CSIS suspected U.S. would deport Arar to be tortured: documents

Previously blacked-out portions of the Maher Arar report state that Canadian security officials believed the United States might send the Syrian-born Canadian to a foreign country to be questioned under torture.

"I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him," a Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer based in Washington wrote in a report dated Oct. 10, 2002, according to documents released Thursday.

The note was written days after the United States deported Arar, who was returning to Canada from a vacation in 2002 when he was detained during a flight stopover in New York, wrongly accused of links with al-Qaeda and sent to Syria, where he was jailed for months and tortured.

The newly released documents also say the CSIS operative "spoke of a trend they had noted lately that when the CIA or FBI cannot legally hold a terrorist subject, or wish a target questioned in a firm manner, they have them rendered to countries willing to fulfill that role. He said Mr. Arar was a case in point."

Arar's lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, said Thursday that CSIS did nothing to communicate this information to Canada's political leaders.

"In fact, they sat on it," Edwardh told CBC News.

Another of Arar's lawyers, Lorne Waldman, said the new information "now confirms that as of two days after Mr. Arar was sent to Syria, the Canadian government was aware that it was very likely he was going to be tortured when he was there."

Arar and his wife, Monia Mazigh, were not commenting publicly Thursday on the release of the documents.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on a trip to the Arctic, side-stepped the issue of whether he would again raise the Arar case with Washington in light of the latest findings. He also once again noted to reporters that the mistreatment of Arar occurred under the previous Liberal government.

"This government has committed to implementing all of the recommendations of this report to ensure the events that occurred under the Liberals are not replicated for other Canadian citizens," Harper said.

Canada used info from countries with poor rights records

The Arar commission released its report in September 2006, but about 1,500 words were blacked out because the federal government argued the passages would reveal national security secrets, including some received from foreign agencies. The censored portions represent less than one per cent of the lengthy report from the inquiry.

The blacked-out portions of the report were released Thursday on the July order of a Federal Court judge.

'Our law is very clear. You cannot use evidence that is the product of torture [to obtain a warrant].'—Arar commission lawyer Paul Cavalluzzo

The newly-released portions also state that Canadian authorities relied on a country with a poor record on human rights for information to obtain a search warrant. The disclosed portions said investigators did not disclose that the information used to get the warrants "might be the product of torture."

Paul Cavalluzzo, the lead lawyer for the Arar commission, said Thursday that he hoped the release of the censored information would force law enforcement agencies to be "totally candid" when they go before a judge to obtain a warrant.

"Our law is very clear," Cavalluzzo said. "You cannot use evidence that is the product of torture [to obtain a warrant]."

Many of the blacked-out words refer to Canadian contacts with U.S. security services — the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Both Arar and the inquiry's commissioner, Dennis O'Connor, had argued before the Federal Court judge at hearings in the spring that the public should see the document in its entirety.

In July, Justice Simon Noël ruled that some, but not all, of the excised information should be revealed. He said public interest was best served by keeping the rest of the document secret.

The inquiry found that the RCMP wrongly labelled Arar a terrorist and passed the misleading information to U.S. authorities, where it led to Arar being linked to al-Qaeda and deported to Syria.

O'Connor, associate chief justice of Ontario, cleared Arar of any links to terrorist organizations, and the federal government agreed to pay Arar $12.5 million in compensation.