CAT/C/CAN/CO/7 incorporation of this principle at the federal level could provide significant avenues of redress for victims pursuing lawsuits against foreign Governments for torture (art. 14). 41. The Committee once again calls upon the State party to consider amending the State Immunity Act in order to ensure that all victims of torture or ill-treatment are able to access remedy and obtain redress, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. A supplementary possibility would be for the State party to consider recognizing the principle of forum of necessity at the federal level. As indicated in its general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of article 14 (para. 22), the Committee has commended the efforts of States parties for providing civil remedies for victims who were subjected to torture or ill-treatment outside their territory. This is particularly important when a victim is unable to exercise the rights guaranteed under article 14 in the territory where the violation took place. Coerced confessions and intelligence information obtained by torture 42. The Committee takes note of the guarantees set forth in subsection 269.1 (4) of the Criminal Code, which bars the admission in evidence of any statement obtained by torture for any purpose, except as evidence that the statement was in fact obtained by torture. Nevertheless, and bearing in mind its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/CAN/CO/6, para. 17), the Committee notes with concern that three ministerial directions published in 2017 to various Canadian security services indicate that information potentially obtained through mistreatment may not be used to deprive someone of their rights or freedoms save for cases where the competent authority has authorized such use because it is necessary to prevent loss of life or significant personal injury. As for the measures introduced by the State party to enhance accountability and transparency in areas of national security and intelligence, the Committee notes that the new National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, created in 2017 with special access to highly classified information, reports to the Prime Minister and its reports are vetted by the Government before they are released (arts. 2 ,15 and 16). 43. The State party should take effective steps to ensure in practice that confessions obtained through torture or ill-treatment are ruled inadmissible. It should also repeal, revoke or amend any directive, order or regulation allowing for the use of information by law enforcement agencies that is known or believed to have been obtained through torture and/or ill-treatment by a third country. The State party should ensure that the principle of absolute prohibition of torture is strictly applied in accordance with article 2 (2) of the Convention, which stipulates that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture. In that connection, the Committee draws the State party’s attention to paragraph 5 of its general comment No. 2 (2007) on the implementation of article 2, in which it states, inter alia, that exceptional circumstances that cannot be invoked as a justification of torture also include any threat of terrorist acts or violent crime. The State party should also ensure that its counter-terrorism legislation provides for an independent mechanism to review counter-terrorism activities undertaken by the executive. Counter-terrorism 44. While taking note of the contents of Bill C-59, which was introduced to address the human rights shortcomings in the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, the Committee is concerned that under the proposed amendments, the Government would still be able to bar special advocates – court-appointed lawyers with security clearance – from reviewing classified evidence on the grounds of national security. 45. The State party should take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that all counter-terrorism legislation, policies and practices are in full compliance with the Convention and that adequate and effective legal safeguards are in place. 10