A QUESTION OF COMPLACENCY - THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR

We as Canadian citizens feel safe and far removed from America's War on Terrorism, detention and torture in Guatonamo's Cuban prison and the American new policies on the judicial process.  We all feel that this basically does not impact us and as long as we aren't doing anything wrong, we will be safe. How many of us actually have heard of Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who was falsely accused of having ties to Al Queda.  He was deported from the United States in September of 2002 to Syria and held for 10 months and 10 days before being moved to a "better cell" in a different prison only to be tortured  which resulted in a false confession. After relentless campaigning and pressure by his wife,  he was finally released after almost one year.

By pressure borne on the Candian government by its citizens and Human Rights Organizations the Canadian Commision of Inquiry was established to investigate the actions of Canadian officials in relation to Mr. Arar.  On September 18, 2006, the Canadian Commission of Inquiry issued its report to the public.  Their findings cleared Maher of links to terrorism and believed that he was a victim of torture during his incarceration in Syria.  Syria also acknowleged that Mr. Arar has no links to terrorists or terrorism.  

Even after Mr. Arar was cleared, the United States continued to to make state that Mr Arar was "affiliated with members of organizations they describe as terrorist"[1]    Mr. "Arar's name remains on watch lists that forbid his entry into the United States".^[2]  As at October 18, 2007, the Bush administration still hadn't apologized to Mr. Arar even though they were called on by lawmakers from both political parties to so.

To add insult to injury, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case after Mr. Arar's suit against the United States, naming former Attorney General John Ashcroft as defendant; was dismissed first in 2006, reheard in 2008 and affirmed in 2009.  It concluded "that Arar could not sue the officials involved in his rendition, namely former Attorney General John Ashcroft"^[3]  Mr. Arar has now petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissal.

When I look suffering Mr. Arar underwent through America's illegal actions, Canada's failure to protect and demand his release to Canada and the torture he experience at the hand of the Syrians,  I am appalled.  These violations include the lack of due process as afforded by the US Constitution, torture contrary to International law provided by the Geneva convention and the compliance of the Canadian government and providing false information to the United States officials by the RCMP.  I wonder why we as Canadian citizens are not in a complete uproar.  To allow the deportation of Mr. Arar to Syria, of which he holds dual citizenship, is such a gross violation of what we as Canadian's stand for.  By not fighting Mr. Arar's deportation to Syria, a country which is known for its "systematic torture and ill-treatment"[4], we are co-conspirators along with the broken and corrupt American government and justice systems.  Naively, I believed in  my country and its imageput forth as the champion of protecting and defending of human rights not only of Canadian citizens, but also of all humankind.  I guess I was wrong.



1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
2 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21458003/
3 http://rollback.typepad.com/campaign/2009/11/protect-the-victim-not-the-aggressor.html
3 http://www.mafhoum.com/press2/62S6.htm