Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, witnesses.
I'm disturbed by what I heard on this issue of torture. I'm disturbed because while I'm hearing from you that there's a lot of grey and ambiguity, and that it's a difficult question for which there's no clear answer, Justice O'Connor--and I read the section of his report that was relevant to this--is very clear when he says, “Information should never be provided to a foreign country where there is a credible risk that it will cause or contribute to the use of torture.” That's what I was expecting to hear today. Particularly, Mr. O'Brian, that's not what I heard from you.
Let me be very specific. In the case of Mr. Elmaati, we now know that the confession was extracted using torture. CSIS and RCMP officials repeatedly told the inquiry that they had no evidence that Syria used torture, so they didn't consider that a confession would have been a product of torture. We're obviously studying this. No one ever wants to see a Canadian citizen put in this position again.
Very specifically to you, with respect to both Egypt and Syria, where there had been problems in the cases we as a committee are looking at, would you share information with those jurisdictions today--yes or no?