Public Safety Committee on Oct. 24th, 2006

[Wayne Easter]

I think the problem is that we get into judgment calls here. Justice O'Connor covers that in some detail. But I can tell you this, absolutely--and it's quoted in, I think, volume 3--Attorney General Ashcroft indicated to me that no, the information was not just from Canada.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

So there was other information.

You talked about questions from the opposition. Were there questions from your own party about Mr. Arar?

[Wayne Easter]

There were questions from all parties, yes.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

What was the tone of the questions from your own party?

[Wayne Easter]

They ranged across the map. In my own party they would range from the civil liberty point of view to whether we were doing enough to fight the national security issues worldwide.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Why did the government block, for many months, efforts to free Arar?

[Wayne Easter]

The government did not block the efforts to free Arar. From the very beginning--and this would be a better question for the Department of Foreign Affairs--Foreign Affairs worked in New York to try to ensure that Arar came to Canada. We were under the opinion that Arar would be coming to Montreal, and Foreign Affairs and the Prime Minister's Office worked strenuously to get Arar back to Canada. I do believe that if it hadn't been for those efforts, Arar might not be here yet.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

If that's the case, then why did the government not probe more strenuously the RCMP case against Arar? Why were they not trying to get to the bottom of it more than they did? You were counting on information from the RCMP, but clearly you didn't probe that enough, in my view.

[Wayne Easter]

I think we certainly did probe it. We raised the questions with the RCMP that needed to be raised. I think the best source of whether we were strenuous enough is to go to Justice O'Connor's report; he's the one who has all the information. I think that yes, there were some lessons learned, and that's why I agree with all the recommendations that Justice O'Connor suggests. Further, as I indicated earlier, I do believe there has to be a different kind of oversight agency.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

That's one of my questions. Like Mr. Alghabra, I'm very concerned about these leaks. Why do you think they didn't get to the bottom of that? These leaks were damaging and have led us to where we are today, in large part, from my perspective.

[Wayne Easter]

If you go back to Commissioner Zaccardelli's testimony, you'll see that he indicated that one of the most difficult investigations is leaks. I do know that there was a very strenuous investigation into the leaks, and that's probably ongoing. That's a question this committee asked Commissioner Zaccardelli, and he's a far better person to answer it than I. I can only say that we were very concerned about the leaks, right up to the Prime Minister's Office, and the investigations did take place, they did occur, but I still have to admit there are no answers to that.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

Thank you.

I want to ask if you will support the creation of a national security oversight committee.

[Wayne Easter]

We'll have to see what the committee looks like when its structure and form come out. As a number of other members around here did, I sat on a committee that looked at oversight and made some recommendations in that regard, and as I said in the beginning, we definitely need one in this country.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much, and I appreciate your coming before the committee, Mr. Easter. The time has gone by very quickly.

I thank all members here for the questions they have posed.

We stand adjourned, and we meet again Thursday.