Arar lawyers protest federal bid to withhold papers

[CHIMO]

OTTAWA (CP) ? Information obtained under torture by foreign countries and relayed to Canadian intelligence services should not be suppressed at the Maher Arar inquiry, the Ottawa man's lawyers say.

In a submission filed today, Marlys Edwardh and Lorne Waldman asked Justice Dennis O'Connor, the inquiry commissioner, to approach with skepticism the government's application to withhold a wide range of documents from public scrutiny.

Government lawyers argued late last month that disclosure of investigative methods used by the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service could make them pariahs of the global intelligence community or even provide terrorists with valuable information.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1086300609418&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968705899037


Our brave new world. And in the middle of an election campaign. Imagine what it will be like after the election!

[struggle4progress]

1. There's probably an "out-of-control Canadian intelligence" story ...

just waiting to be told.

Muslim Canadians Detained Abroad at Behest of Canadian Intelligence

<snip>
Showing up at homes and workplaces unannounced; speaking with employers; offering money and favors for “information”; intimidating and threatening newcomers; questioning about specific institutions and individuals; inquiring about a person’s religiosity; and discouraging people from engaging lawyers are some of the recurring themes I have heard from clients. The problem is so severe that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Canada) has distributed almost 30,000 Know Your Rights guides and organized 27 workshops across the country on dealing with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
<snip>
Most recently, a 62-year-old academic, Dr. Mahboob Khawaja, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that “the police officer told me they had no reason to arrest me. There were no charges against me here in the kingdom (of Saudi Arabia). They arrested me on a request from Canada.”
<snip>

The fact that at least seven Canadians—Maher Arar, Abdullah AlMalki, Ahmad Abou El-Maati, Dr. Aly Hindy, Muayyad Nureddin, Helmy Elsherief, and Dr. Mahboob Khawaja—have been detained abroad (a few of them even tortured) is problematic enough. To think that Canadian intelligence may have played a role is, to say the least, unacceptable and disturbing. These cases, along with that of Mohammed Mansour Jabbarah, a 23-year-old Canadian, who was repatriated to Canada after his arrest in Oman, then secretly handed over by CSIS or RCMP to Americans waiting at the border—subverting the extradition process—raise more than enough concerns about the way Canadian intelligence agencies operate. Granted that Jabbarah pleaded guilty to a whole slew of terrorism charges in a secret trial earlier this year, the fact remains that guilt or innocence is not the issue—rather it is the treatment and rights of Canadians. If evidence exists, why not charge, arrest and prosecute suspects in Canada to the full extent of the law?
<snip>

Barbara Jackman, a lawyer specializing in national security, told a press conference recently that both the RCMP and CSIS are trying to get around the obstacle of having to obtain security certificates in order to detain citizens. Why do all that hard work, after all, when you can get other countries to do it with fewer constraints? According to Jackman, both agencies are “opportunistically taking advantage” of citizens traveling abroad by providing information to foreign governments. If this is the case, then Canadian intelligence in effect has quietly adopted the practice of torture by proxy—getting foreign governments to do the “dirty work,” in Jackman’s words.
<snip>

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/June_2004/0406046.html

[struggle4progress]

2. kick

:kick: