CSIS Insisted on Torture Data

The Gazette has found a letter from the organization's director begging the government to allow information obtained by torture.

A leaked document from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) suggests that the organization was heavily reliant on information derived from torture. A 2008 letter from then director Jim Judd said that the agency’s ability to control suspected terrorists would fall apart without that type of data. As the struck down security certificate law was being replaced, Judd wrote to the minister of public security begging the government to allow CSIS and the courts to use information either obtained by torture or derived from it through legal means later. His request was subsequently denied, and legislation preventing the use of such data was passed in February of that year.