Ottawa: The Canadian government has reportedly ordered the nation’s spy agency to use information extracted through torture in cases where public safety is at stake.
The order represents a reversal of policy for the Conservative government, which once insisted the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) would discard information if there was any inkling it might be tainted.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews quietly told CSIS that the government now expects the spy service to “make the protection of life and property its overriding priority.”
A copy of the two-page December 2010 directive was obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, The Globe and Mail reports.
The latest directive said that in “exceptional circumstances” where there is a threat to human life or public safety, urgency may require CSIS to “share the most complete information available at the time with relevant authorities, including information based on intelligence provided by foreign agencies that may have been derived from the use of torture or mistreatment.”
The directive also said that the final decision to investigate and analyze information that may have been obtained by methods condemned by the Canadian government falls to the CSIS director or his deputy director for operations, a decision to be made “in accordance with Canada’s legal obligations.”
Finally, it said that the minister is to be notified “as appropriate” of a decision to use such information.
According to the report, the directive drew swift condemnation from Amnesty International Canada, which said information obtained under torture “has no place in the justice system.”
Bob Rae, the Interim Liberal leader, also expressed concern, saying the minister is not above the law.
“The law in Canada has been pretty clear that information based on torture, first of all, is not reliable and, second of all, is not permissible,” Rae said.