Independent Review of the Extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab

Appendix C – Summary of Recommendations

    1. The role of IAG counsel acting in an advisory capacity should be kept separate from the role of DOJ counsel acting on behalf of the requesting state at the extradition or committal hearing, whenever possible. Efforts should be made to maintain a buffer, where appropriate, between officials in the requesting state and the litigator in Canada advancing the case for committal.
    2. To avoid concerns about potential conflicts of interest, the IAG should consider adopting a formal policy whereby counsel involved in approving the Authority to Proceed do not act as litigators at the committal stage, and counsel who provide advice to the Minister at the surrender decision stage have not been involved in either the Authority to Proceed decision or the extradition/committal hearing
    3. The Department of Justice should require the IAG to produce an up-to-date Deskbook on extradition proceedings and mutual legal assistance. The Department of Justice should also consider making appropriate portions of the Deskbook available to the public to promote a better understanding of the extradition process and mutual legal assistance.
    4. Requesting states should be encouraged to complete their investigations in relation to the person sought before making a request for extradition subject, of course, to public safety concerns.
    5. Counsel for the IAG should actively advise requesting states to produce streamlined and economical materials to support their extradition requests. They should provide advice on the most effective and efficient way to structure the ROC, the kinds of evidence to include and the type of information to leave out. When it comes to the Record of the Case, less is usually better.
    6. Where an extradition request rests to a significant degree on expert opinion evidence, the report itself – rather than simply a summary of its conclusions – should be appended to the ROC and thereby disclosed to the person sought.
    7. The IAG should consider implementing a practice of asking the requesting state to provide an official translation of the ROC when it is reasonable to anticipate that translation issues will arise during the extradition proceedings.
    8. The Department of Justice should consider reinstituting an IAG counsel liaison position in France.
    9. Counsel for the Attorney General advancing a case for extradition should consider sharing evidence – particularly relevant and exculpatory or potentially exculpatory evidence – even when they are not required or obligated to do so.
    10. The Department of Justice should consider initiating consultations with the judiciary and relevant stakeholders on the viability and desirability of creating case management powers for judges hearing extradition cases.
    11. Counsel for the person sought should only be permitted to make additional and supplementary submissions to the Minister on the issue of surrender when: new information has been disclosed or overwise come to light; or in situations where there has been a relevant change in circumstances.
    12. The Department of Justice should consider making available to the public: statistics about extradition requests made and received by Canada; the policies and procedures guiding decision-makers within the IAG; the factors considered by the Minister in making surrender decisions; information about the types of assurances sought by the Minister; and summaries of surrender decisions (while respecting privacy concerns).
    13. In every case, the Department of Justice should find out from the requesting state how long the person sought can be detained before a decision is made as to whether to refer the matter to trial and that information should be shared with the defence and provided to the Minister before a surrender decision is made.
    14. The Department of Justice should examine the issue of timely trials arising out of Dr. Diab’s experience with a view to determining whether the Canada- France treaty should be updated to specifically address issues of delay and timely proceedings.