[asia-apec 1128] APEC -- Challenging Government Secrets

[Jaggi Singh]

(Vancouver, Canada)

  PRESS RELEASE

 APEC PROTESTORS CHALLENGE
 CONSTITUTIONALITY OF GOVERNMENT SECRECY LAW

Craig Jones, Jonathan Oppenheim and Jaggi Singh, amongst other APEC
protestors, have launched a landmark challenge to the constitutionality of
the federal law that gives the federal government absolute immunity from
having cabinet documents disclosed in a court of law and which allows only
the government and not the students to appear in court and make
submissions during the final stages of the hearing.

The federal government has sought to prevent the disclosure of
approximately 170 documents that they have admitted to be relevant to the
APEC Inquiry on the grounds that they would disclose various government
secrets.  The students who are complainants at the APEC Inquiry obviously
do not know what is in the documents, but believe that any public interest
in maintaining cabinet and other governmental secrets is outweighed by the
public interest in ensuring that the government acted in a manner which
was legal and constitutional during the APEC Conference.

The challenge is being brought by Joseph Arvay, one of the lawyers for the
APEC protestors and in a brief which he has filed in the Federal Court, he
indicates that the sections of the federal law that are being challenged
"are contrary to the law and practice in every Province of Canada, and, as
far as we are aware, of every free and democratic country in the common
law world..."


"This is an immensely important case which transcends the APEC Inquiry
itself and will have implications for all cases in which the government is
attempting to prevent the disclosure of government documents" says Craig
Jones.

He adds: " It is simply wrong for the government to attempt to hide behind
the anachronistic veil of "Crown Privilege" to prevent PCC Commissioner
Mr. Ted Hughes from doing his job which is to get to the bottom of what
happened at APEC and most importantly why and on whose instructions."

The brief filed with the Federal Court reveals that the attack on the
federal law turns on various provisions of the Constitution such as the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms but also on what have been described as the
unwritten but fundamental constitutional principles such as the Rule of
Law, the Separation of Powers and the Independence of the Judiciary. The
Brief reads in part:

    "...the supremacy of the Constitution, and of the written and
unwritten principles recognized therein means that Parliament cannot enact
laws that prevent the Court from inspecting and ordering disclosure of
evidence which is relevant in determining whether the Executive has
contravened the law of the land."


The constitutional challenge is going to be heard by Mr. Justice McKeown
of the Federal Court of Canada on Monday, May 17th and is scheduled to
take four days.


For further information contact: 
Joseph Arvay (250) 388-6868 
Craig Jones (604) 641-4869 
Jonathon Oppenheim (604) 224 2482 
Jaggi Singh (514) 526-8946 
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