A new government directive to CSIS details the guidelines on sharing and using information that is a result of ... or could cause torture. The government calls it necessary for national security. A wary opposition calls it unprecedented in Canadian history. But no one sees it quite like a man who has actually been tortured unjustly in the name of Canadian security.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Tuesday March 6th.

Allegations of vote fraud continues to mar Vladimir Putin's Russian Presidential election victory.

Currently, An angry Putin calls the allegations a smear and says if the opposition has any proof they should take it to Elections Canada.

This is The Current.

CSIS guidelines on sharing information involving torture - CP Reporter

We started this segment with a clip from Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney during Question Period last month in full-throated defence of the government's policy on using information gleaned through torture... something revealed by a memo made public through a Freedom of Information request.

Now, the government is under attack again by the opposition after The Canadian Press revealed a second memo from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to Richard Fadden, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Mr. Toews reminded Mr. Fadden of the fact that torture is a criminal offence in Canada and set out guidelines for how Canada's intelligence service should share information with foreign governments who may be using torture to try to extract information from people CSIS finds of interest.

Jim Bronskill is the CP reporter who broke the stories on both memos, and he joined us from our Ottawa studio.

CSIS guidelines on sharing information involving torture - Maher Arar

Maher Arar knows all too well what can happen when intelligence is shared between countries. In 2002, the Syrian-Canadian engineer was arrested by the Americans, based on shared and we later learned subsequently inaccurate Canadian intelligence. Under their rendition program the Americans sent him to Syria, where he was detained for nearly a year under suspicion of being a member of al-Qaeda. During his imprisonment, he was tortured repeatedly.

Maher Arar is now the publisher of Prism Magazine, a website devoted to security issues. We reached him at his home in Ottawa.

CSIS guidelines on sharing information involving torture - Govt

Candice Hoeppner has had to deal with much of the fallout from the release of the two memos by Public Safety Minister Vic Toews. She is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety. Candice Hoeppner was in Ottawa.

This segment was produced by The Current's Chris Wodskou and Howard Goldenthal.

Related Links:

• CSIS directive on info sharing doesn't condone torture, Tories say -
  Jordan Press, Postmedia News
• Minister Toews Bows to Pressure on Torture Policy By: Maher Arar - Prism Magazine
• Minister Toews Directive Promotes Market for Torture By: Paul Cavalluzzo - Prism Magazine
• CSIS OK'd to share data despite torture risk - The Canadian Press

Other segments from today's show:

• Eating Food on the Subway
• Robert Amsterdam on Vladimir Putin's Russia