CBC (Friday): Canada should have intervened in Arar case says UN report

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Dated Friday May 20 7:08 pm EDT (4:08 pm PDT)

Canada should have intervened in Arar case: UN report

Geneva - A United Nations report has come out criticizing the Canadian government for its treatment of Maher Arar, the Syrian-born engineer who was deported back to his homeland and tortured.

The UN committee against torture issued its conclusions Friday after reviewing Canada's compliance with the Convention Against Torture. The 10-member committee is examining seven countries as part of its latest session including Albania, Bahrain, Finland, Switzerland, Togo and Uganda.

The committee said Canada "should have intervened to protect (Arar)" from being sent to Syria after he stopped in New York City in 2002 while travelling back to Canada from Tunisia. Arar spent a year in a Syrian jail and maintains he was routinely tortured. A public inquiry into his case is ongoing in Ottawa.

The committee said Canada failed to uphold Article 3 of the convention, which states no person should be extradited "to another state where there were substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture."

This is an example of extraordiniary rendition. It is still a crime against humanity for the US government to send a detainee, even one who, unlike Mr. Arar, might actually be guilty of something, to a third country for the purpose of torture.

[CHIMO]

1. Canada should have intervened in Arar case: UN report

Canada should have intervened in Arar case: UN report
Last Updated Fri, 20 May 2005 20:09:53 EDT

GENEVA - A United Nations report has come out criticizing the Canadian government for its treatment of Maher Arar, the Syrian-born engineer who was deported back to his homeland and tortured.

The UN committee against torture issued its conclusions Friday after reviewing Canada's compliance with the Convention Against Torture. The 10-member committee is examining seven countries as part of its latest session including Albania, Bahrain, Finland, Switzerland, Togo and Uganda.

The committee said Canada "should have intervened to protect " from being sent to Syria after he stopped in New York City in 2002 while travelling back to Canada from Tunisia. Arar spent a year in a Syrian jail and maintains he was routinely tortured. A public inquiry into his case is ongoing in Ottawa.

The committee said Canada failed to uphold Article 3 of the convention, which states no person should be extradited "to another state where there were substantial grounds for believing that he or she would be in danger of being subjected to torture."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/05/20/TortureReport_050520.html

Seems like it might be an important issue?

[Maple]

2. Well we're still trying to

find out how it happened. We already know it shouldn't have.

[daleo]

3. Canada should have intervened.

But, would Bush have allowed it?

[Jack Rabbit]

4. It doesn't matter if Bush would have allowed it or not

Canada should have intervened. Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen and it is the responsibility of the government of Canada to assure that his rights are protected. In that, the Canadian government utterly failed.

As for the US government (i.e., the Frat Boy), what can we say? Should we just add this to the bill of particulars in an indictment we ought to be preparing against Bush and his aides? It took twenty years to bring charges against Pinochet; I suppose we can wait that long to see Bush and the neocons stand trail.

As an American, I apologize to the people of Canada in general and to Mr. Arar in particular. That's all I can do right now.

[LynnTheDem]

5. Agreed.

And as a dual US-Cdn citizen, my Cdn side is damned ANGRY that Canada didn't intervene. And there's NO EXCUSE, Canada. You are to PROTECT YOUR OWN CITIZENS. PERIOD.

[Lisa]

6. absolutely ...

As a Canadian whose Canadian-born parents were subjected to the War Measures Act and interned during WWII -- I am appalled. Trying to shove the blame onto the US is, if anything, WORSE than if we'd put him on that plane ourselves. Here we are, standing around pretending that we were against the war from the beginning ... yet there's more and more evidence emerging that our security agency was hoping to share in the information gained from the outsourced torture. Fruit of the poisoned tree.

I want to apologize to Mr. Arar and his family too. We should have been hammering on the doors of our MPs, demanding that he be brought home immediately, instead of being left to rot in that horrific Syrian cell for months.