June 15, 2010
I’ve received a number of inquiries about the Arar Commission web site — which used to be consistently available on the Library and Archives Canada site by clicking on the old URL — www.ararcommission.ca. Now, click on that, and you get some strange financial services company…
I contacted Library and Archives about this, and they are looking into what’s happened to their archived links and the URL. In the meantime, they were able to find the archived site, and all the Inquiry’s reports, recommendations, transcripts and other documents on the Privy Council Office web site here.
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June 15, 2010
As today’s Globe and Mail editorial points out, the new Royal Canadian Mounted Police Review and Complaints Commission created by Act C-38 falls far short of what Arar Inquiry Commissioner Dennis O’Connor recommended back in December 2006.
Note to readers: I am looking into why the Arar Commission’s web site seems to be no longer available on the National Archives site. In the meantime, click here for a pdf of the Arar Commission’s report and recommendations on oversight.
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Tagged: Arar, Arar Inquiry, O'Connor, RCMP | No Comments »
June 14, 2010
If he were, we might be able to believe that he’s been holding back on issuing a formal apology to Maher Arar — as called for by the New York Times on the day Obama came to Canada — because the case was before the courts.
If he were, he’d read today’s decision by the US Supreme Court and immediately move to ensure his administration public takes responsibility for its role in sending Arar to be tortured, and invite him to the White House for a formal and public in-person apology.
And if he were, he’d use the occasion to announce the launch of a full-scale independent and public inquiry into all the other Arars — into the role the CIA and FBI and other US agencies have been, and still are playing, in the rendition, detention and torture of so many others since 9/11.
I, for one, won’t be holding my breath.
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Tagged: Arar, CCR, CIA, rendition, torture | No Comments »
June 14, 2010
Will the legislation being tabled today change anything when it comes to oversight of the RCMP’s national security work? Let’s hope so.
Back in 2002, then-RCMP public complaints commissioner Shirley Heafey spoke out to say that the RCMP was refusing to cooperate with her attempts to investigate the force’s post-9/11 national security investigations. In effect, she said, there was no civilian oversight of the RCMP’s national security work. Turns out that they had a lot to hide at the time — given their now well-documented role in the overseas detention and torture of Canadian citizens wrongfully labeled as security risks.
Heafey’s successor, Paul Kennedy, said much the same thing when testifying before the standing committee on public safety seven years later.
Let’s hope this legislation doesn’t ignore the Arar Inquiry’s recommendations made in December 2006, and supported by a recent public safety committee report, which itself won majority support in a House of Commons vote in December last year.
And lets hope this is just a first step, and that we see follow up on the Arar Commission’s call for an integrated review mechanism for all the agencies engaged in national security work.
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March 5, 2010
The Federal Budget says that “in response to concerns expressed by the public, provinces and territories, parliamentary committees and several major reports, including the Brown Task Force and the O’Connor Commission of Inquiry, the Government is taking action to enhance the independent review of RCMP actions.” $8 million is promised over two years to create “a new civilian independent review and complaints commission for the RCMP.”
If this is truly a response to public concern, parliamentary committees and the Arar Inquiry, why only the RCMP? Human rights and civil liberties organizations, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (see its report here), and all three opposition parties have all backed the model called for by the Arar Inquiry: The creation of an integrated system of review with the capacity to review the work of the multitude of agencies involved in national security investigations. Right now, the Canadian Border Services Agency, and Transport Canada have no effective review process. Existing review mechanisms cannot look beyond the agencies they are responsible for — the Security and Intelligence Review Committee, for example, cannot look beyond CSIS, and the RCMP Complaints Commission can’t look beyond the RCMP. The Arar Inquiry recognized that we need a body that can essentially do what it did — look in an integrated way at the many agencies involved in national security work.
The Arar Inquiry released its recommendations in December 2006 — more than three years ago. The government has since stalled on implementing that recommendation, saying it’s waiting for Justice John Major’s report from the Air India inquiry. This simply doesn’t make sense. Two commissions of inquiry into much more recent scandals — first the Arar Inquiry, then the Iacobucci Inquiry — have determined that Canadian agencies played a role in the detention and torture of Canadian citizens. More cases, such as that of Abousfian Abdelrazik, have emerged since. Now, more than nine years after the 9/11 attacks, we have less checks and balances in place, national security agencies have more powers, and anyone needing answers like these men did would have to call for another public inquiry.
Maher Arar, Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin had the courage to stand up to and demand answers from Canada’s intelligence agencies — perhaps Prime Minister Harper can look to their example, and find the courage to stand up to them too.
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March 5, 2010
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced in the House of Commons today that he has asked former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to decide whether documents relating to the Afghan detainee scandal can be released as ordered by Parliament. It will be interesting to see, given our experience at the Iacobucci Inquiry, what his terms of reference look like, and, importantly, how he interprets them. On October 17, 2009, before Justice Iacobucci released his inquiry report, Amnesty International and other human rights and civil liberties organizations with Intervenor status held a news conference to talk about how flawed that process had been, and released this backgrounder, The “Internal Inquiry” process: Fostering a culture of impunity [pdf].
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February 23, 2010
The Iacobucci Inquiry has revealed yet another way in which the actions of CSIS agents likely contributed to the torture of Canadian citizen Ahmad El Maati.
Inquiry Commissioner Justice Frank Iacobucci Inquiry had hoped to include today’s revelation in its public report released in October 2008, but was forced to fight government claims of national security confidentiality.
The newly released information says that in June 2002, CSIS agents sent a message to Egyptian authorities trying to confirm that El Maati was in detention there, and telling them, among other things not disclosed, that he was involved in a plan to commit a terrorist act in Canada.
Justice Iacobucci has already confirmed that that this allegation was not based on evidence, but on an alleged “confession” obtained earlier from Syrian authorities – a “confession” that Iacobucci says CSIS should have known was likely the product of torture.
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Tagged: Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Arar, Arar Inquiry, CSIS, El Maati, Iacobucci, Iacobucci Inquiry | No Comments »
February 8, 2010
Maher Arar has launched a new on-line magazine promoting critical analysis of national security issues. The goal of the magazine, called Prism, is to address issues outside the focus of mainstream media. Arar has invited several people to contribute including human rights advocates, lawyers and former journalists. Check it out here.
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February 3, 2010
Maher Arar wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his case, saying he has “renewed hope” that lower court rulings will eventually be overturned. Those, he says, “essentially gave the government the green light to continue the abuse of its executive powers in matters related to National Security.” For more, see this news release issued Monday by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
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December 9, 2009
Here’s the news release from today’s event in Ottawa. You can check out video of the installation on Canada AM’s web site here.
Ottawa — Three Canadian torture survivors were at a news conference in Ottawa today to unveil an art installation depicting some of the suffering they endured in a Syrian military intelligence detention centre.
Created by Ottawa artist Jenn Farr and builder Erik Windfeld, “El Abbar” (the grave) is a life-size replica of one of the underground, tiny, dark cells at the now infamous Far’ Falastin (Palestine Branch) Syrian detention centre. Ahmad El Maati was locked into one of these cells for two and a half months before being sent to Egypt. Abdullah Almalki survived one year, three months and twenty-five days in the tiny space. Beside him, Maher Arar was locked up for ten months and ten days. Muayyed Nureddin was locked into an over-crowded “common” cell down the hall.
El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin said they hope the installation will help Canadians, and the government, better understand the horrors of torture.
“I think it is very difficult for anyone to truly comprehend the conditions I was kept in – the loss of control over every aspect of my life, the filth, the smell, the constant sounds of people being tortured, the constant fear that I would be next and the feeling of being buried alive,” said Almalki. “I hope this will at least get people thinking, and better understanding, the horrors of torture.”
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Tagged: Almalki, CSIS, El Maati, Iacobucci, Maher Arar, Nureddn, RCMP | No Comments »
