Troubling Info On Canadian National Database

[Aaron]

CBC

OTTAWA - The RCMP's deputy commissioner says information about innocent people caught in police investigations is stored in a national security database.

Gary Loeppky says that information can be passed to U.S. authorities if they request it. Loeppky was testifying at the public inquiry into the Maher Arar case.

Arar is the 34-year-old Ottawa engineer who was detained in New York in 2002 during a stopover as he returned from a holiday in Tunisia. U.S. officials grilled him about alleged links to the al-Qaeda network and then sent him to his birthplace, Syria, where he was kept for a year in prison. Arar says he was tortured.

The inquiry is investigating whether Canadian officials played a part in Arar's detention and deportation. Arar's lawyers believe he was the victim of shoddy intelligence information, passed to U.S. officials.

Loeppky says anyone who is briefly associated with a person under investigation could end up in the force's database and the information passed on to U.S. officials.

Loeppky revealed that the SCIS — the security criminal intelligence system — is maintained jointly by the RCMP, CSIS, border and immigration officials and local law enforcement. Team members don't need formal approval to enter information into the system.

The deputy commissioner said if a foreign agency, such as the FBI, asked for information, the decision to send a file is up to the team member.

RCMP guidelines say the information has to be needed for a legitimate criminal investigation and can't violate a person's privacy. But Loeppky said the guidelines sometimes come second to preventing a crime.

Arar's lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, called Leoppky's testimony alarming.

"I think it's a very, very troubling fact that an officer can release information about someone where there is no suggestion there is a body of evidence that they have been involved in illegal activity."

Loeppky's testimony will continue on July 6 when the inquiry resumes.

This may explain why Arar was detained and then deported.