All right.
What is cause for concern in the specific case of Abou-Elmaati is the information revealed: Mr. Elmaati was not only mis-labelled, which contributed to his initial detention and torture, but the confession extracted through torture was then used by intelligence services for the purposes of obtaining a search warrant here in Canada. It was denied, or ignored that Mr. Abou-Elmaati had probably confessed under torture, and the results of these searches were then used to pass on other information to Syria.
Also cause of concern is the fact that a CSIS official, who testified before the Iacobucci Commission, and therefore after the release of the O'Connor report, admitted that from time to time, CSIS used characterizations that were then sent to foreign services, with a view to extracting an answer that would corroborate or disprove a characterization. In other words, this practice was akin to a fishing expedition, whereby an unverified characterization is sent to a foreign service so that it can corroborate or disprove the characterization.
Obviously, as Justice Iacobucci pointed out, this practice is likely to lead to other inhumane treatments, and torture of persons by the people who are holding them. This is a very worrisome practice, one that violates fundamental rights, and poses a serious problem, in the opinion of the League. This brings into play Canada's position on torture and the practices of security services.
Canada has been criticized by organizations such as the UN Committee on Human Rights and the UN Committee Against Torture for having not taken a clear and unequivocal position on the issue of torture. The cases of Mr. Arar, Mr. Abou-Elmaati and Mr. Almalki are examples, but there are also the current case of Mr. Abousfian Abdelrazik who has suffered the same fate. There's also the case of Mr. Omar Khadr. Last week's court ruling pointed to the complicity of Canadian government agents in this whole affair.
In my opinion, the entire issue of torture has yet to be resolved, not just from a political perspective, but from the standpoint of security agencies as well.