OTTAWA — The RCMP watchdog has launched a review of how well the Mounties learned the lessons of the Maher Arar torture affair.
The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP will examine issues ranging from the sharing of sensitive information with foreign governments to the detention of Canadians in overseas prisons.
It marks the review commission's first known foray into the RCMP's national security operations since legislative changes gave it new muscle to probe Mountie intelligence efforts.
"The intent of the review is to foster public confidence in the RCMP's national security activities by providing an independent, external examination of an operational area that may not otherwise be subject to outside scrutiny," says a notice posted on the commission's website.
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained in New York in September 2002 and soon after deported by U.S. authorities — winding up in a grave-like cell in Damascus.
Under torture, the Ottawa telecommunications engineer gave false confessions to Syrian military intelligence officers about supposed collaboration with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
A federal inquiry led by Justice Dennis O'Connor concluded that faulty information the RCMP passed to the United States very likely led to Arar's year-long ordeal.
O'Connor's initial report made 23 recommendations — including many aimed at the RCMP — on training, oversight and information sharing. The RCMP has spelled out the various steps taken to address the recommendations.
The review commission will look at the RCMP's centralization and co-ordination of national security operations, national security training, domestic and foreign information sharing, border lookout flags and the detention of Canadians abroad.
It wants to ensure RCMP activities follow legislation, regulations and ministerial direction.
"One of the good things about the study is the whole question about how well the RCMP has adapted in the post-Arar commission era has kind of gone underground, and we don't really know," said Wesley Wark, a historian and intelligence expert who teaches at the University of Ottawa.
"This is an area where the review commission can really, I think, do some good work and do it ultimately in public."
The review comes as the Liberal government prepares a sweeping examination of national security policy that will scrutinize laws passed by the previous Conservative government and evaluate the current array of security watchdogs.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has already said the review will study controversial directives enacted by the Harper government that allow for the sharing of information even when it might lead to torture — directives critics say fly in the face of O'Connor's recommendations.
