Arar witness wants to tell story

[struggle4progress]

Jim Brown
Canadian Press

June 13, 2005

OTTAWA -- An RCMP officer who played a key role in the Maher Arar affair wants to step out of the shadows and tell what he knows, but he's being thwarted by government secrecy rules, says the man's lawyer.

Supt. Michel (Mike) Cabana was the head of Project AO Canada, an anti-terrorist investigation that first brought Arar to the attention of the Mounties three years ago.

Cabana, who held the rank of inspector at the time, has given evidence behind closed doors to a commission of inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O'Connor. Until now, however, his identity had not been publicly disclosed.

He is scheduled to appear at an open session of the inquiry next week. But his lawyer, Don Bayne, said Monday that government claims of national security could limit what Cabana can say and leave a misleading impression of his actions. <snip>

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=b9c4ffab-d94c-4301-acd2-8ad920e33e59


Key RCMP witness in Arar case wants to tell whole truth, says lawyer

<snip> Bayne says either federal lawyers can waive their secrecy claims, or Justice Dennis O'Connor, the head of the inquiry, can compel them to make the information public. <snip>

http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/news/shownews.jsp?content=n061311A

[tuvor]

1. I just posted this to the Canada forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=190x6129

Thanks for posting this, struggle4progress.