When Justice Dennis O’Connor issued his report on the case of the mistreatment of Maher Arar in Syria, he also noted the existence of other cases that appeared to have some resemblance to that one, cases involving Ahmad El-Maati, Abdullah Almalki, and Muayyed Nureddin. In his report, O’Connor called for a separate inquiry into these cases to determine what responsibility Canadian officials had in their ordeal. However, he recommended that the undertaking be carried out in a less time-consuming fashion. The proceedings and report preparation in the Arar case took over two years.

Justice Frank Iacobucci, who is conducting the current review, and who has a deadline of January 31, has carried out his work in secret, leading the three men involved to complain about a lack of access to information obtained. John Laskin, a lawyer for the inquiry, claims that lawyers for the three are being kept informed about events taking place and promises that there will be some public hearings.