Demand an Apology, Accountability, and Compensation for Three Canadians Targetted for Torture
June 23, 2009
As Canada Marks the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture June
26, Contact Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "Public Safety" Minister Peter Van
Loan to Demand Canada End its Involvement in Torture (contact details below)
IN THIS EMAIL
1. BRIEF SUMMARY
2. BACKGROUND
3. TAKING ACTION
BRIEF SUMMARY
Three Canadians -- Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, and Muayyed Nureddin -- were tortured
overseas with the complicity of their own government. We are calling on the Government of
Canada to issue an apology, provide compensation, ensure that all officials responsible
are held accountable, take steps to eliminate false information about these men and their
families from Canadian and international databases, and demand that the federal government
issue a clear ministerial directive against torture and the use of information obtained
from torture.
BACKGROUND
Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, and Muayyed
Nureddin are Canadian citizens who were targetted for torture by agencies of their own
government.
All were falsely labelled as alleged threats to
Canada's "national security," and all wound up in Syrian torture chambers (and,
in one case, Egyptian torture chambers as well) where they were interrogated and tortured
based on questions that came from Canada. A problematic secret federal review of their
cases (The Iacobucci Inquiry, which unfortunately excluded the men, their lawyers, the
press, and public from participating) nonetheless found that Canadian agencies were
complicit in the men's overseas detention, interrogation, and torture.
Last week the Standing Committee on Public Safety and
National Security of the House of Commons called for an immediate apology for all thee
men, along with compensation "for the suffering they endured and the difficulties
they encountered." The committee released a report that also called on the federal
government to "do everything necessary to correct misinformation that may exist
in records administered by national security agencies in Canada or abroad with respect
to" the three men and their family members.
(full report: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/
CLEAR DIRECTION NEEDED ON TORTURE
Importantly, the Committee called on "the
Government of Canada issue a clear ministerial directive against torture and the use of
information obtained from torture for all departments and agencies responsible for
national security. The ministerial directive must clearly state that the exchange of
information with countries is prohibited when there is a credible risk that it could lead,
or contribute, to the use of torture."
Unfortunately, the committee did not go far enough in
demanding actions that could end the culture of impunity that continues to thrive with
respect to torture in the highest levels of the Canadian government, from CSIS and the
RCMP to the Justice Dept. and Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Indeed, names were named in both the O'Connor Inquiry (which examined the case of Maher
Arar) and the Iacobucci inquiry, and it is clear in both reports that the actions of
Canadian officials led to the torture of Canadian citizens abroad.
Yet there has been a disturbing silence on the issue
of holding officials accountable. In fact, with one exception, it appears that all
officials who appear to have been complicit either directly or indirectly in that overseas
detention, interrogation, and torture, have received promotions.
CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IN OTTAWA
Perhaps the most high-profile of those Canadian
officials is Michel Cabana, who ran Project AO-Canada (the investigation that was found to
have been based on false information that led to the overseas detention, interrogation,
and torture of Maher Arar, Abdullah Almalki, and Ahmad El Maati). Remarkably, Cabana is
now the Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP, one heartbeat away from the top job in a
national police force that has been implicated in torture.
We have serious questions about the suitability of
Mr. Cabana to hold such a high position in an organization that is supposed to be cleaning
up its act and ending its complicity in torture.
With the recent court orders to repatriate yet two
other Canadians tortured with the complicity of their own government (Omar Khadr and
Abousfian Abdelrazik), we need to ask: how many more cases of torture-by-proxy exist, and
how many more will continue to occur unless there are major systemic changes in the way
things are run in Ottawa?
While we work towards those systemic changes, we join
the call from the Parliamentary committee "to immediately implement all the
recommendations from these inquiries, as the failure to do so could result in further
serious violations of the rights of Canadians."
While the committee calls for an oversight committee
of all agencies involved in "national security" investigations, we remain
concerned that such a committee can only review human rights disasters AFTER they have
occurred. Rather, we need pre-emptive action to stop torture-complicit spies from doing
further damage to folks in this country and abroad.
TAKE STEPS FOR JUSTICE NOW!
The Federal government will state that such
recommendations cannot be agreed to because civil suits are in progress, yet Maher Arar
received an apology before his case was heard in court. The Committee also disagrees with
this position, declaring "The majority of the Committee does not agree with the
government’s position that issuing apologies can influence the course of civil
actions. The majority is of the opinion that the government must officially recognize the
harm caused to these Canadians." Indeed, the government could end the civil suit
process immediately by fairly addressing the damage that has been inflicted on the men and
their families.
While there remain many other tangled webs of
Canadian involvement in torture (the case of rendition survivor Benamar Benatta, who still
seeks a public review of his case, the ongoing secret rendition-to-torture hearings
taking place in the Federal Courts under the name of "security certificates,"
Canada's involvement in the U.S.-based School of the Assassins, complicity in the
torture of people in Afghanistan, among many others), we have an opportunity to take
immediate steps to ensure a small measure of justice for Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati
and Muayyed Nureddin.
TAKING ACTION
1. Please write a polite, simple letter to Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, copying
Stephen Harper and your MP, calling on them to immediately apologize for and provide
compensation for Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, as recommended by
the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.
Please add in as well that you feel officials involved in facilitating their torture need
to be held accountable, and that systemic changes are required to permanently end further
Canadian involvement in torture. Remind them that the committee also calls on " the
Government of Canada issue a clear ministerial directive against torture and the use of
information obtained from torture." Please remind them as well that false information
about these three men and their families exists in government databases around the world
and here in Canada, and every effort must be made to erase those lies.
Personalize the letter if you can.
Peter Van Loan
Telephone: (613) 996-7752
Fax: (613) 992-8351
E-mail: vanloan.p@parl.gc.ca
Stephen Harper
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: HarpeS@parl.gc.ca
Contact details of MPs via www.parl.gc.ca
(click on "Members of Parliament (Current)")
*******
More information:
Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture:
http://homesnotbombs.blogspot.
PO Box 73620, 509 St. CXlair Ave. West, Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, tasc@web.ca
More details on the men and their cases, plus video interviews: http://sites.google.com/site/
Committee report: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/