Kerry Pither

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.

Justice Iacobucci criticizes CSIS for failing to take into account the potential consequences of sharing this allegation with the Egyptian authorities for El Maati.

He says once they confirmed El Maati was indeed in Egyptian detention, CSIS continued to communicate with the Egyptians, and sought permission from then CSIS deputy director of operations, Jack Hooper, to travel to Egypt later that year.

Hooper approved the trip, and apparently told the Inquiry that while he did consider the possibility El Maati might be mistreated as a result of the trip, he didn’t think that was likely, and, besides, it was more important to find determine if there really was a threat to Canada.

A list of questions was prepared, “to which it [CSIS] wished to obtain answers,” and the trip went ahead in December 2002.

Justice Iacobucci concludes that the information shared in June 2002, the list of questions, and the trip all likely contributed to El Maati’s mistreatment.

And Justice Iacobucci has already documented how El Maati was subsequently tortured in Egypt – with electric shock to his hands, back and genitals, and sleep deprivation while being subjected to excruciatingly painful stress torture for days on end.

Justice Iacobucci takes CSIS to task for failing to include enquiries about how El Maati was being treated.

But then again, as he confirmed in his report, CSIS had already been informed as early as July 2002 that El Maati had been tortured in Egyptian detention.

What Justice Iacobucci doesn’t tell us is what CSIS did with the questions.

Did the agents hand them over to El Maati’s interrogators? Did the agents witness or participate in any of El Maati’s interrogations? Did they get answers back?

Were there any subsequent trips to Egypt?

Today’s revelations have renewed calls by human rights advocates, and the men whose cases were examined by the Iacobucci Inquiry, for decisive action to ensure that Canada is never again complicit in torture.

“This revelation is particularly disturbing given the expanding powers being awarded to CSIS to act overseas, and the government’s continued refusal to beef up oversight and review not just of CSIS but all agencies involved in national security investigations,” said Warren Allmand, former solicitor general and a spokesperson for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

“It has been more than three years since Justice Dennis O’Connor wrapped up the Arar Inquiry and recommended a new comprehensive model of review and oversight and it is long past time to implement that important proposal,” he added. “It is too late for Mr. El Maati, but it’s not too late for others.”

“At a time when Canadian officials should have been doing everything they could to extricate Mr. El Maati from the terrifying human rights violations, today we learn of another way that they were instead contributing to his suffering,” said Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada.

“Combined with what we already knew about Canadian complicity in torture, it is outrageous that the government adamantly continues to refuse to apologize and offer redress to Mr. El Maati, along with Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin,” Neve added. “The government must stop their callous fight against these three men in the courts and do the right thing: say sorry and provide compensation.”

In December last year, the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security won majority support in a House of Commons vote for its recommendations that the government issue compensation and an apology to El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin, and implement the Arar Inquiry’s recommendation for a more robust system of checks and balances for agencies involved in national security investigations.

Since then, however, efforts at mediating a settlement for the men have collapsed because of a federal government position the men’s counsel say “eliminates any possibility of resolution.”

Today’s news adds to a long list of ways that Justice Iacobucci has already revealed that Canadian agencies contributed to Mr. El Maati’s detention and torture.

When his report was first released in October 2008, it revealed that Canadian officials had likely contributed to Mr. El Maati’s mistreatment and torture in Egypt in three other ways: CSIS sent a letter to Egyptian authorities labeling Mr. El Maati with unjustified allegations and expressing concern should he be released; the RCMP repeatedly requested the opportunity to interview Mr. El Maati in Egyptian custody; and the RCMP freely shared information with U.S. authorities that made its way into the hands of Egyptian interrogators.

The report also concluded that Canadian officials likely contributed to Mr. El Maati’s initial detention by Syrian authorities when they shared his travel itinerary with the FBI and CIA, and when, in communications with the Syrians, they labeled him as linked to terrorism without first ensuring the allegations were accurate or justified.

Justice Iacobucci has also already revealed that Canadian officials likely contributed to Mr. El Maati’s torture in Syria by supplying questions for his Syrian interrogators, and, when they received his “confession,” failing to advise consular affairs officials that they knew Mr. El Maati was in Syrian detention and had been interrogated.

The report also concluded that the actions of Canadian officials likely contributed to the detention and torture of Canadian citizen Muayyed Nureddin, and to the torture of Abdullah Almalki, both in Syria.

Click here for an overview of what we already knew from the Iacobucci Report.

Despite an attempt by government to shut down debate, the majority of the House of Commons has just voted in favour of compensation and a formal apology for Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin. The vote was on a concurrence motion, moved by NDP MP Don Davies, and supported by all opposition parties, calling on the government to implement recommendations contained in a report by the parliamentary Public Safety Committee.

You can watch the debate on line here (December 3, 2009, HoC Sitting # 123, beginning at 10:00 a.m.).

The report, tabled on June 18, 2009 and debated in the House of Commons today, came out of a study of findings by the Iacobucci Inquiry and findings and recommendations of the Arar Inquiry. (The Iacobucci Inquiry determined that the actions of Canadian officials, such as providing questions and information to Syrian and Egyptian interrogators, likely contributed to the torture of El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin.)

In addition to an apology and compensation, the committee report calls on the government to correct misinformation shared about the men with foreign agencies – information containing allegations which retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci determined were variously inaccurate, inflammatory, and without evidentiary basis.

Just yesterday one of the men, Abdullah Almalki, was told he would not be permitted to board a flight from Toronto to Windsor. Another of the men, Muayyed Nureddin, whose family is in Iraq, cannot travel to see them without risk of being detained and tortured again.

The report also calls on the government to urgently implement a recommendation made by the Arar Commission on December 12, 2006, calling for a new system of checks and balances for the agencies tasked with national security investigations.

The vote on concurrence with the report took place after almost three hours of debate in the House of Commons today, a debate that the government tried, but failed, when put to a vote, to have adjourned.

It’s been almost three years since the Arar inquiry released its report calling for a new watchdog for the agencies involved in national security investigations, and the government is still saying it needs more time, and wants to wait for the outcome of yet another inquiry — Justice John Major’s Air India Inquiry. The excuse came again in the government’s response to the Commons Public Safety Committee report, which called for implementation of all of the Arar Inquiry’s recommendations without delay.

The government’s response was tabled last week on the one-year anniversary of the release of former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci’s report, which determined that Canadian agencies had contributed to the torture of Ahmad El Maati Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin by sharing unsubstantiated allegations about them with Syrian, Egyptian, U.S. and other agencies. The government says it can’t act now to correct the record because of ongoing litigation — another excuse that has no credibility. Read more in my op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen today.

The Commons Committee on Public Safety is supposed to begin hearings this week on the findings of the Iacobucci Inquiry, and the recommendations of the Arar Inquiry. These hearings are crucial. We’ve heard nothing from the government since the report’s release in October last year: The report confirmed that Canadian agencies did contribute to the detention of Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, and to their torture and the torture of Abdullah Almalki (by, for example, supplying the questions to those interrogating and torturing them). No-one in government has apologized to the men. There’s no sign that any Canadian official has been held accountable for their actions. And the Conservative government is still ignoring the Arar Inquiry’s recommendation, made more than two years ago, for effective and integrated civilian oversight of the agencies that carry out national security investigations. And without that oversight mechanism in place, it isn’t clear how Canadians can be confident that many of the Arar Inquiry’s other recommendations have been implemented.

It isn’t yet clear who will be appearing before the Public Safety Committee, or when they might be appearing. The committee was supposed to hear testimony from the RCMP, CSIS and the Canadian Border Services Agency on Tuesday — but that’s been cancelled or postponed. The Public Safety Minister was invited to appear this week but wasn’t available. So now it’s anticipated that witnesses from DFAIT, the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP (CPC) and the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) will appear on Thursday.

Just eight days after the release of the Arar Inquiry’s report on September 18, 2006, former RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli appeared as a witness at the Public Safety committee hearings. On that first day of hearings, he used the opportunity to apologize to Maher Arar and his family, but then went on to provide testimony for which he would later be forced to resign. The Public Safety committee’s study of the Arar case continued through to January 2007. Evidence for these meetings is available here.

The Public Safety Committee later tabled a report calling on the Canadian government to issue a formal apology to Mr. Arar, negotiate compensation for him and his family, register formal protest with the US for its rendition of Mr. Arar, register formal protests with Syria for torturing Mr. Arar, and implement all the findings of the Arar Commission.

I hope the Public Safety Committee will work towards a similar report this time, calling on the Canadian government to apologize to Messrs. El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin, to move swiftly into mediating compensation for the men so they can rebuild their shattered lives, to register formal protests against the governments of Syria and Egypt for brutally torturing these Canadians, to provide a full, detailed accounting of how the Arar Inquiry’s factual report’s recommendations have been implemented, and to immediately implement the Arar Inquiry’s recommended oversight mechanism for the agencies that conduct national security investigations.

For those who are interested, the Arar Inquiry’s reports and recommendations are available on its web site, which has been archived here.

Stay tuned…