Maher Arrar - Martyr of Injustice
Time to move on. Nurse your grievance if you must, but kindly permit us to move on. Yes, a grievous injustice was done you through the confluence of external events which moved western societies to unleash their security agencies' operations to high alert, and you were caught in an unfortunate web. These were extraordinary circumstances, a conjunction of world-class catastrophies which rendered normally-sensitive and sensible governments to a level of suspicion and aggression they would normally never exhibit, compelling them to accept a curtailment of civil liberties they would not condone under normal circumstances.But who is the naive one here? At such a sensitive time you chose to travel abroad to countries which fell within the sphere of suspicion. While you travelled on a Canadian passport you also held a Syrian passport which identified you as Syrian-born. Under these still-dire circumstances of nervous suspicion when individuals of Middle East origin, readily identified, were held to be suspect - right or wrong - a foreign government took it upon itself to spirit you away to the country of your birth.
It was the country of your birth, Syria, which dealt with you in an inhumane manner, subjecting you to abusive treatment. Syria recognizes Syrian citizenship, not dual citizenship. Syria is known to inflict torture on its prisoners. Incarceration in most Middle East countries is no country idyll. Have you thought to lecture Syria on its human rights record?
Your campaign for justice, led by your indomitable wife has been acknowledged. Many Canadians sympathized with your ordeal. An especially commissioned court of enquiry, set up by the government which you accuse of orchestrating your humiliation, the misery of your experience, has found on your behalf; exonerated you from all trumped-up charges, found you innocent and the government of Canada through its national policing agencies culpable.
Members of Parliament have stood up in the House of Commons and passed a motion to express their sympathy with your plight, with the violent interruption of the normalcy of your life. The Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, implicated in the truly unfortunate events which led to your year-long ordeal in Syria has apologized, has admitted that his force had erred, and pledged to implement safeguards to ensure such a travesty of justice would not re-occur.
You will of course know that any institution, particularly one representing government interests and by extension the interests of the citizen of the country, is susceptible to subversion by the all-too-human individuals charged with its oversight. Another government policing agency, CSIS, has also been implicated in the sad and sorry mess made of your life for that period you were held in Syria. We know that a critical member of External Affairs, responsible for the welfare of Canadians in Syria failed you.
That said, we must believe that this government and those agencies realize how serious an infraction was caused by the confluence of emergency measures under unusual circumstances and the human rights of citizens seen as possible suspects and potential threats to the safety and security of the country, its citizens and its institutions and infrastructure.
Your legal suit against the government of Canada (and by extension the taxpayers of Canada, your fellow citizens who sympathize with you and have expressed their support for you) is proceeding and is certain to conclude in your favour. Out of this exercise you will be set to receive millions of dollars in compensation. And while money cannot adequately compensate for your lost year of life and the torture you underwent, it will help you to re-establish yourself and secure a future for your children.
This country whose actions you so deplore has empowered you, through its laws and its systems of checks and balances to call it to account. Your ongoing, bitter mission to humble this government does you no credit and will not succeed. In this you do not have the support of most Canadians. This government, in recognizing its failure toward you, and in attempting to serve your interests, however tardily, has spent millions of tax dollars to deal fairly with you.
At this juncture I would prefer any additional funds to be spent elsewhere. Rather than waste more money on satisfying your need to see the perpetrators of the injustice done to you - inefficient and incapable faceless government agents - I would like my government to turn its attention to the needs of the homeless in our society; our indigenous people, so ill-served by their own representatives and our clueless bureaucrats; the immigrants who require assistance in adjusting to this country; the refugees, the asylum-seekers.
Cease and desist, Maher Arrar. Leave off your determination to prolong your victimhood like a badge of outraged honour. In the process milking the public of sympathy, the government of tax dollars, the news media of space better given to more latterly-worthy causes. Time to move on.
Others who have suffered far more seriously have somehow managed to come to grips with their lives, without ever having received the recognition, homage and satisfaction that you and your supporters have wrung from the civil system. Get on with life.
Look to your own unfortunate tendency to cling to your self-illuminated status as this country's primary victim. There are countless others who have suffered and continue to suffer injustice and privation as negligent fall-out of a stressed and often incapable bureaucracy. We need to focus on their legitimate needs - not continually be jerked back to your dissatisfaction with the steps taken to make amends on your behalf.
Find your new niche in life and live it.
posted by Pieface @ Monday, October 16, 2006
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