Waintraub, Michelle2014-05-162014-05-1620142014-05-16http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31132The following essay engages in a discussion about the circumstances under which intelligence can better meet the standards of procedural fairness and be publicly disclosed in the same manner as evidence. Canada’s security certificate program is currently struggling with this very subject. The program does not utilize criminal courts, and thus is not held to the same evidentiary standards. Instead, the certificate program uses judicial tribunals, which largely implements the use of “secret evidence” and is premised on rules of nondisclosure. The defence is only privy to the public summary of the security intelligence report (PSIR) prepared by CSIS agents; these reports only include declassified intelligence in an effort to protect the current practices and methods of the intelligence community and to not compromise national security. The essay conducts a study of counter-terrorism practices, the security certificate program, and the role of intelligence in judicial tribunals from a pragmatic perspective. Security certificates and the role of intelligence are subject to a balancing act between national security considerations and the protection of civil liberties. The national security apparatus and intelligence community often justify the trade-offs of safeguarding national security at the cost of rights without necessarily considering its disregard for fundamental justice and procedural fairness in judicial tribunals. Both the security certificates of Adil Charkaoui and Mohamed Harkat are explored to provide an empirical analysis. The two case studies provide context for the ways in which intelligence can attain higher levels of procedural fairness and increase public disclosure: if CSIS can adjust some of its practices, and if the nature of intelligence and secrecy change. Indeed there are notable policy considerations that set limitations on enhanced transparency and accountability in the security certificate program. However, increasing public disclosure of intelligence to attain higher evidentiary standards is one method to redeem, albeit minimally, the tool of national security.en