Iacobucci Inquiry

It seems that most if not all of this inquiry will be in private. Even the lawyers for the three Canadians imprisoned may not see that much of the evidence since they may not get clearance. This is an internal investigation but if nothing is public it will appear as the whitewash it might very well be. Even in the Arar case everyting possible was censored even when O'Connor saw no need for it.

Lawyer demands Iacobucci inquiry be open to public

Andrew Mayeda
CanWest News Service


Saturday, February 17, 2007


OTTAWA -- The seal is barely off the Iacobucci inquiry, but the debate has already begun on how much of the judicial sequel to the Maher Arar inquiry should be made public.

The federal government announced in December that former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci would lead an inquiry into the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou El Maati and Muayyed Nurredin. Like Maher Arar, the three men allege they were imprisoned and tortured in Middle East prisons.

On Friday, the inquiry announced key legal and administrative staff who will assist with the review.

But in a sign of possible friction to come, Paul Copeland, a lawyer for Almalki, is already calling for the inquiry to be heard in public.

"My very strong preference would be one, that it be in public. Two, if it's not in public, that I be security cleared and can be in there," Copeland said.

"I'm not all that trustful of some of the government officials and some of their willingness to be forthright about what they did. There's a lots of people, I think, who may have things to hide, like Foreign Affairs, the Department of Justice, CSIS and the RCMP."

The inquiry was announced on the same day that Justice Dennis O'Connor tabled his second report into the Arar affair.

Much of the evidence in the Arar inquiry, which took nearly three years and about $16 million to complete, was heard in public.

The Iacobucci probe, however, is considered an "internal" inquiry. Under the terms of reference, Iacobucci has been directed to take "all steps necessary to ensure that the inquiry is conducted in private."

However, he is authorized to conduct parts of the inquiry in public "if he is satisfied that it is essential to ensure the effective conduct of the inquiry."

In calling an internal inquiry, the government cited a comment by O'Connor that there are more "appropriate" ways than a full-blown public inquiry to investigate national-security cases. The Arar inquiry was marked by delays and disputes over the disclosure of national-security evidence.

But skeptics fear the government may rush through a lightweight version of the Arar inquiry to avoid the same level of public scrutiny.

John Laskin, named on Friday as the inquiry's lead counsel, said Iacobucci will eventually decide how much of the inquiry will be public.

"The terms of reference basically say, "Do this in private unless there's a very, very compelling reason for having parts of it in public.' It'll be up to (Iacobucci) to decide if that kind of reasoning exists," said Laskin.

Another issue could be the timeline. The inquiry is under a tight deadline to report its findings to the government by Jan. 31, 2008.

Some experts have questioned whether that is enough time to sift through thousands of sensitive national-security files.

"We're acutely aware of the deadline and we are proceeding as expeditiously as we can," said Laskin.

The inquiry will begin accepting applications near the end of next month from groups, such as civil-liberties organizations, wishing to participate. It will then hear arguments on how the inquiry should proceed.

Almalki and El Maati were suspects in the same RCMP investigation that identified Arar as a "person of interest." Neither Almalki or El Maati have been charged. Nurredin was also questioned by Canadian security officials but hasn't been charged. All three were detained in Syria around the same time as Arar. El Maati was also imprisoned in Egypt. A fact finder who verified Arar's claims of torture also found the three men had been tortured.

The inquiry will investigate what role Canadian officials may have had in the detention of the three men.

© CanWest News Service 2007