A judge can rule on national security risk while openly acknowledging unlawful detention.

Evidence

Madame Justice Layden-Stevenson acknowledges in her decision that Hassan Almrei has been held under conditions that are ‘unacceptable and fall far short of what one would accept for Canada.’ Since he was held in solitary confinement ‘for his own good’ for the past four years, it is reasonable to assume that his detention will continue as Canadian courts wrestle with the idea that deportation to face torture is still something that a Canadian court and ‘the Canadian conscience’ would find unacceptable and contrary to section 1 of the Charter. Notwithstanding this situation, the judge is called upon to assess Almrei as a danger to national security, and it is this issue on which she rules, his jail conditions notwithstanding. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 119