A secret high-level committee at Canada's spy agency is tasked with deciding whether information received from abroad is tainted by torture, declassified records show.
Internal 91原创 Security Intelligence Service memos reveal the key role that the recently formed Information Sharing Evaluation Committee plays in determining if the spy agency makes use of the suspect material.
The committee - whose existence was previously unknown outside the intelligence service - also helps CSIS decide whether to send information to foreign agencies in cases where it might lead to mistreatment.
Detailed instructions direct committee members to comb through databases, consult human rights reports and weigh the par-ticular circumstances of each case to arrive at a decision.
Ultimately, CSIS director Dick Fadden makes the final call when the committee decides information is likely derived from torture, of if sending 91原创 material to an allied agency could result in someone being abused.
The instructions issued by Michel Coulombe, CSIS deputy director of operations, put flesh on the bones of a July 2011 directive on information handling to the spy service from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.
The government directive outlined conditions for deciding whether to share information when there is a "substantial risk" that doing so might result in someone in custody being abused.
It also said protection of life and property are the chief considerations when deciding on the use of information that may have been extracted through torture.
Opposition MPs and civil liberties advocates condemned the directive, saying it would help torture flourish in grim prison cells around the world.
Amnesty International Canada said the policy was in direct contravention of Canada's international obligations to prevent brutalization of prisoners. Inappropriate sharing of information by 91原创 authorities contributed to the torture of Arab-91原创s in Syria in the post-9-11 period, Amnesty Canada pointed out.
A resulting federal inquiry into the case of Ottawa engineer Maher Arar recommended that information never be provided to a foreign country where there is a credible risk that it will cause or contribute to the use of torture.
