By Canadian Press

Canada denies role in detention, torture of former Guantanamo Bay detainee

Mar 20, 2023 | 12:00 PM

OTTAWA — The federal government denies Canada supplied faulty information that contributed to the detention and torture of a man who was held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years.

In a statement of defence filed in Federal Court, the attorney general of Canada says events that befell Mohamedou Ould Slahi were exclusively the result of actions and decisions of foreign officials.

Slahi filed a lawsuit last year over Canada’s alleged role in his detention at the U.S. offshore military prison in Cuba, where he says he suffered beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual assault.

Slahi, a Mauritanian citizen with permanent resident status in Canada, lived in Montreal in late 1999 and early 2000 upon moving from Germany.

He left Canada after Canadian authorities started questioning him about supposed ties to Ahmed Ressam, the so-called millennium bomber who planned to attack the Los Angeles airport.

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Slahi’s amended statement of claim says surveillance during his brief period in Montreal pushed him to return to West Africa, setting off a lengthy pattern of arrests, interrogations and imprisonment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2023.

The Canadian Press