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February 2012

Federal Court loosens conditions on Mahjoub. Mahjoub is free to walk around Toronto by himself for the first time in twelve years. However, the court finds that the principle of innocent until proven guilty does not apply in security certificate cases and maintains many conditions.

December 2011

Canwest publishes 2008 letter from CSIS Director Jim Judd to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day saying that the current security certificate cases would probably fall apart with recourse to information likely obtained under torture.

October 2011

Mahjoub's lawyers launch a motion for a permanent stay of proceedings because of breach of solicitor client privilege.

July 2011

Justice Department officials enter Mahjoub's lawyers preparation room at the courthouse and remove boxes of confidential documents belonging to Mahjoub and his lawyers. In the Department of Justice they sort and review the documents and mix them up with their own.

23 July 2010

Federal Court finds that government is illegally using information obtained under torture in Mahjoub's file.

February 2010

Mohammad finally transferred from Guantanamo North to an apartment in Toronto.

23 July 2010

Federal Court finds that government is illegally using information obtained under torture in Mahjoub's file.

February 2010

Mohammad finally transferred from Guantanamo North to an apartment in Toronto.

1 December 2009

After Mr. Mahjoub reviewed the detention review decision with his lawyers, he confirmed that he would stop his hunger strike and begin the process of regaining his health in order to be well enough to be released.

30 November 2009

The Federal Court ordered that Mr. Mahjoub be transferred to house arrest, under a detailed and immensely complicated list of conditions. Mr. Mahjoub remains in Guantanamo North, and could remain there for weeks or months as the final details are worked out and surveillance apparatus prepared for his transfer.

9 November 2009

33 health professionals send letter to Minister Van Loan and other government officials expressing concern that Mahjoub is at risk of death.

Read the letter here.

1 June 2009

Mohammad Mahjoub began a hungerstrike to protest conditions in Guantanamo North prison, calling for an independent review process at the prison.

• Groundwire radio piece with Mona El-Fouli, Mohammad's wife, speaking about the hungerstrike
• Past Parliamentary Standing Committee reports on Guantanamo North, recommending the need for an independent review process:
  • Report 10 - Issues raised by the use of security certificates under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Adopted by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration on February 6, 2007. Can be found at
  • Report 12 - Detention Centres and Security Certificates, tabled on April 16, 2007. It is attached and the relevant recommendations are 9 to 25, starting on page 24 with:

    "The committee recommends ... That the Government of Canada mandate the Office of the Correctional Investigator, which has jurisdiction over all federal inmates but not the detainees held at the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, to assume jurisdiction over the KIHC, and investigate current and ongoing complaints of those detained at the KIHC."

18 March 2009

Mohammad Mahjoub re-entered Guantanamo North Prison. Mahjoub felt he had no choice but to re-enter prison after a condition review hearing made the his situation of house arrest even more insane and Kafka-esque than before.

Feeling that his family could no longer stand the pressure of 24-hour surveillance, scrutiny, visits, calls, strict restrictions on all their comings and goings and doings, he made the decision to return to the Kingston detention centre. A last minute emergency hearing in front of Federal Court Judge Simon Noel failed to find another solution and . It was a terribly sad and tear-filled day.

More information at Homes not Bombs

December 2008

In December 2008, CSIS revealed that it had been illegally wiretapping phonecalls between Mahjoub and his lawyer, in contravention of solicitor-client privilege. Jaballah and Mahjoub filed a joint motion arguing that the conditions of their house arrest were unreasonable; stating their tracking-bracelets, wiretapped phones and curfews were acceptable intrusions on their lives, while having their family photographed and physically followed at every opportunity and their mail seized were unreasonable. Judge Anne MacTavish ruled against this motion.

February 2007

In February 2007, Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, responded to a prolonged hungerstrike by the Guantanamo North detainees by saying that at the KIHC "there is a large kitchen where any detainees have their own washer and drier, microwave, refrigerator stocked with a variety of juices, soups, soy milk, chocolate sauce and honey".

Here is a response to this and other misrepresentations by Day. (French version here)

December 14, 2006

Decision to Deport Secret Trial Detainee Mohammad Mahjoub to Egypt Found to be "Flawed, Perverse, Patently Unreasonable" (PDF)

Chaire de recherche du Canada en droit international des migrations

Further background: Homes Not Bombs: Secret Trials