What we don't know about Maher Arar
From the facts of the case to the consequences of the settlement, there's so much that hasn't been investigated
Ezra Levant - February 26, 2007
The real cost of the $10.5-million payout to Maher Arar isn't the money, it's the demoralization of Canada's police and security services, and the wild encouragement given to any accused terrorist to wage legal and political war against Canada. A quick visit to Arar's vanity website shows a half-dozen smiling faces of his lawyers, no doubt eager to make the money and publicity of a dozen more such claims.
How ironic that our western legal system, with its checks and balances designed to protect our liberal freedoms, has become the favourite instrument of illiberal attackers of the West. The Western Standard itself has been a victim of that abuse: In 2006, after we published a story about the Danish cartoons of Mohammed, a radical Calgary imam used Alberta's human rights law to attack us. One year and thousands of dollars in legal fees later, we're still fending off that contortion of our justice system, while the Saudi-trained imam's case is funded by Canadian taxpayers. His concept of "human rights" is alien to our Canadian values, but that doesn't stop him from using a legal shield as a sword against his enemies. Unlike the federal government, we won't cave in to political pressure.
Of course, Canada's media was gaga for Arar; the CBC should get a cut of the payout. Hyper-skeptical when reporting the spin from government or corporate press secretaries, the mainstream media became stenographers for Arar's PR machine. Not just stenographers--cheerleaders, actually. For in Arar they saw a weapon to demonize the police, the military and the war on terror. They painted Arar as an unalloyed victim of racial profiling and police excess, conveniently ignoring facts about his visits with other terrorist suspects, his unusual international travel, and even his purchase of a gun--something that would normally condemn a man in the eyes of the press. Of course they didn't question his tale of torture. And, as Kevin Steel's outstanding story on page 34 demonstrates, neither did the multimillion-dollar Arar Commission. You'd think it might have come up.
What will happen now? The Arars will retire on whatever part of their fortune is left after his lawyers take their cut; Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh, has turned her crusade into a permanent political campaign, even running for office as an NDP candidate. Arar will no doubt do the speaking circuit, telling tales of his suffering--not so much at the hands of his coreligionists in Syria as at the hands of Canada, the country that welcomed his family and secured his freedom. Just don't expect there to be a question-and-answer session after Arar's speeches--he didn't take the stand in the commission, and he's not likely to risk answering some of the prickly questions that we write about here.
Regrettably, the most important facts about Arar likely will remain confidential for security reasons. How frustrating it must be to be an RCMP officer or diplomat, knowing the secret dossier on Arar, but unable to disclose it, either for reasons of security or a political gag order. We don't know those details either--but we know there is enough on the public record to conclude that there is more to Maher Arar than the media darling the mainstream press have manufactured.