The government of Canada failed to come to the aid of Maher Arar in the circumstance of his deportation. Firstly why did the United States government do this, then after the situation worsened why Canada didn’t intervene when we should have, and lastly what were the many consequences that arose from our collective lack of action.

Maher Arar is a Syrian born Canadian citizen, he moved to Canada with his family at the age of 17. He earned a master’s degree from McGill University and worked for two high tech firms in Ottawa. In 2002 while on a flight home from Zurich, he was stopped and pulled aside for questioning at JFK airport in New York. After this he was interrogated intensely for three days by the United States government, about possible links to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, he denies all of these allegations and continued to request a lawyer these requests were all denied because he was not an American citizen. Eventually Arar was asked to sign forms without the ability to read them and no legal counsel he signed the forms indicating that he would like to return to Canada. They asked him why he had originally fled Syria, he answerd honestly that he had left to avoid mandatory military service. They continue to say that he will not be returned to Canada and that he will most likely be returned to Syria because he also has citizenship there. the Syrians are known for their torture of prisoners and their willingness to interrogate prisoners from other countries. He was eventually allowed a two minute call which he used to call his wife and tell her to get him help. After this he was flown to New Jersey then to Amman Jordan, from there he was driven to the Syrian border. While in Syria he was beaten and tortured into giving false confessions of his involvement with al-Qaeda. He was kept in a cell the size of a coffin for just under a year while he was tortured and starved. He was eventually returned to Canada in large part due to the campaign by his wife .

Arar’s case was an example of the legal process known as rendition which is the transport of a person to another jurisdiction. But Arar’s case was not just normal rendition; His was a case of extraordinary rendition. This is to say rendition that is beyond the law or the movement of one person to another jurisdiction without the legal authority or sanctioning required doing so. This process came to the fore front of the bush administration shortly after 9/11. When they started apprehending any persons they thought might have any connection to terrorism and deporting them to countries were torture and other forms of punishment were legal. In Maher Arar’s case he was taken to Syria which was known for its brutal torture of prisoners. In a normal case of rendition the government that the person will be sent to is notified directly and the person is transported there. This also did not happen in the case of Arar. He was first taken to Amman in Jordan because Syria refused to take him directly. Another common component of extraordinary rendition is called torture by proxy that is having someone else commit the acts for you. This also occurred to Mr.Arar during his time in Syria. He was coerced under duress to sign a document incriminating himself. All of these practices are illegal in the United States so they needed it done elsewhere.

But why would the United States do this to an innocent man who had spent the majority of his life in Canada. After 9/11 the bush government started cracking down security wise at its airports, this led to many people being interrogated simply because they were Muslim, or resembled a Muslim. These often lead to false detainments and imprisonments, but it also led to much worse things. When the Americans believed that someone might be guilty of terrorism they would have them moved to different Middle Eastern countries to be dealt with. An example of this can be seen in a quote from Mr.Arar saying that he heard one of the American officers saying this "If you want people to be well interrogated, you send them to Jordan. If you want people to be disappeared, you send them to Egypt. And if you want people to be tortured, you send them to Syria." This really shows that this was not an isolated case and that the Americans had been sending people to these countries for some time. The fact the United States were sending people to Syria is very interesting because the two governments do not tend to get along. This would explain why these actions are carried out in secrecy because if they were carried out in the full view of the media there would be serious repercussions.

The Canadian government had many opportunities throughout the ordeal of Mr. Arar to step in but they did not. The first of these chances came when after Arar was given his phone call, his wife petitioned for him to be allowed a lawyer. The lawyer that saw him did not know that he was going to be “renditioned”. But the lawyer had been told by Mr. Arar that he was not being allowed food and was kept awake, at one point for three days straight. After this the government should have petitioned to get him back to Canada as he was being detained illegally. But they chose to wait it out and hope that Arar would be released. But the whole situation escalated rapidly from there. Throughout all of this Arar’s wife was very publicly petitioning the government to ensure the safe return of her husband, even after they knew he had been deported she continued to attempt to clear his name. There is also evidence from a memorandum dated October 10 2002 from the Canadian security intelligence service (CSIS) deputy director Jack Hooper that read “I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.". This shows that our security agency knew what was happening but chose not to inform the government as a whole. CSIS later stated that at the time of the memorandum they only knew that Arar had been removed from New York. During later investigations it was discovered that it was inaccurate information from the RCMP that led to Arar being imprisoned. It was found that Arar had been placed on a watch list due to his possible interaction with a potential al-Qaeda sympathizer. This in turn led the post 9/11 bush government to place Arar on a no fly list simply due to the fact that he once knew someone who had known an al- Qaeda member. This mishandling of information led to the eventual resignation of the RCMP commissioner at the time Giuliano Zaccardelli. The resignation of the RCMP commissioner was just one of many consequences that came out after the return of Maher Arar.
The consequences and aftermath of the ordeal that Maher Arar had to go through were not as harsh as some would have liked them to be. As mentioned above the RCMP commissioner was forced to resign after he had made conflicting statements regarding the handling of information in the case of Maher Arar. Astonishingly Zaccardelli was the only government official to lose his job over this affair. Considering the wide range of people who had been part of the imprisonment of Arar this is a very troubling matter. The main issue with picking out individual people was that ther was widespread participation of many government officials. While Arar was imprisoned his name was smudged and ruined by the government who stood by the Americans in labelling him as a terrorist. This view was only changed after Arar had met with Canadian officials in Syria and they reported back that they did not believe that he was a terrorist or had any ties to terrorism. Upon his return to Canada Arar stated that he wanted to make sure that this never happened to another Canadian ever again. The Canadian government shared the sentiment and under the new leadership of Stephen Harper, started an official inquiry to be completed by Justice Dennis O’Connor. The purpose of this inquiry was to ascertain exactly what had happened to Arar and who may have been responsible. It also contained a section that listed 23 suggestions on how to ensure that this would not happen again. The inquiry found that Maher Arar was not a terrorist and that he was not a danger to the national security of Canada. It also found that the Canadian government did not directly provide the Americans with any information or orders that lead to his imprisonment. But they did conclude that it was very likely that the inaccurate information collected by the RCMP was what caused him to be placed on the watch lists in the United States. The report was very difficult to put together because the United States government refused to assist or admit any wrong doing. They also did not absolve Arar of the charges and he is still barred from entering the country to this day. In 2007 Arar received a 10.5 million dollar settlement from the Canadian government and an official apology. All of Arar’s attempts to sue the American officials responsible for what happened to him have been dismissed.

In conclusion the case of Maher Arar was not only a devastating and tragic ordeal for Mr. Arar but it was an embarrassing affair for governments of the United States and Canada. There were many times throughout the ordeal of Mr. Arar where the Canadian government should have been there to assist, from the first time we found out what the Americans were doing and the many ways that we could have returned an innocent citizen to the aftermath and consequences of this terrible time, and what we have done to ensure it never happens again.