Policy Under Fire

Days ago the Supreme Court of Canada condemned the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for destroying classified evidence related to the case against a Montreal man, Charkaoui, accused of having links to terrorism. "The destruction of operational notes is a breach of CSIS duty to retain and disclose information, CSIS's duty to retain all intelligence is clearly outlined in Section 12 of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act" the Supreme Court wrote in a summary of its decision, and the decision could force the CSIS to review its long-standing but controversial practice of shredding all its operational notes. CSIS should not only be required to keep their original notes, but also to disclose them to the defence once a case goes to court. The key issue was a set of interviews CSIS conducted with Charkaoui, including one in which he allegedly spoke of strategies for recruiting others to the terrorist cause. CSIS's policy of destroying original notes, transcripts and recordings of interviews has come under fire.

In Charkaoui's case, CSIS summaries of interviews which have been made public show neither questions posed nor answers given and failed to provide any information about the context or interrogation methods. In such a situation, the door is open to mistakes, errors of interpretation, bias and outright fabrication. In brief, CSIS "builds a case," setting aside or destroying as irrelevant evidence leading to different conclusions. Charkaoui spoke out finally, "In 20 years, this is the first time CSIS is told to be careful of what it's done. For the first time, those people are told they cannot do this sort of thing. They cannot destroy evidence and put information in files that are nothing but summaries, with no context." Now Charkaoui has asked for complete disclosure of all information in his file and has asked to cross-examine the CSIS agents who prepared his file, Immigration Minister Diane Finley and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.


Immigration Minister Diane Finley - Ms. Finley has been active with a number of other organizations, including the National Standards Committee of the Paramedic Association of Canada, the Ambulance Service Alliance of Ontario and the Ontario Government Health Policy Advisory Council.