In a powerful statement to a House foreign affairs panel that oversees global human rights, Canadian Judge Peter Cory blasted the British government’s plan to push through new legislation before it complies with its commitments to investigate state-sponsored collusion as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. 

    “Judge Cory could not be any clearer,” said Chairman Chris Smith who chaired his tenth hearing on human rights in Northern Ireland on Capitol Hill this week. “In his letter to me this morning he accused the British government of trying ‘to change the ground rules” and place any future investigatory commission in an “impossible situation.’" 

    “The bill pending before the British parliament should be named the ‘Public Inquiries Cover-up Bill,’” Smith said. 

    “There is great concern that if the murder of human rights attorney Patrick Finucane is investigated under the framework of a suddenly-needed new bill, the standards of independent scrutiny and full public review will not be met and new doubt will be cast over this case and the British government’s commitment to the peace process,” he said.

    As part of the Weston Park Accords of 2001, Judge Cory was selected by the British and Irish governments to investigate the possibility of state-sponsored collusion in six high-profile murders. The Weston Park Accords enabled the stalled peace process to move forward. 

    In October 2003, Cory released his report to the British government and recommended a full public inquiry into the 1989 murder of Patrick Finucane finding that there was sufficient evidence of collusion of British army personnel and the police (the Royal Ulster Constabulary) in Finucane’s murder. Weston Park obligated both the British and Irish governments to fully comply with all of Cory’s findings.

    After months of foot-dragging the British government agreed to establish a public inquiry into Finucane’s murder but announced it would do so only under new legislation it is drafting to shift all authority for running such an investigation away from independent judges and into the hands of the Ministers being investigated.

    Cory wrote to Smith: “The proposed new Act would make a meaningful inquiry impossible. The commissions would be working in an impossible situation. For example, the Minister, the actions of whose ministry was to be reviewed by the public inquiry would have the authority to thwart the efforts of the inquiry at every step. It really creates an intolerable Alice in Wonderland situation.”

    Cory firmly rejected the idea that any serious judge would participate in reviews set up under the new law.

    “There have been references in the press to an international judicial membership in the inquiry. If the new Act were to become law, I would advise all Canadian judges to decline an appointment in light of the impossible situation they would be facing. In fact, I cannot contemplate any self respecting Canadian judge accepting an appointment to an inquiry constituted under the new proposed act.”

    Judge Cory’s letter was presented at a hearing held by the International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations. Witnesses present at the hearing included Ambassador Mitchell Reiss, President Bush’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland; Geraldine Finucane, wife of the slain defense attorney; Jane Winter, Director British-Irish Rights Watch; Elissa Massimino, Director, Human Rights First, Washington; and Maggie Beirne, Director, Belfast-based Committee on the Administration of Justice.

    In her testimony Mrs. Finucane said her family would not recognize any investigation under the new legislative framework. 

    “I will resist this proposed law because I want to know the truth about the murder of my husband,” Mrs. Finucane said. “I refuse to allow the British Government to take away the truth as easily as it took away Pat’s life.”

    “Whether the new legislation is passed or not, the British government has the power to set up a public inquiry into the murder of Patrick Finucane that is Cory-compliant,” Smith said. “The establishment of a Public Inquiry into the Finucane case should be a no-brainer, but instead, the British have treated it like a non-starter."

    “It’s time the British government lives up to its commitment in good faith. It’s time for them to act. No more exceptions, no more excuses,” he said.