Jul. 6, 2004. 01:00 AM Syria rejects request to assist Arar inquiry Officials won't testify at probe Cite lack of legal deal with Ottawa MICHELLE SHEPHARD STAFF REPORTER OTTAWA—Syrian officials will not testify at a federal inquiry probing the detention and deportation of Canadian Maher Arar. Citing the lack of a legal agreement with Canada, Syrian authorities wrote the commission to decline a request to participate in the inquiry, dashing hopes that Syria's ambassadors to Canada and the United States might testify. They have already spoken publicly about the case. Foreign affairs spokesperson Kimberly Phillips said yesterday the federal government is considering whether Canada should negotiate a "legal assistance agreement" with Syria, but even if a decision were made to go ahead, the process might not be completed until the inquiry's conclusion. The commission had requested that the governments of Syria, Jordan and America co-operate at the hearings. How information was shared among the countries, and the role of Canadian officials in the detention of Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, are crucial questions the inquiry strives to answer. Arar, 34, of Ottawa, who is suing the federal government, was detained in New York in September, 2002. He was then deported to Syria, via Jordan, where he says he was tortured. Commission counsel Paul Cavalluzzo said yesterday he still did not have a response from the American government but he hoped they would co-operate and said he intends to call the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, as a witness. Both Cavalluzzo and Phillips said they don't believe Syria needed a legal agreement in order to participate. Arar's lawyer Marlys Edwardh spent yesterday fighting for disclosure of information, which the government said would harm national security if released. She argued it had already been selectively leaked to reporters to discredit her client. "The government can't make disclosure for one purpose and then assert the existence of national security confidentiality for another purpose in respect to the same information," Edwardh argued before Justice Dennis O'Connor. Justice department lawyer Barbara McIsaac countered that even if information was provided to the media by unnamed sources, it doesn't mean it was accurate or that full disclosure of documents to the public would not still jeopardize national security. In a written submission, the government stated they should not be accused of trying to hide or "cover up" information — a motion that followed the government's embarrassing release two weeks ago of an 89-page public document that had every word censored due to concerns of national security. McIsaac admitted yesterday the government had made a mistake in blacking out every page of a Security Intelligence Review Committee report on the actions of CSIS officials in the Arar case. A new public report is being prepared. "More was redacted than ought to have been redacted and don't ask me why, it was just a mistake," McIsaac said outside the hearing room. Twice during yesterday's proceedings Justice O'Connor asked for McIsaac's assurance that the government would try to make as much as possible public. Ultimately it will be O'Connor who decides what can be released and what will be heard in camera. She assured him that was the government's intention.