The most important new piece of information deals with a previously unknown visit by CSIS officers to Egypt in December 2002 to get information about Ahmad El Maati and two other Arab-Canadians. CSIS didn’t inform the Canadian Ministry of Foreign affairs about its trip until March 2003.
Iacobucci says that in the list of questions and during its December 2002 visit to Egypt, CSIS “did not make any inquiries with Egyptian authorities about Mr. El Maati’s treatment in either Syria or Egypt, despite knowing that Mr. El Maati had alleged that he was tortured in Syria.” He concludes El Maati “suffered mistreatment of some form as a consequence of the Service’s interaction with Egyptian authorities.”
CSIS told Iacobucci, however, that it viewed “this possibility was not highly likely, and balanced that against the compelling reasons to try to clarify whether there really was a threat to Canada, (assistant director of operations Jack) Hooper stated that, taking these and other considerations into account, CSIS concluded that it would be appropriate to proceed with the visit,” the inquiry head reported.
“Several witnesses, from both CSIS and the RCMP, told the Inquiry that it was not the responsibility of intelligence or law enforcement officials to be concerned about the human rights of a Canadian detainee, which were for DFAIT alone to consider,” Iacobucci reports in the new chapter of his findings.
“No Canadian officials should consider themselves exempt from this responsibility,” said Iacobucci.
Indeed, a senior CSIS official admitted to Iacobucci, behind closed doors, that “in hindsight” CSIS agents should have asked the question because it would have been relevant in deciding how reliable his statements were.
The report also shows the fruits of CSIS interviews with Elmaati in December 2002 were shared with the RCMP and two unnamed foreign agencies.
El Maati and his supporters want to know whether Canadian spies witnessed Egyptian interrogation sessions.
“There should be more information coming out,” El Maati said.

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