Public Safety Committee to release report on Arar/Iacobucci Inquiries today
The Canadian Press is reporting that the Public Safety Committee will table a report today that calls on the government to beef up review of national security agencies, apologize to Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah and Muayyed Nureddin for Canada’s role in their torture, and move swiftly to compensate them so they can rebuild their lives.
The report would wrap up a study that saw several days of testimony on unfinished business stemming from the findings of the Iacobucci Inquiry, and the recommendations of the Arar Inquiry. I testified before the committee, along with several representatives of human rights, civil liberties and human rights organizations. Together we called on the committee to call on the government to:
Recognize that there were two parts to the Arar Inquiry and that recommendations stemming from Part One — the Factual Inquiry — cannot be fully and effectively implemented without implementation of the review mechanism recommended in Part Two – the Policy Review. The Policy Review called for a robust, independent review agency that could examine the work of all agencies involved in national security investigations – much like the Arar and Iacobucci Inquiries were able to do. Nothing less than the full integrated model proposed by Justice O’Connor will suffice.
Ensure that all of the recommendations from the Factual Inquiry report are fully implemented in all of the agencies that conduct national security work, and that they sufficiently address the deficiencies noted in the findings of both the Arar and Iacobucci Inquiries. Agencies must be called upon to provide regular public reporting about the progress of implementation.
Note that there have been no ministerial directives issued since the release of the Arar Inquiries report, as per Recommendation 10. It is clear from conflicting testimony on the use of information that might be the product of torture that a ministerial directive is needed on this issue immediately.
Note that several other recommendations in the Inquiry report require implementation of the review mechanism in order to be fully and effectively implemented. Recommendation 10, for example, calls for the RCMP’s information sharing practices to be reviewed by the review mechanism called for in Justice O’Connor’s Policy Review report. This has not been implemented. As the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has noted in testimony before the committee, the RCMP’s national security work remains entirely without oversight or review.
Note the need to issue a Ministerial Directive ensuring that CSIS, in accordance with Justice O’Connor’s recommendations in the Arar Inquiry’s report, and with concerns expressed by Justice Iacobucci in his report, enact a policy on labeling, and the use of proper qualifiers, in information shared with other domestic, and foreign agencies. See here for more information.
Note that there needs to be a public accounting about how or whether Justice O’Connor’s 22nd recommendation — that the RCMP correct the inaccurate information shared with US agencies about Maher Arar, and apply caveats where they should have been applied earlier — has been implemented.
Note that recommendations 3(e) and 20 call on the RCMP and CSIS to consult and work towards a better dialogue with Arab and Muslim communities about social context training and other initiatives that will ensure fairness to individuals and communities during national security investigations. This, say Canada’s largest Muslim and Arab organizations, has not been sufficiently pursued.
Note that the ongoing case of Abousfian Abdelrazik demonstrates that several of the recommendations in Justice O’Connor’s report are not being heeded by the federal government.
Provide a public accounting of the foreign agencies and governments to which Canadian agencies supplied inaccurate and improperly qualified information and allegations about El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin, and ensure in a publicly accountable way that all of the foreign agencies that were provided this inaccurate and/or improperly qualified information, allegations or labels are informed of the inaccuracies;
Register formal public protests against the governments of Syria and Egypt for brutally torturing these Canadians, and to the United States government for any role its agencies played in what happened to these Canadian men.
Amend Bill C-35, An Act to deter terrorism and to amend the State Immunity Act, to include an amendment to the State Immunity Act allowing lawsuits in Canadian courts against foreign governments by individuals claiming compensation for damages resulting from torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions or genocide. As it stands now, El Maati, Almalki, Arar and Nureddin are barred from suing Syria and Egypt.
Issue a formal, public apology for the ways that Justice Iacobucci has found that the actions of Canadian officials contributed to the detention and torture of El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin, and move swiftly into mediating compensation for them so they can rebuild their shattered lives.
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