OTTAWA - A United Nations report singles out the infamous Canadian case of Maher Arar in denouncing information sharing with foreign intelligence agencies without "adequate safeguards" to protect human rights.
Sanctions against a suspect should not be based on such foreign intelligence unless the person in question can effectively challenge its "credibility, accuracy and reliability," says the report of Martin Scheinin, UN special rapporteur on protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism.
It also calls on allied countries, including Canada, to fully investigate their role in the torture of suspects and to take steps to prevent future abuses.
"States must ensure that the victims of such unlawful acts are rehabilitated and compensated."
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained at a New York airport in September 2002 and subsequently shipped abroad by U.S. authorities, ending up in a grim Damascus cell where he gave false confessions about terrorist links.
In 2007 the government apologized to Arar and gave him $10.5 million in compensation.
An inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor found the RCMP passed misleading, inaccurate and unfair information to the Americans that very likely led to Arar's arrest and deportation to face torture in Syria.
At a House of Commons committee Tuesday, Mike Cabana, the Mountie who headed an anti-terrorist task force that investigated Arar, suggested the Americans had "breached" the RCMP's trust in the case.
Cabana indicated that when it comes to sharing information with U.S. agencies, the RCMP cannot absolutely control how it will be used.
"What we have is an understanding and trust that goes back many, many years. There have been instances where that trust has been breached."
After the meeting, Cabana confirmed he was referring to the Arar file. But he declined to comment further, citing continuing civil litigation stemming from cases tied to the Arar file.
"I will not talk about the Arar case," said Cabana, who has risen to the rank of assistant commissioner from inspector when he headed the post-9-11 probe code named A-O Canada.
O'Connor called for stricter review of the RCMP and other agencies involved in national security, and made 23 recommendations urging the Mounties, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and others to implement policy changes on information sharing, training and monitoring of probes.
The UN report essentially echoes the thrust of O'Connor's recommendations on information sharing, saying such transfers should take place only with written caveats that limit the further flow of such material among agencies in the receiving country.
The RCMP says it has made changes following the Arar affair to ensure proper information-sharing practices are followed.
A recent inquiry headed by former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci into the imprisonment of three other Arab-Canadian men during the same post-9-11 period found Canadian officials had a hand in the torture of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin in Syria through the sharing of information with foreign intelligence and police agencies.
The UN report notes that in the case of Almalki, Canadian officials provided questions to Syrian military intelligence.
It says the participation of a country in the interrogation of someone held by another state "constitutes an internationally wrongful act" if the country knew or ought to have known the person was facing a real risk of torture.
The UN report says that, under international law, states must not aid in the commission of torture or recognize such practices, including through reliance on intelligence information obtained through torture.
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan, minister responsible for the RCMP and CSIS, said while he had not read the UN report, the government had responded to the issues it raises through the O'Connor and Iacobucci inquiries.
He said the government has taken the inquiry recommendations "quite seriously."
"And I believe those findings are by and large being applied."
