Canada's Supreme Court on Friday upheld an anti-terrorism law enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, ruling unanimously that those who choose to engage in terrorism must "pay a very heavy price." The law's constitutionality was challenged by Mohammad Momin Khawaja, convicted in Canada of terrorism for involvement with a British group that had plotted unsuccessfully to set off bombs in London.

It was also challenged by two men accused of terrorism by the United States for trying to buy missiles or weapons technology for the Sri Lankan Tamil Tigers. The court rejected arguments that the law's definition of terrorism was overly broad. It also upheld Khawaja's life sentence and confirmed the orders to extradite the other two to the United States. Khawaja, the first to be convicted under the new anti-terrorism law, was sentenced in 2008 to 10-1/2 years in prison, and his sentence was then extended to life on appeal by the government. The court disagreed that the federal law's terrorism provisions had put a chilling effect on Canadians' freedom of expression and was disproportionately broad.

Copyright Reuters, 2012