PAUL KNOX — The serial smearing of Maher Arar has become a serious blot on the final weeks of Jean Chrétien's sojourn in power. Officials in Ottawa can't seem to stop themselves from compounding the damage Mr. Arar suffered when the U.S., possibly acting on tips supplied by Canada, deported this Canadian citizen to Syria in September, 2002. Not only that, they've stooped to tarring others with the same brush.
Last week, senior officials in more than one government department, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CTV News that Mr. Arar told Syrian authorities about terrorist cells operating in Canada. They also said he gave the Syrians information about three other Canadians — two held in Syrian jails, one held in Egypt — and an Algerian-born man being held in Canada under a government security certificate.
The source for this "information" is supposedly official Syrian interrogation transcripts. That should make anyone suspicious about it right off the top. After suspicion comes alarm, for these faceless government types are not only exposing men who are in jail in countries known for systematic human-rights abuses to further danger, but also branding Mr. Arar as a person willing to rat on his friends.
Mr. Chrétien dismisses calls for a proper investigation into the Arar affair. Perhaps there is some basis for these ethereal suggestions wafting from Ottawa to the effect that Mr. Arar had a relationship with terrorism, or with others linked to it. Maybe he knew somebody who once had a drink with Osama bin Laden, back when the founder of al-Qaeda was a dissolute lounge lizard in Beirut. Maybe there's nothing there at all. Whatever the case, it would seem time for the government Mr. Chrétien leads to either charge him with an offence, or issue a statement clearing his name.
The troubling issues raised by Mr. Arar's case stand to be greatly clarified when he tells his own story, slowly and in detail, from start to finish. His associates say he hasn't recovered sufficiently from his ordeal to be able to do so. That may be true; after a year as an unwilling guest of the Syrian government, he has to be cut some slack. But the more forthcoming Mr. Arar is with the Canadian public, the easier it will be to determine exactly what needs to be asked of the RCMP, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and their political overseers.
Mr. Chrétien's front-line shield-bearer in this case is Solicitor-General Wayne Easter, the former farmers' union leader from Prince Edward Island who joined the cabinet a year ago. Mr. Easter succeeded Lawrence MacAulay, another islander, who resigned over his dealings with a college run by his brother. Mr. MacAulay had taken over from Andy Scott, who stepped down after making indiscreet comments about the pepper-spray debacle.
The solicitor-general's portfolio is often considered relatively junior. In these security-conscious times, you might suppose that someone in Ottawa would rethink that, but that someone would not be Mr. Chrétien. To the end, he regarded it as a channel for discharging regional obligations and rewarding loyalty.
Hence we got, as the minister who exercises political direction over the RCMP and CSIS, a man who took more than two weeks to acknowledge in public that Mr. Arar deserves to be considered innocent until proven otherwise.
For days after the deportee's return, Mr. Easter persisted in answering the wrong question about the RCMP's conduct. He said repeatedly that Canada didn't seek Mr. Arar's deportation — but that was beside the point. He still will not talk about the role played by Canadian agents in the months leading up to Mr. Arar's arrest, or about the information-sharing that went on among Canada, the United States and Syria. He will not explain the suggestion he made in the summer that RCMP officers acting without authorization might have tipped off U.S. officials about Mr. Arar's whereabouts.
And of course, Mr. Easter refuses to countenance the idea of an inquiry into what happened, beyond the probe announced last week by the underpowered RCMP public complaints commission. Meanwhile, unnamed officials (Mr. Easter says he's "pretty confident" they weren't his) make a mockery of the presumption of innocence, branding Mr. Arar as a snitch.
Mr. Arar, in seclusion, is reportedly thinking about how he will clear his name. If I were Wayne Easter, I'd be doing the same thing.
