Hearings Secret, Inquiry Head Rules

All were also under some kind of surveillance by either the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or the RCMP before their arrests. Almalki and El Maati were part of the CSIS-RCMP investigation that ended up focusing on Maher Arar, the Canadian Muslim who became a cause célèbre in this country after he was deported by U.S. authorities to Syria in 2002 to be tortured. Nureddin came to the attention of CSIS in 2000, apparently because agents wanted to find out more about the Scarborough mosque where he prays. According to Justice Dennis O'Connor's report into the Arar affair, Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin were all tortured in Syria during their imprisonment. However the federal government has never accepted that part of O'Connor's report, calling it "rife with frailties." It wanted Iacobucci to ignore the torture allegations as irrelevant. In his ruling yesterday, Iacobucci disagreed. He said he thought that torture was a serious enough matter to warrant further investigation of the three men's complaints. But on secrecy, he sided fully with the government. He said the terms of reference for his inquiry demand that secrecy be the norm. He also said it would make his work go faster. The question of secrecy has dogged this inquiry since it was set up last December. In its terms of reference, Ottawa directed the commissioner to take "all steps necessary to ensure the Inquiry is conducted in private." http://www.thestar.com/News/article/220340

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