US offered to return Arar

[cbacon 0]

Before you condemn Canada for this, take a look at the condition that was imposed. Personally, I'd have said fine, we'll incarcerate, and then not done it. But that's just crazy old me.

 

U.S. officials offered to return Maher Arar to Canada before they deported him to Syria, but Ottawa turned them down, a senator says.

 

Liberal Senator Pierre De Bané told the Arar inquiry on Wednesday morning that he learned of the offer at a Foreign Affairs briefing.

 

Arar, a Syrian-born engineer from Ottawa, was detained in the United States in 2002 while returning from a vacation in Tunisia.

 

He was then deported to Syria, where he was jailed for nearly a year. Arar says he was tortured during his ordeal.

 

De Bané said a top Foreign Affairs official told him the Americans were only willing to hand over Arar under certain conditions.

 

"He said the Americans said to the Canadians, 'We are ready to give you back Mr. Arar on the condition that you bring him back to Canada, you incarcerate him, you make charges against him,'" he testified.

 

"And the Canadian party said, 'No, the Canadian Charter of Freedoms does not allow us to do what you're asking. We do not have proper grounds.'"

 

De Bané said he learned of the offer from Gar Pardy, a former Foreign Affairs officer who was in charge of consular affairs at the time.

 

Pardy testified before the inquiry last week.

 

The inquiry is looking into Canada's role in Arar's deportation.

 

If a government's duty is to protect its citizens, and the only choices offered are to let an innocent Canadian citizen be deported to face torture and imprisonment or incarcerate him here, it makes sense to look for a third option.

 

For those unfamiliar with the story of Maher Arar: Info

Mahers story

Edited June 2, 2005 by C-Bacon