News from the other inquiry

In the short time since public hearings in the Arar inquiry have resumed, the government doesn't seem to be having its way with Justice O'Connor. And I can't say I'm upset about it.

Arar's lawyers had balked at allowing him to testify because so much of the preceding testimony has been held in camera and neither Arar nor his representatives were privy to it. As one of his lawyers, Marlys Edwardh, argued:

... Mr. Arar has, in effect, been prevented from testifying publicly because he does not know what has been said about him in secret hearings, and cannot fairly respond.

So instead Arar's team proposed the appointment of an independent fact-finder to examine and present both his story and that of Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nurredin, two other Canadians who were detained in Syria at about the same time as Arar's imprisonment.

The government didn't favour the idea. While acknowledging that Arar was victimized, they seem to see no problem with continuing to victimize him by keeping him in the dark and by refusing to acknowledge his innocence or allowing him to prove it.

However, Barbara McIsaac, lawyer for the federal attorney general, reminded O'Connor that he is not running a criminal trial and Arar does not need to defend himself. An independent fact-finder is not necessary, she said.

"You are an independent fact-finder," McIsaac told O'Connor.

But Arar does need to defend himself precisely because he was arrested and imprisoned without charge while nameless "officials" in the Canadian law enforcement community smeared him in the media. Until we get to the bottom of this, there will always be that lingering doubt about him in the minds of some and he has every right to expect a public inquiry to either present some evidence of his guilt or clear his name once and for all. That's the point, isn't it?

I wonder if Justice O'Connor ever has to stifle the urge to tell Ms. McIsaac to put a sock in it and sit down. I'd like to see that.

But more importantly, O'Connor has agreed to Arar's request and the fact-finder will be appointed.

And then there was the issue of allowing the RCMP to testify in public. Since the Mounties' involvement in this case is one of the central issues, it would seem to me to be a no-brainer that there isn't much point in having a public inquiry in which we don't hear from them. And despite the government's objections, Justice O'Connor has come through again.

The RCMP must publicly testify about its anti-terrorism investigation of Ottawa engineer Maher Arar, says the judge leading an inquiry into his case.

In a ruling Thursday, Justice Dennis O'Connor ordered two senior Mounties to answer questions at an open hearing about Project AO Canada, the RCMP's probe of Ottawa-area terrorism suspects, including Arar, following the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
...
O'Connor rejected arguments by counsel for some AO Canada members that no RCMP witnesses should be forced to testify in public because national security concerns will prevent them from telling the full story.

"The government chose to call a public inquiry, not a private investigation," O'Connor said in the ruling.

Suddenly I'm feeling a little more optimistic.

It was just a week ago that Ron Atkey warned of the possible suppression of the commission's interim report.

A government-sponsored "culture of secrecy" surrounding the Arar inquiry has become so pervasive that it may block the truth about Maher Arar's yearlong detention in Syria from ever becoming public, independent observer Ron Atkey charged yesterday.

"I fear that the public disclosure, your interim public report, to be submitted next fall, may never see the light of day, because of continued national security claims," Mr. Atkey said in a formal submission at the commission's first public hearing in nine months.

"This is fair neither to Mr. Arar, nor the Canadian public."
...
"My submissions to you today are simply to underscore the apparent unfairness to Mr. Arar, given the way this has played out."

Atkey is himself a former head of SIRC, the civilian body charged with oversight of CSIS, and was appointed as a friend of the court to deal specifically with the conflict between the government's demands for secrecy and the public's right to know. I took his pessimism seriously.

But O'Connor seems determined to shine as much light on what happened to Arar as possible. His appointment may be the only thing the government did right in this case. They certainly seem to be stonewalling in every other way possible.

Cross-posted at the E-Group.