In a striking admission, the minister’s delegate concluded that the reports “presented a credible basis for calling into question the extent to which the Egyptian government would honor its assurances.”157 Those reports included information from Human Rights Watch and others regarding the December 2001 expulsion from Sweden of Ahmed Agiza, an Egyptian asylum seeker, who was subsequently held incommunicado, tortured and subjected to an unfair retrial upon return to Egypt. The Egyptian authorities had given the Swedish government assurances that Agiza would not be tortured and would be afforded a fair trial. The delegate in the Mahjoub case alleged that Mahjoub and Agiza were associates. Agiza was also tried in absentia in Egypt in April 1999 (see section below on Sweden). Despite the government’s admission of Mahjoub’s risk of torture, the delegate determined that Mahjoub should not be allowed to remain in Canada because he posed an “extraordinary danger” to Canada’s security and thus fell within the provisions of the refoulement exception to Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.158 In quashing the delegate’s determination and sending the case back for redetermination with a view to establishing a proper evidentiary record, the judge in Mahjoub expressed skepticism about the Suresh “exception:” The Supreme Court of Canada has left the issue open by not excluding the possibility that, in exceptional circumstances, such deportation may be justified, either as a consequence of the balancing process required by section 7 of the Charter or under section 1 of the Charter. There are, however, powerful indicia that deportation to face torture is conduct fundamentally unacceptable; conduct that shocks the Canadian conscience and therefore violates fundamental justice in a manner that can not be justified under…the Charter.159 157 Ibid., para. 33. 158 Section 115. [Principle of Non-Refoulement] (1) A protected person or a person who is recognized as a Convention refugee by another country to which the person may be returned shall not be removed from Canada to a country where they would be at risk of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion or at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment. Exceptions [to the Principle of Non-Refoulement] (2) Subsection (1) does not apply in the case of a person (a) who is inadmissible on grounds of serious criminality and who constitutes, in the opinion of the Minister, a danger to the public in Canada; or (b) who is inadmissible on grounds of security, violating human or international rights or organized criminality if, in the opinion of the Minister, the person should not be allowed to remain in Canada on the basis of the nature and severity of acts committed or of danger to the security of Canada. [online] http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/I-2.5/ (retrieved February 26, 2005). 159 Mahjoub, para. 64. HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17 NO. 4(D) 54