Arar report expected to be censored: newspaper
Maher Arar says he expects the report from theinquiry into his case will clear his name and explain why he was imprisoned and tortured in Syria. But a published reportsays parts of the report will be censored in the name of national security.
The federal judicial commission of inquiry, led by Justice Dennis O'Connor, will be released in Ottawa on Monday.
The Globe and Mail on Saturday quoted federal sources as saying certain references will be deleted out of concern they could identify informants or hurt diplomatic relations with countries that provided Ottawa with intelligence reports in confidence.
However, the inquiry report is expected to shed light on the role Canadian officials played in Arar's deportation to Syria, carried out in 2002 by U.S. officials who suspected him of involvement in al-Qaeda.
The 35-year-old software engineer, who was born in Syria, has said he hopes thereport will not only clear his name, but also reveal whether there is a pattern of intelligence-sharing that jeopardizes the safety of Canadians.
The RCMP has admitted sharing information about the case with American officials and that it had Arar under surveillance, but never found any hard evidence against him. But both the Mounties and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service say they played no role in the U.S. decision to deport Arar to Syria.
Report result of months of testimony
The findings by O'Connor, associate chief justice of Ontario, will be handed down after 127 days of public testimony and the review of more than 2,400 documents, some of which are thousands of pages long.
Arar was detained during a stopover at New York's Kennedy airport on Sept. 26, 2002, as he was travelling to Montreal from Tunisia, where he had been on vacation with his family.
He was flown to Jordan,then driven to Syria, where hewas kept in a military prison for more than 10 months.
Arar saidhe underwent physical and psychological torture. He said he was beaten with an electric cable and given so little food that he lost 40 pounds while living in a rat-infested cell measuring only six feet long by three feet wide.
A fact-finder's report for the commission concluded that Arar was tortured while in Syrian custody.
Arar recently moved from Ottawa to Kamloops in the B.C. Interior, a decision he says has been good for his psyche.
"I like the mountains," he told CBC News. "I can tell you definitely since I came here my stress level went down, just by going to the balcony to look at the mountains."
Despite a continued fear of flying, Arar is boarding a plane back to Ottawa to hear O'Connor's findings.