Canadian security officials convicted a man on his profile alone without detailed evidence

Evidence

At a hearing on 27 November 2003 to determine the validity of the security certificate that declared Hassan Almrei inadmissible to Canada on the grounds that he will engage in acts of terrorism, an agent from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) confidently clarified for Almrei’s counsel the heart of the Service’s case against his client: … What I am saying today is that your client has a profile which makes him of use to Al Qaeda and his connections to the organization through various individuals is what leads us to conclude that he is a threat to the security of Canada. I am afraid that I can’t get into any more detail than that. … We are not hanging our case on this notion that he was among the cream-of-the-crop recruits in the early 1980s. I never said that. (Emphasis added) Not the cream of the crop of recruits, and possibly not even recruited by Al Qaeda, Almrei has the profile of someone of possible use to Al Qaeda, and that seals his fate. — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 69

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in civil liberties or national security law — the CSIS agent’s ‘I can’t get into any more detail’ is a stunning admission that the case rests on a profile, not evidence.
• SEED: Essay angle: the literal words of the security agent — ‘your client has a profile’ — as the purest documented example of guilt-by-demographic in Western counterterrorism court records.