Ottawa promises inquiry will get to the bottom of Arar case

[LANDER]

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/01/28/arar_inquiry040128

 

OH CANADA!

 

 

Ottawa promises inquiry will get to the bottom of Arar case

Last Updated Wed, 28 Jan 2004 22:14:20

OTTAWA - A full public inquiry has been called into why a Canadian citizen was deported by U.S. officials to Syria, where he was imprisoned for a year.

 

 

INDEPTH: Maher Arar

 

 

Anne McLellan

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan announced on Wednesday that Justice Dennis O'Connor would head the inquiry into the Maher Arar case.

 

The announcement was welcomed by Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh. "We are delighted with the announcement," Mazigh told a news conference.

 

McLellan said O'Connor would have all the powers allowed under the Public Inquiries Act, including the ability to call witnesses and compel testimony.

 

 

Dennis O'Connor (CP photo)

 

O'Connor recently led the inquiry into the tainted water tragedy in Walkerton, Ont. "I am very pleased that he has agreed to accept this task," said McLellan.

 

Prime Minister Paul Martin has offered to have opposition party leaders who have seats in Parliament sworn into the Privy Council, so they can see even the classified sections of the inquiry, McLellan said.

 

"It's important to remember why we're here. It's about a man called Maher Arar. It's about his deportation and detention and it is about… the actions of Canadian officials, if any, in relation to those events," said McLellan.

 

 

Maher Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh

(CP photo)

 

Arar said he was eager to see the terms of reference for the inquiry, and wants to contribute to defining them.

 

Arar's lawyer Lorne Waldman said Arar would eventually be asking for compensation, but Arar said that wasn't his main goal.

 

"The most important thing is to exonerate myself and to be certain it won't happen to others," he said.

 

McLellan said O'Connor would also "be asked to make recommendations on an independent, arm's-length review mechanism for the RCMP's activities with respect to national security."

 

Arar has been asking for a public inquiry since he returned to Montreal in October. He says he was tortured while he was held in a Syrian jail.

 

The inquiry is expected to find out what role Canadian security agencies played in his deportation and detention.

 

Conservative justice critic Vic Toews said the government had been pressured into calling the inquiry, but noted "It's also the right thing to do." Toews told CBC Newsworld he was concerned the scope of the inquiry wouldn't be broad enough.

 

"Is it going to look at the relationship between the government and the RCMP?" he said. "We need to have the RCMP at arm's length to the government."

 

Arar was arrested in September 2002 while switching planes in New York when he was returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia. After holding him for nearly two weeks, U.S. officials deported him to Syria where he was born, despite the fact he was travelling on a Canadian passport.

 

U.S. authorities said they had reason to suspect Arar was linked to al-Qaeda. There have been allegations that they were acting, in part, on information that came from Canada.

 

Former prime minister Jean Chrétien refused to call a public inquiry, but the Security Intelligence Review Committee announced in December it would investigate the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's role in the case.

 

The Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP is looking into the Mounties' role.

 

The prime minister has said the United States has to respect Canadian passports.

 

Earlier this month, Arar launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government, alleging the Americans sent him to Syria knowing he would be tortured there.