Harper apologizes to Maher Arar
1/26/2007 at 5:15 PM
Stephen Harper issued a formal apology to Maher Arar today for him being deported to Syria by the USA. He also offered him a fairly sizeable settlement to compensate him for his suffering etc.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/26/harper-apology.html
While I certainly think that he suffered significant harm and deserves to be compensated, it is unfortunate that we Canadians are ending up paying for an American screwup. I mean, Arar is a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent. So, even though he was carrying a Canadian passport, the Americans deported him to Syria.
Mind you, I guess we could also thank a few in the RCMP and Canadian government for this situation since it was them that gave the US incorrect information.
Another $10+ million mistake made - hopefully we don't have to learn too many of these fairly expensive lessons.