First it was brokering the sale of billions of dollars of military equipment to the mediaeval torture-state of Saudi Arabia. Now the Trudeau Liberals are in court trying to deny compensation to three Canadians, Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati, who ended up in Syrian dungeons when the Chrétien and Martin Liberals were in power. They were tortured in captivity, thanks to the RCMP and CSIS, who shared false information with the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Here’s the exhaustive Iacobucci Report on the matter. Iacobucci’s words are measured, but his conclusions are damning.

Documents have now surfaced about Almalki’s case. Even though they were unsure of their facts, the RCMP denounced him to the Syrian authorities, and sent along a list of questions to be asked during Almalki’s interrogation. They had nothing on him, said one RCMP official in a memo, “other than the fact he is an arab [sic] running around.” But that appeared to be enough in itself.

Nothing new here. Maher Arar’s torture by the Syrians was given diplomatic encouragement during the same time period. The Canadian ambassador to Syria was a boob named Franco Pillarella, who had the face to testify at the Arar inquiry in 2005 that he was unaware of any human rights abuses in Syria. As the kids say, SMFH.

The Liberals are going even further than the previous regime to protect CSIS, which had worked with the RCMP all along. Anyone still hopeful that C-51 will have its fangs drawn?