Founded in 2001, Project O Canada was a Toronto-based[1] anti-terrorism investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks,[2] subdivisions of the project named A-O Canada and C-O Canada were based in Ottawa and Montreal, RCMP Divisions A and C respectively.[2] By December 2001, the RCMP was shifting its focus from gathering intelligence, to seeking information "in a manner suitable for court purposes".[3]
It was later criticised for bringing together forty members from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's (RCMP) Commercial Crimes, IPOC, and National Security Investigations branches, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Customs and Revenue Agency, Canada Border Services Agency, the Quebec and Ontario provincial police, and local officers from Hull, Gatineau and Ottawa. The team was composed almost entirely of individuals with no knowledge of intelligence gathering, Islam, or human rights issues, and was simply told to cooperate fully with the American Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, turning over all information without hesitation.[4]
The project was ultimately found to have played a "central role"[5] in the wrongful rendition and torture of Canadian citizens, including Maher Arar, who was tortured for ten months before being found innocent of the officers' claims that he was "suspected of being linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist movement".[6]
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