Canada's top policeman quits over deportation

[__Kratos__]

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's top policeman resigned on Wednesday, a day after he admitted misleading legislators about how his force had botched the case of a Canadian deported to Syria by U.S. agents.

The position of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli had become increasingly untenable since September, when an official report said police had falsely told Washington that software engineer Maher Arar was a suspected Islamic extremist.

"The commissioner has indicated to me that it would be in the best interests of the RCMP to have new leadership," Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons, describing Zaccardelli's decision as appropriate.

In a letter to Harper, Zaccardelli said the controversy surrounding the case was making it increasingly difficult for him and for the Mounties. "Clearly, the RCMP and I depend upon the confidence of Canadians and their elected representatives. Without this we cannot succeed," he wrote.

Critics said the case showed that Canadian authorities had been too eager to share information with the United States in their rush to boost security after the September 11 suicide attacks, and had compromised national sovereignty, .

U.S. agents arrested Arar in 2002 during a stopover in New York and accused him of belonging to al-Qaeda.

Arar, who holds dual Canadian-Syrian citizenship, was deported to Syria, where he says he was repeatedly tortured. He was released in 2003 and is now suing Ottawa for damages.

In September Zaccardelli told Parliament's public safety committee he had first learned in 2002 that police had passed on inaccurate information to U.S. authorities.

But on Tuesday he changed his story and told the same committee that he had in fact not become aware of the problem until the release of the report, which condemned police incompetence and dishonesty.

Legislators bluntly told Zaccardelli they did not believe him and several demanded his resignation.

The incident proved to be the last straw for Harper and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who had until that point strongly defended the police chief.

The opposition Liberals accused Day of botching the case, saying he had known since early November that there were problems with Zaccardelli's testimony.

"You, you, you are the government. When are you going to start to act like one and take responsibility for your conduct?" demanded Liberal legislator Michael Ignatieff.

Day responded by saying that the previous Liberal government -- which ruled from 1993 to 2006 -- had been too slow to react after Arar was jailed.

Kerry Pither, a spokeswoman for the organizations that had intervenor status at the inquiry that produced the report, described Zaccardelli's resignation as a good first step.

"But many agencies and departments were involved in what happened to Maher Arar and we need accountability from all of them," she said.

Arar is due to react on Friday.

Testimony to the inquiry showed that the foreign ministry and Canadian Security Intelligence Service had also been involved in the case.

The judge who led the probe will issue another report next Tuesday in which he is expected to recommend an independent oversight panel for the RCMP be set up.

Source

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I'm glad to see he axed himself.

[__Kratos__]

The RCMP's task after Zaccardelli

With the resignation of RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli yesterday, the job of reforming the national police force can at last begin. This is a force in deep trouble. How much of that trouble can be laid at Mr. Zaccardelli's door, and how much is owing to larger, structural problems, is hard to say. It is clear, though, that under his leadership the storied RCMP stumbled from disaster to disaster.

The disasters had a pronounced effect on Canadian life. Partly because of RCMP bungling, Canadian Maher Arar spent nearly a year in a grave-like jail cell in Syria. The bungling -- wrongly identifying Mr. Arar to the United States as an al-Qaeda suspect -- was the least of it. Far worse is what emerged from Mr. Zaccardelli's own testimony before a government committee in September, testimony he tried so clumsily to yank from the public record Tuesday by saying he had been mixed up. He knew early on what the RCMP had wrought, but sat on the information as his force stonewalled attempts to free Mr. Arar. In the post-9/11 world, this was a frightening exercise of police power.

Then there was the RCMP's remarkable decision to announce, in the middle of the last federal election campaign, that it was investigating security leaks in the Liberal finance minister's office. The polls at the time showed an immediate boost for the Conservatives. (No one was ever charged.)

The list goes on. The RCMP under Mr. Zaccardelli played a role in what a judge considered a campaign to ruin banker François Beaudoin, who crossed prime minister Jean Chrétien. In British Columbia, the RCMP's investigation into a fatal shooting by one of its officers was leisurely and lacked independence. For its outrageous raid on the home of Ottawa Citizen reporter Juliet O'Neill, the RCMP was accused by a judge of an act of intimidation. (It was this outrage that brought on the public inquiry into the Maher Arar affair, which led to Mr. Zaccardelli's downfall.) The good work done by the force in investigating local police corruption, as in Toronto, or in helping investigate and apprehend a suspected terrorist ring in southern Ontario, has been swamped by the bad.

In opposition, the Conservatives raised questions about whether the RCMP lacked political independence. Next week, a judge who probed the Arar affair will issue a report on how to improve oversight of the RCMP. No matter how important, oversight and political independence are no substitute for good judgment. Under Mr. Zaccardelli, the RCMP was arrogant and mistake-prone, a dangerous combination. The first task for a new leader is to bring mature judgment to the RCMP and so restore its good name.

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Will the RCMP/government say sorry to the US?

[TooFarGone]

I can't believe that the cheif would falsify his testamony. I'm really glad he stepped down, and hope that the RCMP can recover from this.

[__Kratos__]

Update: Canada to probe cases of trio jailed in Syria

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Stunned by revelations of police incompetence in the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria, the government launched an investigation on Tuesday into claims by three other men who say they were tortured in Syria because of information provided by Canadian authorities.

The inquiry could further damage the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was savaged by an official probe in September for falsely telling U.S. authorities that Canadian software engineer Maher Arar was a suspected Islamic extremist.

Arar -- born in Syria -- was arrested in New York in 2002 and deported to Damascus, where he says he was repeatedly tortured for almost a year before being released. Last week RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli resigned after admitting he had misled legislators over the matter.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told reporters the new investigation would look at what had happened to Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin.

The trio -- who all have Canadian citizenship -- were investigated by the Mounties and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy agency after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

The three were arrested separately when entering Syria and say they were detained, tortured and interrogated in the same building in Damascus. All say the questions they were asked could only have come from Canadian authorities.

Day said the probe would look into whether "the detention of these three individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from actions of Canadian officials, particularly in relation to the sharing of information with foreign countries".

Human rights activists say the case of Arar and the three others suggests Ottawa operated a secret program to send terror suspects to nations where they could be interrogated brutally.

"It is a shame ... that it has taken so long to reach this point. These men have been pressing for review of their cases for in some cases close to three years and it has had a terrible toll on them to have to wait that long," said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada.

The inquiry will be led by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci and has been asked to report by January 31, 2008. Much of the probe will be carried out behind closed doors.

It will also examine whether "the actions of Canadian consular officials were deficient" and if "any mistreatment of these three individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from any deficiencies in the actions of Canadian officials".

El Maati, who also holds Egyptian citizenship, was arrested at Damascus airport on November 12, 2001, and said his life was destroyed by what followed. He was transferred to Egypt in January 2002, where he said he was also frequently tortured before being released in January 2004.

Almalki, who also has Syrian citizenship, was detained in Syria in May 2002 and released in March 2004. Nureddin, who also has Iraqi citizenship, was arrested in December 2003 and released a month later.

Earlier in the day, the inquiry into what happened to Arar said the case showed Canada's national police force needs to be subject to stricter controls.

Judge Dennis O'Connor, who led the inquiry, issued a second report calling for the creation of an independent review body with sweeping powers to investigate the Mounties.

The government said it would study the report but did not commit to following any of its recommendations.

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I bet that former chief is still being burned with questions.