Ok, so that last post wasn’t the finale after all. Two updates:
1. Someone pointed out that I should mention that Canada and the U.S. recently signed an agreement that the Martin and Bush administrations say will prevent this from ever happening again.
But Arar’s lawyers are distinctly unimpressed, as am I. From the link above:
But Arar’s U.S. lawyer Stephen Watt has his doubts. “Window dressing, I think is what it could best be described as.” Watt points out Arar was given consular access and Canadian officials were made aware the U.S. intended to deport him to Syria.
“In Maher’s case he was afforded the right of access, he saw counsel, but that didn’t stop him being removed to Syria.”
And, Watt says, the understanding adds little to the requirements already laid down in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, an international treaty the U.S. signed more than 30 years ago.
and
Martin acknowledged that even with the new understanding, the ultimate decision on whether to deport citizens like Maher Arar will still rest with Washington.
In any case, the agreement only applies to Canadian citizens, not to anyone else in the world.
2. The news broke on Reuters a few hours ago that Arar is planning to sue the United States, filing in Federal Court on Brooklyn. There will be a news conference tomorrow.
I don’t know the legal theory or the suit’s chances of success. In any case, it will do more to bring public and press attention to this than I could ever hope to.
UPDATE
3. Well, this is just swell:
Mounties spent hours Wednesday searching the home and office of an Ottawa Citizen reporter who has written about the Maher Arar case, looking for evidence of a possible breach of the Security of Information Act.
Charges are believed to be pending against the reporter, said the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Scott Anderson.
“Juliet O’Neill was doing everything right,” Mr. Anderson told CBC Newsworld angrily. “Who knew about this? Who condoned a police raid on a journalist’s home?”
(via Hermit in comments).
This may backfire with the Canadian public, and be the final straw that gets a public inquiry. Or so I hope.
Hm…..Perhaps a closer examination of Ms. O’Neill’s stories is called for.
global police thuggery update
For those who haven’t been following the insane and horrifying case of Maher Arar, Katherine R. at Obsidian Wings has…
Latest developments; and they aint good:
http://tinyurl.com/2czss
“Mounties spent hours Wednesday searching the home and office of an Ottawa Citizen reporter who has written about the Maher Arar case, looking for evidence of a possible breach of the Security of Information Act.”
When this guy was in the US, the authorities there knew that the RCMP were waiting to put a tail on him when he re-entered Canada. They also knew it was just as likely he would lose them. This individual had associated with people who were under suspicion, had been criss-crossing borders in Middle Eastern states as if he were trying to cover his tracks, and had moved his family a couple of times after authorities had questioned people with whom he had associated.
Against the law? No. Stupid? Yes. VERY STUPID, in light of the events of 9-11 and the then and current mindset in security and law enforcement circles? You decide.
The raid on the journalist was equally stupid. What did they expect to find? From all accounts this was a highly experienced reporter who had once been posted inside the former Soviet Union. The likelyhood of her letting her source become compromised is probably zero on a bad day. Did the Gendarmes think they were sending out a message? They were, alright. The message is, that they are just as stupid as this Arar character.
global police thuggery update
Maher Arar
Maher Arar was “VERY STUPID”?
Oh.
So if you’re an immigrant who came from a brutal tyranny to find peace and honest work in North America, you’d better remember to behave as if you’re still living under a brutal tyranny. For God’s sake, don’t “associate” with someone like Abdullah Almalki who might also have been investigated by the police and sent to Syria to be tortured (and then cleared of all charges). Don’t be so stupid as to move from one area to another just because you want to try working or living there – or if you have to, you’d better not bring your family along. And if “authorities have questioned people with whom you’ve associated”, then you’d better not make any moves at any time after that, because they’ll clearly assume that you’re fleeing and going underground; with all those years of living and working in plain sight under your own name, they might “lose” you at any moment.
I mean, all you have to do is think about it from the point of view of “the then and current mindset in security and law enforcement circles”. Clearly Maher didn’t bother to understand that mindset; maybe he thought for some reason that it would be different than the Syrian secret police. Stupid, stupid Maher Arar.
What was it Martin Niemoller said? I can’t remember, something about how the Communists, social democrats, trade unionists, and Jews should’ve known better.