October 21, 2008 - Today, the Minister of Public Safety, the Honourable Stockwell Day, issued a statement following the publication of Commissioner Frank Iacobucci's report.
"The Government of Canada has received the report from the Internal Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin. We will now carefully review the report.
The situation related to Messrs. Almalki, Abou-Elmaati and Nureddin took place under a previous government.
When our Government received the O'Connor Report regarding the case of Maher Arar, we took immediate action to implement the 23 recommendations included in the report.
One of the recommendations of the O'Connor Report was to launch an inquiry into the cases of Messrs. Almalki, Abou-Elmaati and Nureddin. This is exactly what our Government did when we appointed Commissioner Iacobucci to look into this matter. By doing so, our Government showed once again that we take the security of Canadians very seriously.
The implementation of the recommendations included in the O'Connor Report is largely complete. The Government has, amongst other things, improved how departments work together on national security files, has added safeguards to how it uses and shares information with other countries, has strengthened the training for its national security agencies, and has invested more resources into consular services for Canadians abroad. The Government has also put in place protocols to establish guidelines on information sharing between the RCMP and CSIS, and also between Canada and our allies.
Furthermore, our Government is moving forward on comprehensive and robust security and intelligence review measures.
Our Government is unwavering in its commitment to give law enforcement the tools they need to safeguard our national security and to ensure review mechanisms are in place to protect Canadians."
Mélisa Leclerc
Director of Communications
Office of the Honourable Stockwell Day
Minister of Public Safety
613-991-2863
