The Fifth Estate

The Torture Files (42x1)

: 23, 2016

Canadian officials supplied Syrian torturers with interrogation questions for three Canadians who were detained and tortured in Syria and Egypt during the post-Sept. 11 crackdown on terror suspects. Documents obtained by the fifth estate show Canadian officials not only knew Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin would likely be tortured at the hands of Syrian intelligence officers, they supplied them with interrogation questions. Two separate federal inquiries found Canadian authorities played a role in the torture of Canadians abroad and the trio -- none of whom was ever arrested in Canada for suspected terror offences -- filed a $100-million lawsuit against the government in 2006. Earlier this year, their lawyers won a lengthy court battle with the RCMP and CSIS to gain access to nearly 18,000 pages of heavily redacted documents. CBC News obtained exclusive access to the documents. In “The Torture Files,” a joint investigation by the fifth estate and CBC’s The National, Terence McKenna explores just how far CSIS and the RCMP went in their collaboration with the brutal Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad that resulted in the torture of three Canadians. The treasure trove consists of internal memos, briefing notes from field agents to their superiors, inter-agency communications, emails, reports and even a memo that shows at least one RCMP officer on the case might have had serious doubts about their targets. Watch Terence McKenna's report on The National on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Friday night at 11:30 PM on the fifth estate. The Torture Files also airs Sunday at 7 PM ET on CBC News Network.