Declassified documents reveal Canada knew about Arar's torture

The documents previously classified by the federal government have exposed troubling information about what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew, and when it knew it.
In October 2002, CSIS officials knew that the United States might have sent Mr. Arar to a country where he could be questioned in a “firm” manner.

One of the declassified statements reveal how far this goes, right up to the top.
On October 10, 2002, Mr. Hooper, CSIS second in command in Ottawa, stated in a memorandum: “I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.” Mr. Arar’s whereabouts were unknown at the time.

OTTAWA–New information made public this morning after a long legal battle with the federal government reveals CSIS suspected within weeks of Maher Arar’s arrest that the United States would ship him off to the Middle East where he likely faced torture.

It also shows Canada’s spy agency received information from Syria barely two months later that even Syrian authorities viewed Arar as a “nuisance” and not “as a major case.”

Arar’s lawyer Lorne Waldman says the information does not alter O’Connor’s main conclusion – that Canadian agencies did not actively participate in Arar’s deportation. But it is “embarrassing” to the government, and raises new questions about why it did not act aggressively to bring Arar home sooner, he said.

O’Connor had also concluded that an erroneous label of “terror suspect” initially provided by the RCMP to American authorities, including the CIA, “very likely” led to the U.S. decision to deport Arar, first to Jordan and on to Syria, where he was tortured.

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