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Canada's first rendition to torture: Benamar Benatta renews call for a full inquiry into his deportation

January 30, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew

Benamar Benatta, a refugee from Algeria who, without benefit of a legal counsel or hearing, was illegally handed over to the U.S. by Canadian officials on September 12, 2001, is renewing his call for a full inquiry into his deportation to the United States.

As reported in the Ottawa Citizen last weekend, Benatta, "has the dubious distinction of being the first victim of Canada's sometimes overzealous security response to the U.S. terror attacks." He also represents the only known case of Canadian complicity in rendition and torture that has not yet received an official review.

Benatta's full story is explained on his website. It describes his attempt, prior to September 11, 2001, to seek asylum in Canada after deserting the Algerian army, his problems crossing the border from the United States into Canada, his arrest and detention in Canada, and his subsequent deportation to the United States after 9/11 when Canada, for reasons no one has explained, thought Benatta could have somehow been involved in the terrorist attacks.

Although the FBI cleared Benatta of any terrorist links in November 2001 -- two months after his arrest -- he was held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer, in a notorious Brooklyn detention centre for the next five years.
"You just can't take somebody who's innocent and accuse him of being involved in the worst terrorist crime -- and then just close your hands and make like nothing happened," Benatta told the Ottawa Citizen.

"I would like to have answers about why. Somebody out there owes me an apology. Canada just can't take an innocent person and send him away and forget about him for five years."

Benatta's case is proof that Canada's security response isn't just "sometimes overzealous," as the Citizen reported on the weekend. The Canadian government systematically raises cooperation with the United States and other international allies above human rights and international law as a foreign policy concern.

In fact, just today Embassy magazine is reporting that Canada will be removing Mexico, as well as the United States, from a Department of Foreign Affairs list of countries that practice torture. As Embassy reports, this is despite a U.S. State Department travel advisory warning that, "Mexican police regularly obtain information through torture and prosecutors use this evidence in courts," and that while the Mexican constitution prohibits torture, and Mexico is party to several international anti-torture conventions, "courts continue to admit as evidence confessions extracted under torture.

"Authorities rarely punish officials for torture, which continues to occur in large part because confessions are the primary evidence in many criminal convictions," writes the U.S. State Department. "U.S. citizens have been brutalized, beaten, and even raped while in police custody."

So why would Canada remove Mexico from its list?

Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada, says it has everything to do with Canada wanting to maintain cosy relations with Mexico.

"We have a free trade arrangement, we have the Security and Prosperity Partnership, we have a very close relationship with Mexico," Neve told Embassy. "Does that have anything to do with whether or not torture is happening in Mexican prisons and Canadian officials should be aware of that when they're receiving torture awareness training? Of course it doesn't."

Amnesty is one of several organizations that sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day last May demanding an inquiry into Benatta's rendition to the United States.

Benatta was in Ottawa this week with his lawyer, Nicole Chrolavicius, and Matthew Behrens, coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada and Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, to renew his call for a full review of "any and all actions of Canadian officials in relation to his ordeal."

They are asking Canadians to write to Day urging him to get this review started, as well as to sign a petition directed at Day and Prime Minister Harper.

Click here to see Benatta’s talk on Google Video. You can access Chrolavicius and Behrens’ talks on the same page by clicking the links to the right of the video screen.

Click here to see a CBC report and video about Mr. Benatta's case.

Click here to read more documents related to Benatta's case, including the open letter to Stockwell Day from May 8, 2007, signed by Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the Canadian Arab Federation, CAIR-CAN, and la Ligue des droit et libertés.