By Jim Bronskill

OTTAWA, ONTARIO – An investigation by the watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence Service concludes the spy agency “uses information obtained by torture” – perhaps its bluntest assessment of CSIS’s intelligence-gathering practices to date.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee, which began looking into the issue two years ago, stops short of accepting Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland’s assertion that CSIS had shown a “total lack of concern” about evidence possibly gathered through coercive means.

But it finds that CSIS’s concern has focused on the impact that torture might have on the reliability of information it uses, rather than obligations under the Charter of Rights, the Criminal Code and international treaties “that absolutely reject torture.”

Questions about Canadian reliance on information extracted from suspected terrorists through brutal methods have arisen in several high-profile cases.

Copeland’s complaint to the review committee, which reports to Parliament, stemmed from evidence CSIS entered in the case of client Mohamed Harkat who is slated for deportation to his native Algeria under a national security certificate.

CSIS contends Harkat, a former pizza delivery man, is an Islamic extremist and collaborator with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network – a charge he denies.

During bail proceedings for Harkat in 2005, Copeland questioned a senior CSIS analyst, identified only as P.G., whether he ever asked if information he handled was obtained through torture.

P.G. insisted he would usually try to corroborate such material through independent sources.

Copeland was left with the impression the spy service made no effort to determine whether information was extracted by torture.

In its report, recently delivered to Copeland, committee member Aldea Landry noted CSIS is required, before entering a foreign liaison arrangement, to address the country’s human rights record. That includes possible abuses by its security or intelligence organizations.

In addition, arrangements with countries that do not share Canada’s respect for human rights are to be considered only when contact is necessary to protect the security of Canada.

“Based on these facts, I find CSIS is concerned with human rights, but nevertheless uses information obtained by torture.”

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