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Canada's Blind Eye to 'Torture'
The Sun's Kathleen Harris examines new documents that reveal Canada's former ambassador to Syria accepted a 'confession' from Maher Arar's captors
By KATHLEEN HARRIS
Parliamentary Bureau
04/23/05 "Ottawa
Sun" - - CANADIAN officials were complicit or wilfully blind in Maher Arar's torture at the hands of his Syrian captors, supporters charged yesterday after a public inquiry released reams of new "top secret" documents.
The 2,300 pages reveal that Franco Pillarella, Canada's former ambassador to Syria, actively sought and passed on to RCMP and CSIS a summary of Arar's "confession" under interrogation.
Reports detail his Nov. 3, 2002 meeting with Gen. Khalil of the Syrian military intelligence, describing how Pillarella asked for a copy of information obtained by the Syrians to take back to Canada.
The summary, later translated from Arabic to English and called "Arar's confession," said the computer engineer spent time in terrorist training camps.
"While I was perishing in a Syrian dungeon, Mr. Pillarella asked for my interrogation reports, and there is no evidence in the documents that he was at all concerned with the methods they were using to get that information," Arar angrily reacted in a statement.
Arar's lawyer Lorne Waldman lambasted the move to "actively solicit" information obtained through torture -- a tactic likely designed to discredit Arar and impede efforts of other officials working for his release.
"To ask for the fruits of an interrogation which you know, or ought to have known, was obtained under torture, is to encourage or acquiesce in the conduct of the officials carrying out the interrogation," he said.
DIPLOMAT TO TESTIFY
Stephen Bindman, spokesman for the government's legal team, suggested more details will come out as Foreign Affairs officials, including Pillarella, appear before the inquiry in coming weeks.
"He will explain his actions and the intricacies of diplomatic relationships when he testifies," Bindman said. "He will explain the situation and the constraints under which he was acting."
But Alex Neve, secretary general for Amnesty International Canada, said Canada essentially "turned a blind eye" to Syria's notorious use of torture.
"He should have been very clear in the boldest and biggest capital letters possible that this was a report that almost definitely bore the taint of torture," Neve said.
Arar, a 34-year-old Ottawa engineer, was arrested during a stopover in New York and deported to his native Syria. The Canadian citizen was confined to a "grave-like" cell for 10 months and was beaten and tortured by his jailors.
Arar supporters were also alarmed by the revelation that Canadian consular officer Maureen Girvan was "informally advised" by a U.S. immigration officer that the case was of such gravity that it should be taken to the "highest level" on Oct. 1, 2002.
FEAR OF EMBARRASSMENT
But no diplomatic note was sent and Arar was deported to Syria a full week later.
Papers also show Foreign Affairs was seeking information on Arar to ensure that the minister wouldn't be "embarrassed" if Arar turned out to be a "nasty."
Another internal document from a Foreign Affairs official states there is "absolute certainty" that the RCMP or any other agency suggested the U.S. ship Arar to Syria instead of Canada, but goes on to suggest a rebel could have been at work.
"It is impossible to preclude the outside chance that someone in the food chain in New York or elsewhere might have shrugged, winked, or through silence acquiesced in a U.S.A. question or decision," the document from Daniel Livermore reads.
But Bindman stressed that subsequent reviews have found no evidence of any Canadian official attempting to influence the U.S. decision to deport Arar to Syria.
The public portion of the inquiry is set to begin May 9.
kathleen.harris@tor.sunpub.com
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