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The real lesson to be learned from the suffering of Maher Arar
Statement by the Canadian Coalition for Democracies
Ottawa, Tuesday, December 12, 2006
As Canadians, we are deeply distressed by the suffering of Maher
Arar, whose ordeal was, in the judgement of Justice Dennis O’Connor,
triggered by sub-standard police and security work on the part
of the RCMP. We recognize the difficulty in compensating
Maher Arar and his family for the ordeal that followed his deportation
to Syria.
 Certain
RCMP officers made a serious mistake. The government has recognized
the fallibility of its security forces by undertaking an independent
investigation into how such a mistake was made. We cannot expect
a democracy to be perfect, but we can expect it to recognize its
mistakes, to compensate the injured parties, and to take concrete
steps to prevent a recurrence.
But in dealing with the mistakes of the RCMP, we must assure that
we do not press for changes that will weaken our security forces
and create an advantage for our enemies. It is likely that our
security forces this past June prevented thousands of Canadians
from being slaughtered in a terrorist act that could easily have
exceeded the bloodshed of 9/11. In preventing another injustice
such as that suffered by Maher Arar, we must assure that we do
not expose Canadians to damages for which there can be no compensation
and no opportunity to be made whole.
The most important lesson to be learned from Mr. Arar’s
case is not the shortcomings of our own security services, but
the barbarism of our radical Islamist enemies who brutalized an
innocent Canadian. The real lesson is the treatment of Bill
Sampson, a Canadian tortured and sentenced to death by beheading
in Saudi Arabia. The real lesson is the torture and murder of
Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi under Iran's chief
prosecutor, Said Mortazavi, who was subsequently welcomed at
the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council. The
RCMP fumbled, but the real lesson is in recognizing the Islamist
supremacism that threatens to do to us all what was done to Maher
Arar, Bill Sampson and Zahra Kazemi.
We must not allow the tragic case of Maher Arar to be exploited
by certain Canadian organizations to weaken our security forces
against Islamist terror for which these organizations are often
apologists. The government must assure that increased vulnerability
to terror is not an unintended consequence of changes to
our security procedures.
As Canadians, we believe that Maher Arar deserves justice from
those who were responsible for his suffering. But Canadians likewise
deserve protection from those whom we know are planning to inflict
far greater suffering on all of us. Our security forces must be
strengthened, not weakened, to assure that the real terrorists
are defeated.
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