Sloppy counter-terrorism led to $31M settlement
News that the federal government settled for $31.25 million with three Canadian men falsely accused of terrorist links, imprisoned and tortured overseas was met with some public backlash. Social media comments include variations on “waste of taxpayer money,” “wouldn’t mind a little torture for $10 million,” and “why should Canada pay for a foreign country’s actions?”
To its credit, the federal government apologized to the three men, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stating Canada should not “allow Canadians’ fundamental rights to be violated.” The Conservatives did not object to this settlement as they did to Omar Khadr’s $10-million payment earlier this year.
Why did Canada settle? In 2008, a federal commission found three Canadian citizens, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, had been falsely accused of links to terrorists, imprisoned in
Syria and tortured. El Maati was also imprisoned and tortured in Egypt.
The RCMP, CSIS and Foreign Affairs Canada were found to have indirectly contributed to the torture by sharing inflammatory and inaccurate information with countries known to torture, and in which the men were imprisoned.
The commission observed Canada should not simply recycle and rely on imported intelligence from countries that torture, should not pass on unqualified information to foreign agencies and should recognize “loose and imprecise language” used by its officials can have tragic human rights consequences for the individual.
The report on Almalki, El Maati, and Nureddin came out two years after the report on actions of Canadian officials in relation to Maher Arar, another Canadian citizen. That inquiry found CSIS and the RCMP made serious mistakes passing on inaccurate information to the United States and Syria, resulting in Arar being “rendered” to Syria, where he was detained and tortured.
The Arar commission made recommendations regarding information sharing, accountability and oversight of Canada’s national security agencies. Yet, years later, those recommendations had not been implemented.
In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada found Canadian officials questioned Khadr at Guantanamo
Bay despite knowing he was being detained in a facility that tortured or used cruel and inhuman treatment, he did not have a lawyer present and had been subject to “mistreatment” and there are protections in international law for child soldiers, The court concluded the questioning and passing on of information by Canada to the U.S. had violated Khadr’s Charter rights and had an impact on Khadr’s detention and charges. It is regrettable the Khadr settlement was justified in economic terms — it was cheaper than litigating Khadr’s lawsuit against Canada — rather than legal obligations.
False narratives, wrongful imprisonment and torture are failures of such magnitude that a society that tolerates these cannot in the long run claim to be democratic, just or humane. Such a society fails tests of both morality and effective counter-terrorism.
Canada must exchange information with foreign governments. Ensuring we heed the lessons of our mistakes is a safeguard for efficient counterterrorism. The good news is Canada passed legislation this year to address some of the accountability and oversight holes in national security.
The settlement to Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin should remind us of the human costs of mistakes, inaccuracies and false narratives. The settlement may also send a signal to allies and foes as to where Canada stands on misinformation and torture and misinformation, even with the demands of global counter-terrorism.