “powerful” indications that deportation to torture is “conduct fundamentally unacceptable;
conduct that shocks the Canadian conscience” and therefore violates fundamental principles of justice.“Within Canada, torture is seen to be so repugnant that it can never be an appropriate punishment,” she said.Mr. Mahjoub, 44, is a refugee from Egypt who arrived in Canada in 1995. He was snatched from the streets of Toronto by security agents armed with machine-guns as he went to work in June 2000 and has been held without charge or bail since. He remains in solitary confinement at a Toronto detention centre. He was ordered deported in July 2003