Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service
Wayne Easter, the former solicitor-general who presided during the Arar ordeal, appeared to contradict earlier testimony from RCMP head Giuliano Zacardelli today when he answered questions at a commons committee.
Responding to Justice Dennis O’Connor’s report on the Arar case at the public safety and national security committee, Easter said he was never told the RCMP had passed on false information to the United States and was never told the RCMP tried to correct it, as claimed by Zacardelli.
“I was not informed that the RCMP had provided inaccurate information to the U.S.,” Easter told the MPs.
When Zacardelli met with the committee in September he was asked when he informed his minister about the RCMP’s error, and he replied that he could not recall specifically but that “briefings and timelines started to be prepared for him as the matter came up, and we started providing that information.”
But Easter emphatically told the committee that that information never reached him. In preparation for today’s appearance Easter said he reviewed documents, briefing notes and material he had received during his tenure on the Arar case and met with his staff in order to have a clear timeline of what he knew and when.
In two briefing notes from October and November of 2002, Easter said, “There was no reference to errors in information, no reference to false information, nor was there any reference to any corrective efforts having been made by the RCMP with respect to any of the information which may have been shared.”
The same was true in briefings given in June and July of the following year, Easter testified.
Giving further evidence he was in the dark abut the erroneous information passed on to the U.S., Easter said the issue was never raised with him by his American counterpart Attorney General John Ashcroft. Presumably when American investigators learned they had false information on Arar, Ashcroft would have been briefed on that information, Easter said, and he believes Ashcroft would have shared that with him.
“Attorney General Ashcroft…would have undoubtedly raised that point with me,” Easter said.
Asked whether he would have acted differently had he known earlier that Arar had no terrorist links, Easter said he didn’t want to answer hypothetical questions.
Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was arrested in the United States in 2002, and sent to his native Syria where he was imprisoned for a year and endured torture before being released without charge.
The committee is planning to recall Zacardelli to clarify his initial testimony and he will likely be asked about the contradictions provided today by his former political boss.
Torture,
You don’t have to be deported to another country to get tortured you can get that treatment here in Canada.
I was a police officer in the Province of New Brunswick when I was shot 5 times while on duty and left to die. The RCMP responding met the guy escaping with the police cruiser not once but twice and let him go. Statements were not taken, evidence was disposed of and not preserved, a weapon found was not sent to any crime lab and after 6 REVIEWS of the unsolved case and much opposition to disclose the findings are all is well… Yeah! for them and the Commissioner was also Commander in New Brunswick before he came to Ottawa in 2000… I guess his expertise was needed there too…
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Alexandru Ichim
213-262 St Helen’s Ave.
Toronto ON
M6H 4A4
November 12, 2006
Mr. Mario Silva,
Member of Parliament – Davenport Riding
House of Commons
Ottawa ON
Dear Mr. Silva,
I believe that as an MP you should take a stand in the Maher Arar case, in respect of the damages which Mr. Arar is demanding, on the basis of fairness. It is my contention that Mr. Arar’s compensation should not exceed that which the Veteran’s Act allows for the military personnel engaged in the Afghan mission.
Mr. Arar has already received a new home, and is now asking for $400 million from the taxpayers of Canada. He has also requested employment for himself and his wife. His lawyers of course also stand to profit handsomely from this overblown case.
I find Mr. Arar’s demands outrageous, especially when considered against the daily risks and stresses experienced by our military personnel in Afghanistan. I believe that allowing Mr. Arar to become a millionaire as a result of his experience will result in many people feeling like second class citizens who have obligations from which others are exempt. The RCMP and the Canadian Government have become intimidated by Islamic people who are trying to profit from the current threats of terrorism.
In fact, it is a terrorist act in itself to use our democratic process as a weapon, forcing taxpayers to pay to keep potential terrorists quiescent. All Islamic countries have tough penitentiary systems which in comparison to Canadian jails could be called ‘torture’ by some.
It is flagrantly unfair that the tribulations and injuries of the Canadian military personnel in Afghanistan should be evaluated on a dramatically lesser scale than the experiences of Mr. Arar.
I hope that you appreciate the scale of the issue and make a stand for fairness in this issue.
Yours Sincerely,
Alexandru Ichim
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