High court reprimands Canadian Security Intelligence Service over policy of destroying evidence

However, the court in Ottawa unanimously decided Thursday that it will not halt the proceedings to have Adil Charkaoui deported to his native Morocco.

Charkaoui, a landed immigrant who came to Canada 13 years ago, was arrested in 2003 and imprisoned until 2005 under a controversial security certificate, used to hold foreign-born terrorism suspects without charge based on secret evidence.

"This is not a half victory, it's a full victory, even though I wasn't able to have the proceedings stopped," Charkaoui, 34, told reporters in Montreal after the decision was handed down.

"In 20 years, this is the first time CSIS is told to be careful of what it's done… For the first time, those people are told they cannot do this sort of thing. They cannot destroy evidence and put information in files that are nothing but summaries, with no context."

In preparing its case against Charkaoui, CSIS provided summaries of its agents' interviews with Charkaoui to a federal judge, but destroyed the original notes and taped conversations, in keeping with an internal CSIS policy designed to protect sensitive security information.

"The destruction of operational notes is a breach of CSIS duty to retain and disclose information," the Supreme Court wrote in a summary of its decision.