It started as a short film, a final assignment for York University film school student Amar Wala.

A professor suggested the subject: the experience of Ahmed Jaballah who, as a 12-year-old boy, acted as an interpreter and then saw his father, Mahmoud, taken away by agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency (CSIS).

The Secret Trial 5 became a five-year project about five Muslim men suspected of terrorist links and the ordeal they and their families have endured for more than a decade as a result of the federal government’s security certificate program.

That includes both prison and house arrest without ever being charged with a crime and never getting to see or challenge the evidence that has been used to brand them as security risks.

“As Canadians . . . this felt like something that was happening south of the border. When I heard it was happening here, it kind of blew my mind. I almost didn’t believe it,” Wala said.

“Our hope is to get people a little bit angry at what’s being done, so that the word about security certificates spreads through the Canadian populace. This is something that we don’t know happens in our own country,” Wala said.

In the end, two of the five, Hassan Almrei — who spent seven years in prison, five of it in solitary confinement — and Adil Charkaoui have been successful in having their certificates rescinded after an arduous legal process.

“I was not a very overly political person as a young person. This kind of just grabbed a hold of me because of the human story. I’m not a Muslim, so I never related to these people on a cultural level. It was just more of a very basic principle,” said Wala, who arrived in Canada from India with his family at the age of 11.

Wala also acknowledged in the post-Sept. 11 age, Canadians do have to accept the reality of terrorism. But he said the federal government’s approach — under two different political regimes — is unsatisfactory at every level.

“If a person has committed a crime, people can process that. There’s a way to gain closure. But in this process, you never gain closure because you never know whether the person is innocent or guilty. There’s no end to the process, it just keeps going,” he said.

Despite getting a front-row seat to the inner workings of the federal government’s anti-terrorism apparatus, Wala said he hasn’t emerged with a heightened sense of paranoia.

“If the government is looking into me, they’re going to see a lot of sports and fantasy football stats on my computer. I don’t think they’re worried about me. At the end of the day, we’re filmmakers,” said Wala, who credits producers Madeleine Cohen and Noah Bingham with helping him navigate the filmmaking process.

“I haven’t faced any scrutiny and I don’t feel I’m on any list,” he added.