Three prominent Canadian lawyers representing clients held in custody in relation to the U.S.-led “War on Terror” came together Friday evening for a keynote panel on “Civil Liberties and the War on Terror.” Former Counterspin host Avi Lewis chaired the low-key yet well-attended discussion at the Bloor Street United Church.

With lawyers Barbara Jackman, Paul Copeland, and Marlys Edwardh informally explaining their current cases with a single microphone, Lewis called it “the panel I never had on Counterspin, with no vicious right-wingers to contend with.”

The trio of lawyers spoke of a “true harmonization” between the policies of Canada, the U.S., and other English-speaking nations, and how this harmonization of policies is apparent in the systematic rounding-up of terrorism suspects. Secret information gathered on potential terrorist suspects is often eagerly given by Canada to other countries for their use, the panel concurred, without controls and without being examined in court. This unchecked flow of information is eroding civil rights, they said.

Jackman focused on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and how it operates when apprehending terrorism suspects.

“The accused may be detained without habeas corpus,” or a public hearing, said Jackman, and a secret trial may be used instead, with no independent council and incomplete evidence.

Jackman is currently defending Hassan Ahmrei, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Mahmoud Jaballah.

“The real changing of the rules is hidden within these cases,” Jackman said, adding that investigations by a UN council into CSIS practices are under way.

Copeland and Edwardh both spoke about the damage to the civil liberties of their clients. Copeland stressed the importance of community support that his client, Mohamed Harkat, has received since being put in solitary confinement in 2001. These community contacts, she said, are very important because Harkat’s family doesn’t live in Canada.

Edwardh related the story of her client Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, who was arrested in New York in September of 2002 while returning from a vacation with his family, and deported to Syria.

Arar was “declared a member of al-Qaeda,” Edwardh said, so his case fell under the umbrella of the National Security Organization. Arar was tortured and imprisoned in Syria for several months.

“The information used to interrogate him in New York was the same information used in Syria,” Edwardh said. That information, she said, originated with Canadian intelligence, yet the details have not even made clear to the defendants.

“The use of coercion will inevitably get information,” said Edwardh, “but the reliability of [it] is in question.” Edwardh said that the U.S. will send these prisoners to their countries of origin because “if they kept them in US prisons, they just stay around and can’t as easily be gotten rid of.”

Avi Lewis tried to end the session on a hopeful note, asking “What can we do?”

The panelists agreed that things looked bleak because it is difficult for them to effect chane in the justice system when the system is operating in secret. Public support for civil liberties, they said, would help put pressure on intelligence organizations to make their procedures more transparent.