A commission of inquiry’s long-awaited report about the behaviour of Canadian officials in what happened to Maher Arar has created a national reassessment of the proper role of security forces in Canada today.

The public inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O’Connor found that American officials “very likely” based their decision to send Arar to Syria on inaccurate information supplied by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, that police and spy agencies sent “mixed signals” to the Syrians about wanting Arar back, and that the Mounties misled senior government officials on their role in the case.

“Canadians should be grateful Arar had the courage to speak out and demand answers from his accusers,” said CAUT executive director James Turk. “His courage, and the courage of his family, won us this inquiry, and O’Connor’s report is a great victory for civil liberties in Canada.”

He added that by exposing what happened to Arar “the commission has reminded us why civil liberties are the very core of democratic life, especially in a security-conscious post-9/11 world. The Arar case is a chilling example of what can go wrong when a climate of fear is so pervasive.”

A section in Justice O’Connor’s 822-page report also recommends that an inquiry is needed into the role of Canadian officials in the case of three other Canadian Muslim men. Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin were also under investigation in Canada before being detained and tortured at the same Syrian detention centre where Arar was held. The report found that, despite being warned torture would likely be used, the RCMP sent questions to be asked of Almalki by his Syrian interrogators.

Justice O’Connor found there was a clear pattern of investigative practices in all these cases, including sharing information with foreign agencies that could be used to detain Canadians, sharing information that could be used in interrogations, prejudicing efforts to have Canadians released from foreign custody by continuing investigations while they were in detention, relying on information that could be the product of torture and notifying the United States whenever a Canadian suspected of ties to terrorism traveled abroad.

“It’s clear from the report that what happened to Arar was not an isolated incident, and that we need answers in all these cases to fully understand the scope of the attack on basic civil liberties in Canada since 9/11,” Turk said. “Although there are serious allegations for which agencies, such as the RCMP and CSIS, need to be held accountable, it is also important to remember that what happened to these men happened in the context of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was passed hastily by parliament, and which put the RCMP back into security intelligence after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“That act also compromised a long list of basic civil liberties in Canada, such as due process, the presumption of innocence, freedom from arbitrary detention, the right to privacy and freedom from unreasonable state surveillance, freedom of information and freedom of expression and association.

“Civil liberties are the foundation of academic freedom. Whenever civil liberties are threatened, academic freedom is jeopardized.”

CAUT has been concerned about these issues in the aftermath of 9/11, intervening in the parliamentary committee reviewing aspects of the terrorism law, playing a lead role in the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, which had intervenor status at the Arar proceedings, and through intervening with the federal government and opposition parties on numerous proposals to further restrict civil liberties in the name of enhanced security.

Paul Cavalluzzo, lead counsel for the Arar inquiry, Warren Allmand, former Solicitor General of Canada, and Thomas Walkom, national affairs columnist with the Toronto Star, will speak on a panel about the Arar case and its implications for civil liberties and academic freedom in Canada at CAUT’s Council meeting Nov. 24.