Iacobucci Inquiry may face time crunch

Well at least I received some info from the press if not Day! There is no mention of a website.


Torture inquiry faces time crunch
Iacobucci's deadline is cause of concern
JEFF SALLOT
OTTAWA -- Security experts question whether the commission of inquiry investigating the case of three Canadians who say they were tortured in the Middle East can meet its tight deadline of a little more than a year from now.
Appointed by a cabinet order on Dec. 12, Frank Iacobucci, the former Supreme Court of Canada judge who heads the inquiry, has yet to announce names of the key members of his staff -- they haven't received security clearances -- or to indicate when hearings will begin.
Yet the federal government expects Mr. Iacobucci to have his report into the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin completed by Jan. 31, 2008.
"It's a very tight deadline, and it may be doable. But I wouldn't be surprised, at the end of the day, if he'll have to ask for an extension," says Reid Morden, the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who served as an adviser on security issues to an earlier federal inquiry into the Maher Arar case.
The Arar inquiry, which looked at the conduct of the RCMP and other federal agencies in relation to the torture case of just one Canadian Muslim, took almost three years to complete a final report. The Arar commission is still technically active because of the government's challenge to the efforts by chairman Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor to publish alleged security-related information that he believes is in the national interest to make public.
In some ways, Mr. Iacobucci's task is simplified by the fact that the Conservative government has directed that this be an "internal inquiry," says lawyer Ron Atkey, a former cabinet minister who was the chairman of the Security Intelligence Review Committee.
On the other hand, Mr. Iacobucci is dealing with important issues involving the treatment of three individuals, and testing the reliability of the evidence "is a very slow, painful but necessary process in the interest of fairness," he said. Mr. Atkey served as a special advocate at the Arar commission.
The paper trail in these three cases leads to and from the RCMP and CSIS, and much of it is classified.
This means the independent legal and investigative staff Mr. Iacobucci employs will need top-secret security clearances.
It can take about two months for CSIS to complete the background checks and other work needed to provide an individual with a security clearance, says Paul Cavalluzzo, the chief counsel for the Arar commission.
The similarities between the Arar case and these three others prompted the Conservative government to announce the Iacobucci commission. All were held at a Syrian military intelligence prison; all say they were tortured; and all said their interrogators asked questions on the basis of information that they believe came from Canadian officials.
The government is asking Mr. Iacobucci to determine if the detention of Mr. Almalki, Mr. El Maati and Mr. Nureddin resulted directly or indirectly from actions by Canadian officials.