OTTAWA — Canada’s spy agency obtained a warrant to monitor accused extremist recruiter Awso Peshdary based on misleading information, says a lawyer for the Ottawa man.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service warrant should be tossed out because the application for surveillance painted a false picture of both Peshdary and a spy service source, lawyer Fady Mansour told a Federal Court judge Friday.
It was the latest move in an ongoing effort by Mansour and co-counsel Solomon Friedman to pick apart the case against Peshdary, arrested on terrorism charges three years ago.
Federal lawyer Andre Seguin told Justice James O’Reilly the arguments fall far short of the legal threshold for overturning a warrant authorization.
The warrant’s validity is crucial because Peshdary’s lawyers argue that information gathered through the CSIS surveillance was key to helping the RCMP obtain its own wiretap authorization.
Peshdary, 28, was arrested in Ottawa in February 2015. He has pleaded not guilty to charges including participation in the activities of a terrorist group.
His criminal trial began in June in Ontario Superior Court and it is slated to resume Sept. 17, but the outcome of the Federal Court proceeding will help determine how the trial unfolds.
O’Reilly is expected to rule on the CSIS warrant within weeks. If he quashes it, that would open the door for Peshdary’s lawyers to take the next step of challenging the legitimacy of the subsequent RCMP surveillance.
Mansour took issue Friday with the CSIS affidavit underpinning the warrant application, saying it omitted relevant facts that undermine the credibility of spy service source Abdullah Milton and others that cast Peshdary in a good light.
The affidavit said Milton’s primary reasons for helping CSIS were loyalty to Canada and condemnation of Islamist extremism. Yet other CSIS records indicated Milton was motivated by money, had significant debt and wanted to claim bankruptcy.
Further, Milton had a chaotic, unstable childhood, had been married seven times and was wrestling with depression and suicidal feelings.
Seguin played down the concerns. “I dare say there’s not a human source who has no problems whatsoever.”
Mansour said the affidavit also overlooked comments that Peshdary was said to have made — cited in other CSIS materials — denouncing terrorist attacks on Canadian soil. In addition, the spy service was aware Peshdary had once told Milton that “CSIS are good guys” and that he should not be afraid to talk to them.
The issues do not amount to “material misrepresentations” and, in the end, the “full, fair picture” was before the judge who authorized the CSIS surveillance, Seguin said.
“They could not have affected the issuance of a warrant.”