Maher Arar has pared down his $400-million lawsuit against

[Charles Anthony]

If he had destroyed his ties to his homeland we wouldn't be here. He refused to renounce his Syrian citizenship, so he was sent there completely within the confines of international law. The US has every right to send someone back to their homeland.

I am not even going to ask for a citation to such an international lawa. I am going to say that is a ridiculous and evil law -- if it exists.

If the U.S.A. has a right to send someone back to their homeland, it is still wrong.

Canada isn't responsible for anything. This is a US issue with a Syrian citizen. I have little concern here. If Syria tortured him, which I dispute, then Syria should pay the price. Not us. We have nothing to do with this besides some fault leads with the RCMP...

If I through you into a boiling pit of lava, should we blame the lava if you get burned??????

My question to all of you, has Arar renounced his Syrian citizenship yet??? Nope... well then... he has no one to blame but himself, he hasn't even learnt his lesson yet.

Why is citizenship a reason to blame him? Please justify.

Look at things in simple terms:

Maher Arar's deportation was against his will and unfounded. Therefore, whoever participated is responsible.

Arar paid an airline to get him from point A to B and that airline did not fulfill their end of the bargain. The airline is to blame.

Canadian and American employees participated in his deporattion. They deserve blame.

People are saying that he should ONLY focus his lawsuit on the Syrians. Wrong!!!

Arar can focus his lawsuit against anybody who harmed him. Period.

[jbg]

If Syria tortured him, which I dispute, then Syria should pay the price. Not us. We have nothing to do with this besides some fault leads with the RCMP...

My question to all of you, has Arar renounced his Syrian citizenship yet??? Nope... well then... he has no one to blame but himself, he hasn't even learnt his lesson yet.

Has he sued Syrial, the ones that actually tortured him?

[jbg]

When 6 million jews were murdered by the nazis, there must have been some reason for it - no way they were innocent.

Yes. Guilty of being constructive, cerebral, educated, accomplishing things and making money. Too much for the European mercantalists (they now call themselves social democrats) to endure.

The amercans have deported plenty of people to plenty of places whether they had dual citizenship or not. Ther Arar case became better known because he was tortured. The conclusion here is not that you should renounce your previous citizenship, but that you should not go to the US. As far as the amercans are concerned, every foreigner is a terrorist. Just like every muslim is an al-qaeda operative according to you.

Why should America share with Canada and Londonistan the honors of taking in the scum that want to destroy the West?

[Topaz]

IF Arar was sent to Syria and tortured then he is able to sued the government for making up info that went to the US, which the US says is the reasons, he was sent to Syria in the first place. My one question to the US is, why when you don't believe in torture, send a Canadian, who asked to be sent back to Canada , you sent him to a country you are am enemy of????? Arar will try to sued the US but he won't get anywhere because of the "new" laws the US put in concerning the "war on terror" and the fact they say it was the info Canada gave them. So.... the question is, who gave the US the info, the RCMP or CSIS?????

[jbg]

My one question to the US is, why when you don't believe in torture, send a Canadian, who asked to be sent back to Canada , you sent him to a country you are am enemy of?????

Really two questions but here goes. Canada made plain, at the time (and the government was Liberal IIRC) that it didn't want Arar back.

Arar will try to sued the US but he won't get anywhere because of the "new" laws the US put in concerning the "war on terror" and the fact they say it was the info Canada gave them.

"Sovereign immunity" to lawsuits is hardly new; goes back to well before the Magna Carta.

So.... the question is, who gave the US the info, the RCMP or CSIS?????

I would sure hope the agencies work together. Also, why won't you answer the question as to why Arar is apparently not suing the government that tortured him. It wasn't the US or Canadian government.

[margrace]

My one question to the US is, why when you don't believe in torture, send a Canadian, who asked to be sent back to Canada , you sent him to a country you are am enemy of?????

Really two questions but here goes. Canada made plain, at the time (and the government was Liberal IIRC) that it didn't want Arar back.

Arar will try to sued the US but he won't get anywhere because of the "new" laws the US put in concerning the "war on terror" and the fact they say it was the info Canada gave them.

"Sovereign immunity" to lawsuits is hardly new; goes back to well before the Magna Carta.

So.... the question is, who gave the US the info, the RCMP or CSIS?????

I would sure hope the agencies work together. Also, why won't you answer the question as to why Arar is apparently not suing the government that tortured him. It wasn't the US or Canadian government.

He is not sueing them because he is smart enough to know, like the rest of us I hope, that it would be a collossal waste of time and money.

[Leafless]

IF Arar was sent to Syria and tortured then he is able to sued the government for making up info that went to the US, which the US says is the reasons, he was sent to Syria in the first place. My one question to the US is, why when you don't believe in torture, send a Canadian, who asked to be sent back to Canada , you sent him to a country you are am enemy of????? Arar will try to sued the US but he won't get anywhere because of the "new" laws the US put in concerning the "war on terror" and the fact they say it was the info Canada gave them. So.... the question is, who gave the US the info, the RCMP or CSIS?????

What exactly was the faulty information Canada gave to the U.S. regarding Maher Arar?

How can anyone come to a conclusion regarding his credibility when his testimony is kept secret and his innocence was not determined in a court of law?

The whole point of the matter is Mr. Maher was a suspect at a very dangerous time concerning possible terrorist actions against the U.S. or even Canada. CSIS and the RCMP cannot play games when it comes to national security and perhaps in reality RCMP information reasonable at the time.

Why was Mr. Arar (an Arab) engaged in international travel at a time of terrorist activity. Did he not have enough COMMON SENSE to stay home in Canada where he is safe.

Off topic, but the more Arab Canadians you have engaging in international travel the greater the risk of possible identification as a terrorist and only complicates matters for countries like the U.S. who have to distinguish between legitimate Arab nationalities and terrorist.

As long as there is Islamic terrorism going on Arabs from all countries will possibly be treated indifferently. If common sense on the part of Arab nationalities is ignored, pertaining to international travel, more than likely problems will occur for some them.

[mikedavid00]

Arar can focus his lawsuit against anybody who harmed him. Period.

Well it's fastest to milk the easiest cow (Canada) and that's what he's doing. My priminister is playing to Islamic votes now which sicken me to be frank. I don't think I've heard one person on the radio (not CBC radio btw) play any violins for Arar.

Can I personally pay to get him out of our country? I will personally pay $1000 to get him out of Canada.

Why is his family here in the first place?

[mikedavid00]

How can anyone come to a conclusion regarding his credibility when his testimony is kept secret and his innocence was not determined in a court of law?

This boy is after power and money. You have to pay homage to the Americans for being so vigil in not letting some foreign national take advantage of their court system. Go home Arar!

-"He had some visits from diplomatic officials, but he did not tell them that he was being tortured until their seventh visit"

-"Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh, ran unsuccessfully as the NDP candidate in the Ottawa South riding in the 2004 federal election"

-"In January 2004, Arar announced that he would be suing then American Attorney-General John Ashcroft over his treatment, but the US government invoked the rarely-used State Secrets Privilege in a motion to dismiss the suit"

-"On February 16, 2006, Brooklyn District Court Judge David Trager dismissed Arar's lawsuit against members of the George W. Bush administration."

PLEASE LEAVE ARAR!

[Canuck E Stan]

What would you do if you were tortured outside of Canada and the government didn't come to you're aid?

[jefferiah]

If Syria tortured him, which I dispute, then Syria should pay the price. Not us. We have nothing to do with this besides some fault leads with the RCMP...

My question to all of you, has Arar renounced his Syrian citizenship yet??? Nope... well then... he has no one to blame but himself, he hasn't even learnt his lesson yet.

Has he sued Syrial, the ones that actually tortured him?

Here here!!!

[mikedavid00]

PLEASE LEAVE ARAR!

Sorry Mike but you're wrong.

The man is Canadian. He was tortured and ignored by the Canadian Liberal government at the time of his imprisonment.

How would you feel if it was you?

He deserves every penny of the money he's asking for. The government screwed up and they must pay for the consequences of their actiions.

Sorry but your wrong.

He's a Syrian Citizen. It's his own country that beat him.

There is no burden of proof that needs to be provided that he was beaten, only his claims after 7 visits thus he loses that portion of the law suit. Or at best, get's re-embursed for the 10.5 months he was being held by the Syrian gov't. Maybe $45,000.

As far as 37 million of our tax dollars making him and his family rich, he can take the next plane back to Syria or go claim refugee status in the UK. Just God please leave this country and get out.

[gerryhatrick]

PLEASE LEAVE ARAR!

Sorry Mike but you're wrong.

The man is Canadian. He was tortured and ignored by the Canadian Liberal government at the time of his imprisonment.

How would you feel if it was you?

He deserves every penny of the money he's asking for. The government screwed up and they must pay for the consequences of their actiions.

Sorry but your wrong.

He's a Syrian Citizen.

And he's a Canadian citizen, correct.

Why should he leave? Because he has dual citizenship?

You're making no sense buddy.

[watching&waiting]

He was and still is a Canadian citizen and he was abused by his former Country of Syria, after the RCMP gave incorrect information to the USA, about him and his beliefs. It was our police that made the mistake about the information and it was the USA who should have never sent a Canadian citizen to another country at any time for any reason. Yes Canada failed him and yes we are going to pay for that. We all know it and might as well get used to that. If that had been me, I would be suing for much more then that. When you think of it, for those like me who travel outside Canada, this could easily happen. What would you do if your country made a mistake and left you for a year to rot in a cell and be tortured. Would you say much to any Canadian consel persons if your abusers have threatened your life if you say anything? It has been already shown that Canada let this citizen down badly, and to now to take shots at him because he is going to sue is just plain stupid.

[Riverwind]

He should be compensated by the Americans for the salary lost during detention, and a little bit in restoration for lost time with family. That's it... maybe $400-500k total tops.

I would like to see some penalties put into the system to discourage people from asking for absurd amounts of money in damages. According to my calculations $1-2 million dollars would allow the guy to retire and never have to work again provided he continued to live the middle class existence that he lived before the incident. Any amount above that is simply greed - most likely because some lawyer is working on contingency.

I was thinking about a formula where the amount demanded is divided by the amount eventually awarded. If this ratio is greater than 2 then the gov't should charge the lawyer representing the claimant a penalty equal to 1/2 of whatever fees they charged for the case.

[mikedavid00]

He was and still is a Canadian citizen and he was abused by his former Country of Syria,

You aren't understanding the fact that we have no proof of this. It's only his word and the cards do not stack up in his favor.

should have never sent a Canadian citizen to another country at any time for any reason. Yes Canada failed him and yes we are going to pay for that.

Oh so the US sent him to Syria where he is a citizen of that country. I see.

When you think of it, for those like me who travel outside Canada, this could easily happen.

Sure. If your family had ties to terrorist organizations than surely it could happen to you too.

What would you do if your country made a mistake and left you for a year to rot in a cell and be tortured.

There would be nothing I could do because Canada is my own country. Just like Syria is his own country.

Would you say much to any Canadian consel persons if your abusers have threatened your life if you say anything?

That's if you believe he was tortured. Everyone knows that the first step of becoming free when you are being held captive is to claim tortured.

It has been already shown that Canada let this citizen down badly

,

Poor Arar. Poor Arar. Forget about the true Canadians who are dying on hospital/organ waiting lists. Nah.. foget about them. Let's pitty some foreign national with family ties to Al-Queda and throw 37,000,000 his way.

and to now to take shots at him because he is going to sue is just plain stupid.

He's tried twice to sue the US and they brushed him aside like a strong country should. They've tried to join a political party in order to gain power. Now they are launching a suit at Canada because they've been unsucsfull in all their endevors of getting rich and powerful.

If I was PM, I would revoke his families citizenship and expell them from Canada out of the gull of him trying to sue the tax payers of the country. The UK did this to many people after the train bombings of people who weren't charged for anything and I feel we should do the same.

Leave the country Arar, just leave and I'll pay for you also.

[mikedavid00]

What would you do if you were tortured outside of Canada and the government didn't come to you're aid?

Here we go. Listen. He is a citizen of Syria. It's his country.

And we have NO PROOF at all that he was tortured.

Our gov't does leave us to die. That is why you cannot call our country 'great'. A great country does not leave it's own citizens to die in their own country.

You intillectualls really, really miss the bigger picture of why one is a member of a country.

[mikedavid00]

And he's a Canadian citizen, correct.

Why should he leave? Because he has dual citizenship?

You're making no sense buddy.

No he's not. I'm a Canadian citizen. He is a naturalized dual citizen. If anything, he's someone who votes Liberal. Leave it at that.

He should leave for the same reason why the British expelled the imams and other families after their train bombings when they 'didn't do anything'.

I am making sense, for the good of the country and taxpayers, he needs to get out of here.

I'm going to call up the radio station and officially offer to pay for him and his family to leave our country and renounce his citizenship.

[jdobbin]

I am making sense, for the good of the country and taxpayers, he needs to get out of here.

I'm going to call up the radio station and officially offer to pay for him and his family to leave our country and renounce his citizenship.

I think it might be more effective if you put on your white hood first. Grab cross on the way out of the house.

[Saturn]

He should be compensated by the Americans for the salary lost during detention, and a little bit in restoration for lost time with family. That's it... maybe $400-500k total tops.

I would like to see some penalties put into the system to discourage people from asking for absurd amounts of money in damages. According to my calculations $1-2 million dollars would allow the guy to retire and never have to work again provided he continued to live the middle class existence that he lived before the incident. Any amount above that is simply greed - most likely because some lawyer is working on contingency.

I was thinking about a formula where the amount demanded is divided by the amount eventually awarded. If this ratio is greater than 2 then the gov't should charge the lawyer representing the claimant a penalty equal to 1/2 of whatever fees they charged for the case.

His reputation was tarnished, his wife also ended up jobless as a result. Now everyone knows both of them and neither of them has any good job prospects. Given that he is an engineer with a Master's degree and she has a Ph.D. in finance, your estimate of $400-$500K is a pathetic underestimate for how much two ruined careers are worth. Add to that compensation for the pain and suffering they both endured and you are looking at many millions of dollars of damage caused. I'd like to see all of it come out the RCMP/CSIS budgets and the pockets of the particular idiots involved in this. No country hands out false "information" about its citizens to foreign governments like Canada does. Our own government is acting as an enemy of its own citizens when its job is to protect us. This is outrageous and I want everyone who had anything to do with it fined and fired so that their idiocy cannot harm other Canadians.

[mikedavid00]

I am making sense, for the good of the country and taxpayers, he needs to get out of here.

I'm going to call up the radio station and officially offer to pay for him and his family to leave our country and renounce his citizenship.

I think it might be more effective if you put on your white hood first. Grab cross on the way out of the house.

See that's the reason why I can't protest or make my feelings known outside this forum - I get labelled a racist. It's the Canadian way after all.

It's not because I have a problem with his skin color or where he came from, I feel that his case is symptematic of a larger problem that's eating us alive.

We are not a rich country. We are not a powerbroker, we don't have the jobs and services waiting for all these immigrants coming. They do not exist. We don't have even enough to fix our healthcare crisis.

Over time, this begins to affect the average Canadian such as myself. My quality of life is going down because of this policy. Not him in specific.

You can't blame immigrants for taking advantage of the most easy system in the world. If I was living where they were, I would want to leave also.

But the role of our country is not to provide servies and political assylum to the world. It's not help everyone out. Our country is meant for you and me. It's a private club that should have a membership only given out to special people that can help us out, NOT THEM. We don't owe anybody anything. We need to be selfish in our ways. After all, that's why we are a nation with borders.

Our country is to provide it's citizens a rich and easy life. When something begins to threaten that, we need to clean house and look after our best interest.

The Chinese head tax. Yes I agree that was unjust and they should be given their money back.

But Arar? Come on. His case needs to be taken as a sign of what is happening to our country and what is to come. He needs to be expelled and his citizenship revoked witht no explanation needed. He is not going to waste our tax payers money, our courts time, and our way of life in this country. And he can sit in the UK and whine about how it's 'not fair'. GOOD ARAR, YOU DO THAT, JUST GET OUT.

We need to look after our own citizens and that starts with healthcare. Basic fundamentals. IT doesn't start with the ideals from some Harvard elite who has not been living here for the last 30 years.

There is Starbucks in Canada. When you buy coffee from them, you are sending the money back to the US. All StarBucks does is offer minimum wage employment to Canadians. The white collar head office jobs and distribution are in the US. Thus, it's of no use to Canadians becuase it provides nothing to us but good coffee. However, Tim Horton's bennefits us. Canada is franchised and instatutionalised. It's 75% service industry, low paying jobs. That's what Canada has. THere is no job for Mr. Singh and his credentials when he arrives at pearson airport. Sorry Mr. Singh. But please, do vote Liberal and maybe we can do somethign for ya.

Ontop of this, the white collar jobs now don't pay anything becuase we are saturating our own job market with people from other countries who have better paper qualifications than most Canadians. Thus, the Canadian dream of going to school and picking and choosing a job is dead. It's a 'take what you can get' market place. The dream of getting quality, 'free' healtchare is dead.

Forget about Dion and his 'visions'. Forget about Harper pandering for votes on a false dream of a majority gov't. Forget about Left vs. Right.

I'm tryign to say that we are seriously in a state of crisis that is beginning to take place in Canada and we have to start to get into protection mode. It starts with Arar.

It starts with Arar leaving Canada as a symbol of our new direction in Canada.

[Canuck E Stan]

I'm a Canadian,he's a Canadian,his rights are the same as any Canadian. I suggest your thinking that some Canadians are more Canadian than others is like blaming the rape victim for the crime and she should be banished because of the crime. If it costs the present government $37 million to correct a mistake the Liberal government made,so be it. Maybe next time the Government will be more on top of things.

[jdobbin]

See that's the reason why I can't protest or make my feelings known outside this forum - I get labelled a racist. It's the Canadian way after all.

It starts with Arar leaving Canada as a symbol of our new direction in Canada.

Actually, you are more of a bully. You don't know anything about Arar but think you do. If you have a problem with dual citizenship that's one thing. But your thing is against Arar.

Your intimidation is rather loathsome.

[Riverwind]

Given that he is an engineer with a Master's degree and she has a Ph.D. in finance, your estimate of $400-$500K is a pathetic underestimate for how much two ruined careers are worth.

Ruined careers - hardly. His wife rode the coat-tails of this tragedy right into parliament. If she is half-way competent she should be able to hold on long enough to qualify for the MP pension plan after 6 years. She has no further claim on the public purse. As far as Arar goes his career is hardly ruined if has the technical skills to go with the title then he should have no problems finding an equivalent job now that he has been exonerated.

That said, I did not say he should get nothing - I said $1-2 million would ensure that he and his wife never has to work another day in his life. Early retirement should be more than enough to compensate for any pain and suffering - especially considering the fact that they are still capable of working. The idea that people should be entitled to lottery ticket style payouts because of 'pain and suffering' is absurd.

[watching&waiting]

What part of him being a Canadian Citizen do you not understand? This is not in doubt and never was in doubt, even in the information that was given to the USA by the RCMP. You must has missed this whole inquirey I guess. The USA sent him back to Syria because they wanted him tortured and to see what he knew. They were fully aware that he held valid Canadian passports, and yes you have to be a citizen of Canada to have a valid passport. He was travelling with the Canadian passport at teh time of his detainment. Several lower officers in the RCMP gave wrong info and had him misrepresented as a muslim extremist. That info was wrong and it was later determined it was totally misinterpeted by the RCMP, and passed on to the USA. But even with that the USA should have never, ever under any circumstances sent Arar to Syria, but instead sent him back to Canada. Also yes this has been taken up with the USA and they have promised they would never do that again, but I would not believe that for a minute. I agree that Arar should be able to sue the USA as well, but they will not give the case any standing so it would need to be done in world court.

Here in Canada we all know that mistakes were made by our RCMP, and they were big mistakes, so big the RCMP Commissioner has resigned over the fact he had covered up things and swept them under the rug. This means the time Arar spent in Syrian jail being tortured was the fauult of Canada not doing enough to put their mistakes right and the cover up only made his time even longer. Consider that he was deeaned and tortured for that time, and you tell me if you would settle for 2 Million. Arar was a software engineer and he would be making over $100,000.00 per year at the time, When you have been treated like he was you just do not forget it all and go back to work. He will have depression for many years to come and he will not be able to concentrate well for work. But even that aside if our government took you and tortured you for a year in a jail cell, where you thought you would die. Do you really thing that would worth a couple million, especially when you also had to fight every step of the way to prove this was done?

What if people in Canada paid a thousand to send you over to Syria and label you as a spy and a homosexual. You would probably be tortured and face the death penalty. Would that be enought for you? There even today are rights and wrongs, and when we are in the wrong we should admit it and settle with the people. I have no doubt that this will be settled for much more then what it is being asked right now, but I would still like to see Arar get the international courts to sue both the USA and Syria for what happened as well, and maybe with what Canada has to pay him, he will be able to do just that.