Canadian Arab Federation
La Fédération Canado-Arabe
 
NEWS RELEASE
 
 
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
October 24, 2008
 
INTERVENORS CALL FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTION ON IACOBUCCI'S REPORT:
Torture victims deserve apologies and compensation
 
(Ottawa, Canada - October 24, 2008) The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN), the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association (CMCLA) today called upon the Canadian government to concretely follow-up on Justice Frank Iacobucci's report, released October 21, 2008. Justice Iacobucci presided over the Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin. CAIR-CAN, ICLMG, CAF and CMCLA were granted official intervenor status at the inquiry.
 
Justice Iacobucci found that all three men were tortured in Syria, and that Elmaati was again tortured in Egypt. Canada was held to be indirectly responsible for the torture of all three men as well as the detention of Elmaati and Nureddin.
 
The facts outlined in Justice Iacobucci`s report effectively cleared the names of Almalki, Elmaati and Nureddin. Justice Iacobucci found that CSIS and the RCMP were "deficient" in their use and sharing of inaccurate and inflammatory labels such as "imminent threats" and "Islamic threats" to describe the three Canadian men. According to Iacobucci, these labels were employed without investigative foundation.
 
"Now that Justice Iacobucci has effectively cleared the names of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, it is time to apologise to the men and their families.
 
"Justice Iacobucci found Canada to be partially responsible for the torture of the three men, the effects of which they still feel today. The men should be compensated for the ordeal they suffered, so that they can rebuild their lives," said Sameer Zuberi, CAIR-CAN Communications Coordinator.
 
"The Iacobucci report pointed out that there are deficiencies in the way security agencies conduct their work. To ensure that Canada is not involved in faulty investigations leading to torture, our government should immediately implement Justice O'Connor's second report," said Roch Tassé, ICLMG Coordinator.
 
 
CAIR-CAN, ICLMG, CAF and CMCLA are calling upon the government to:
 
1) Issue a public apology to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed Abou-Elmaati, Muayyed Nureddin, and their families, for the role that Canada played in their detention and torture.
 
2) Implement integrated oversight and review mechanisms for CSIS, the RCMP and other agencies involved in intelligence gathering, as recommended by Justice O'Connor in his second report from the Arar Inquiry.
 
3) Hold to account all agencies and officials responsible for the mistreatment of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin.
 
4)  Report to the Canadian public on how, and to what degree, the Arar Inquiry recommendations by Justice O'Connor have been implemented.
 
5) Compensate the three men for the ordeal they suffered and its lasting effects.
 
6) Establish concrete and meaningful dialogue with the Arab and Muslim communities to avoid negative stereotypes and racial profiling.
  
 
CONTACT:
Khaled Mouammar, CAF, 416-879-6766 (English)
Sameer Zuberi, CAIR-CAN, 613-795-2012 or 613-254-9704 (English)
Roch Tassé, ICLMG, 613-241-5298 (French and English)
 
www.caf.ca
Established in 1967, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national, non-partisan, non profit and membership-based organization.  CAF represents Canadian Arabs on issues relating to public policy.

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For a background on the three cases see:
 
Ottawa Citizen: The Shameful Truth
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=5d22c6c4-a088-4f71-bf48-6c4975eef481
 
Toronto Star Editorial: Canada failed three citizens
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/521536

For too long we've been kept in the dark about the role of CSIS and the RCMP in the detainment and torture of three Canadians

Kerry Pither, Citizen Special

Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008

It's no wonder CSIS, the RCMP and the government wanted to keep the Iacobucci inquiry so secret. Despite all the faults with the process, the inquiry's report offers up a startling and shameful record of Canadian complicity in torture. It effectively clears the names of men that the government has tried to portray as terrorists. And it backs up everything these men have said about what happened to them. In short, the report is bad news for the government, CSIS and the RCMP, and good news for Ahmad Abou-ElMaati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin.

For years, these men have been saying they were tortured while they were in Syrian, and in the case of Mr. El-Maati, Egyptian detention as well. They've described in gut-wrenching detail how, among other unspeakable atrocities, they were whipped with cables, and, in the case of Mr. El-Maati, subjected to electric shock.

Mr. Almalki has described what it was like to be stuffed into a car tire and whipped. He has described what it was like to survive daily life, for 17 months, in a dark, underground cell the size of a grave.

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Former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci takes media questions after the release of his report into Canada's role in the mistreatment of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin.

Chris Wattie, Reuters

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Mr. El-Maati has described what it was like to spend most of the two years and two months that he was detained in solitary confinement, in wretched conditions. He has described how at times, with his hands locked behind his back, he was forced to eat, "like an animal" off the floor.

Mr. Nureddin has described how his Syrian interrogators would periodically stop whipping his feet to douse them with cold water, to ensure the blood kept circulating and the pain returned.

And despite the consistencies between their accounts of the physical and psychological torture they endured and the well-documented records of torture in Syria and Egypt, our government, CSIS and the RCMP, have repeatedly tried to cast doubt on their claims. But in his report, former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci agrees with the men. He finds that all three suffered "treatment amounting to torture as that term is defined in the United Nations Convention Against Torture."

For years these men have been saying that the questions they were asked, under torture, could only have come from Canada. Once again, Justice Iacobucci agrees. In all three cases, he finds that the information did come from Canada. In Mr. El-Maati's case, it was CSIS that sent the questions to his interrogators. In Mr. Nureddin's case, the information came from CSIS. In Mr. Almalki's case, it was the RCMP that sent the questions.

For years these men have been asking how Canadian agencies used their so-called "confessions" -- the statements they were forced to make under torture -- back in Canada. Justice Iacobucci's report confirms that it was Mr. El-Maati's "confession" that was used to justify search warrants back in Canada (the Arar Inquiry had already determined that the RCMP didn't bother to mention to the presiding judge that the information being presented to justify those warrants was likely the product of torture). The search warrants were used against Mr. Almalki's family home, and Mr. El-Maati's father's apartment.