Good On You, Mr. Prime Minister - And Thank You
So then, it's done, it's been dealt with, it's finished, and we can move on. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has done the honourable thing, he has admitted that agencies of the Government of Canada behaved in a manner completely inimical to the well-being of one of its citizens, that a true miscarriage of justice was visited upon an innocent man and we are all, as a result, aggrieved that a year of his life became a lesson in abject horror.
Maher Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh and their two children have now received a heartfelt apology from the prime minister on behalf of those errant agencies, the government itself, and the poplation of the country. An unfortunate set of circumstances conspired to have this man targeted as an agent of Islamist forces within Canada. The truly nasty thing about this event is that our federal policing agencies had knowledge that would have exonerated this man, but chose to cling to their initial belief that he was guilty.
And passed that information - slight though it was in 'proof'; heavy on gut reaction of a number of inadequately trained RCMP and CSIS agents - along to their counterparts in the United States, in the wake of the disaster surrounding 9/11. With the information at hand that Maher Arar belonged on a list of suspected al-Qaeda-linked agents, he became a hapless target. When he was passing through the U.S. en route to Canada he was detained, questioned, incarcerated and finally deported not back to Canada, but to Syria, the country of his birth.
This was Mr. Arar's own error, his decision to cling to his Syrian citizenship, along with that of his adopted country of Canada. Without his dual citizenship Mr. Arar would never have been "rendered" to Syria. This is in hindsight; it's questionable whether such an outlandish scenario might ever have registered with Mr. Arar as a possibility, and which would forever alter his life. On the other hand, with all the fall-out of the dreadful events of 9/11 and the subsequent universal suspicion falling on young males of Arab descent, a sense of self-preservation might have clicked in.
Given the dreadful events of that fateful day in September 2001, it's hardly surprising that a heightened sense of impending doom lingered heavily over the U.S. and by extension but to a much lesser degree, its neighbour. That Canada's spy agency and our federal police force would agree to share any information gathered to attempt to identify radical jihadists eager to visit more such terror on the infidels is understandable. That all these agencies would be so casually lax with peoples' lives is not.
It was good to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assurances of true regret for the horrible events that transformed Mr. Arar's life from the ordinariness of a family life and a budding career to the stark reality of being in the hands of a MidEast regime for whom incarceration and ongoing torture of individuals suspected of criminal activities is the norm. That Canada's ambassador to Syria at the time happened to be impossibly ignorant of this well-known fact is beyond belief.
It was a different kind of experience to hear Maher Arar's voice sound so altered from what we've become tediously familiar with; a soul-wizened, mind-embattled basket case whose constant bleatings tended to wear on one's sympathy. The relief in his voice that he has been completely exonerated, his pride in self restored, his victory over adversity accomplished is a tonic in itself. He will forever experience and re-experience the nightmare of his humiliating and completely helpless victimization. Victimhood will be a permanent fixture in his new life. But he may now be ready to move on.
Nothing can restore him to what he was, a confident and happy young man with a comfortable future before him. He will always be haunted by his experience, he will always wonder why this horror was visited upon him. He will never be able to completely trust again. He will always be looking over his shoulder, waiting for another disaster to befall him. And he's not the only one. He knows others who have experienced similar life-wrenching interludes in their lives. He knows how insecure and lonely and vulnerable and desperate life can be.
As for us, we've done what we could. The apologies, the cash settlement, they assuage our feelings of inadequacy. Bad things happen, and they happen to so many people, more than we can imagine. This is just one single instance brought to our attention because it touches on the fact that this was a man who lived in a free and democratic country and all its systems meant to protect this population simply turned against him.
In this particular instance, case closed. We hope.
Maher Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh and their two children have now received a heartfelt apology from the prime minister on behalf of those errant agencies, the government itself, and the poplation of the country. An unfortunate set of circumstances conspired to have this man targeted as an agent of Islamist forces within Canada. The truly nasty thing about this event is that our federal policing agencies had knowledge that would have exonerated this man, but chose to cling to their initial belief that he was guilty.
And passed that information - slight though it was in 'proof'; heavy on gut reaction of a number of inadequately trained RCMP and CSIS agents - along to their counterparts in the United States, in the wake of the disaster surrounding 9/11. With the information at hand that Maher Arar belonged on a list of suspected al-Qaeda-linked agents, he became a hapless target. When he was passing through the U.S. en route to Canada he was detained, questioned, incarcerated and finally deported not back to Canada, but to Syria, the country of his birth.
This was Mr. Arar's own error, his decision to cling to his Syrian citizenship, along with that of his adopted country of Canada. Without his dual citizenship Mr. Arar would never have been "rendered" to Syria. This is in hindsight; it's questionable whether such an outlandish scenario might ever have registered with Mr. Arar as a possibility, and which would forever alter his life. On the other hand, with all the fall-out of the dreadful events of 9/11 and the subsequent universal suspicion falling on young males of Arab descent, a sense of self-preservation might have clicked in.
Given the dreadful events of that fateful day in September 2001, it's hardly surprising that a heightened sense of impending doom lingered heavily over the U.S. and by extension but to a much lesser degree, its neighbour. That Canada's spy agency and our federal police force would agree to share any information gathered to attempt to identify radical jihadists eager to visit more such terror on the infidels is understandable. That all these agencies would be so casually lax with peoples' lives is not.
It was good to hear Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assurances of true regret for the horrible events that transformed Mr. Arar's life from the ordinariness of a family life and a budding career to the stark reality of being in the hands of a MidEast regime for whom incarceration and ongoing torture of individuals suspected of criminal activities is the norm. That Canada's ambassador to Syria at the time happened to be impossibly ignorant of this well-known fact is beyond belief.
It was a different kind of experience to hear Maher Arar's voice sound so altered from what we've become tediously familiar with; a soul-wizened, mind-embattled basket case whose constant bleatings tended to wear on one's sympathy. The relief in his voice that he has been completely exonerated, his pride in self restored, his victory over adversity accomplished is a tonic in itself. He will forever experience and re-experience the nightmare of his humiliating and completely helpless victimization. Victimhood will be a permanent fixture in his new life. But he may now be ready to move on.
Nothing can restore him to what he was, a confident and happy young man with a comfortable future before him. He will always be haunted by his experience, he will always wonder why this horror was visited upon him. He will never be able to completely trust again. He will always be looking over his shoulder, waiting for another disaster to befall him. And he's not the only one. He knows others who have experienced similar life-wrenching interludes in their lives. He knows how insecure and lonely and vulnerable and desperate life can be.
As for us, we've done what we could. The apologies, the cash settlement, they assuage our feelings of inadequacy. Bad things happen, and they happen to so many people, more than we can imagine. This is just one single instance brought to our attention because it touches on the fact that this was a man who lived in a free and democratic country and all its systems meant to protect this population simply turned against him.
In this particular instance, case closed. We hope.
Labels: Life's Like That
posted by Pieface | 1:14 PM
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