The Merged Maher Arar Thread

[K. Ash]

That's the amount Maher Arar is suing the Canadian government for. He says hes doing this because the Canadian government breached his charter of rights.

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All this just after his wife won the Ottawa NDP nomination.

- Maher Arar and his family are suing the Canadian government for $400-million, according to the National Post.


The suit claims authorities breached Arar's charter rights and were guilty of racism when they pursued an investigation into his alleged extremist links in 2002.


The court filing contains several allegations, including negligence, negligent investigation, defamation, false imprisonment, assault and abuse of public office.

Other parties named in the suit include CSIS, the RCMP and Foreign Affairs department officials in Syria and in New York.

The family says the authorities employed illegal and unconstitutional means to conduct a biased investigation on the basis of unreliable information.

A Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Arar is seeking $50 million in damages and $20 million in punitive damages, as well as unspecified special damages, interest and costs, the newspaper reported. Eleven family members including his wife, Monia Mazigh, are seeking $30 million each in damages.

Mazigh is running in the next federal election for the New Democrats in the riding of Ottawa South.


U.S. authorities in New York arrested Arar, 34, in September 2002 while he was returning home from a trip to Tunisia. He was deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured.
He has denied being a terrorist and he has not been charged with any crime. After being released, he returned to Canada and, together with his wife, successfully campaigned for an inquiry.

An official inquiry beginning in June will examine Arar's claims that he was deported from the United States to Syria with the collusion of Canada's security services.

He has already filed a lawsuit against top U.S. officials, saying they knew he was facing torture in Syria.

 

[Slim]

Originally posted by absent_element:
[qb] That‘s the amount Maher Arar is suing the Canadian government for. He says hes doing this because the Canadian government breached his charter of rights.

web page

All this just after his wife won the Ottawa NDP nomination. [/qb]

The Governmentis going to have a shitstorm on their hands if that doesn‘t get chucked out of court.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Guess where this money will go...? Just a question, Where do these people[alledged terrorists] get the flippin money to seemingly be flying everywhere and I‘ve been working straight since I was 16 and the only way I could afford to fly anywhere was if I flapped my arms? Sometimes the finance thing just does‘nt seem to add up for certain people, Hmmmmm....

 

[K. Ash]

Its a helluva lot of money....appearently his wife is asking for 30 mil. besides the $400.

Come election time if she runs and doesn‘t get elected she‘l be wondering why. And probably go and blame all the people who voted as being racist.

 

[xFusilier]

What the entire Anzar family is asking for is $400 million. 70 mil from Anzar and than 30 for each of the family members. Not that they‘ll ever get it because of the limits of Canadian Tort law.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Of course. Dont get what you want? Your a racist!
Proud tobe a citizen, wanna help out the country when its in debt? Take it to court for a cool 400 mil.

Reminds me of that moron chick from the apprentice.
She said racist comments!
‘Oh no she didnt, we dont have anything on tape‘
Well then your a racist too!

Too bad being stupid wasn‘t a crime.

 

[K. Ash]

"Too bad being stupid wasn‘t a crime."

Only if...


You watch the apprentice??

 

[mbhabfan]

Watching this guy on a news conference right now on cbc and it makes me sick.  I wonder what the actual cost of this public inquiry will reach.  I am thinking it is huge.  All for something the Americans did.  For one thing I feel CSIS should handover any information they have on anybody when the FBI or CIA want it and vice versa.  Secondly I don't feel that they should just have to release that same information to the general public.  I am sick of hearing about this poor bas...  in the news, don't know what happened to him over there but also don't feel the Canadian government or my tax dollars should be held accountable in any way.  Could someone share a vantage point on why any tax money should be wasted in this way???

 

[Infanteer]

If the Government pays out 400 million to him, then we are a legitimate facilitator of terrorist activities and America will have every good reason to launch a Tomahawk strike into Ottawa....

 

[Cloud Cover]

Lets rub the crystal ball a little here.
I'll tee off:

1. A statement of defence will be filed, the government will bring a motion to have the suit dismissed as frivolous and vexatious.
2. The government will lose the motion, and be forced to pay his lawyers for bringing the motion.
3. Arar will then apply for legal aid to obtain government funding to sue the government. He will be denied.
4. Arar will appeal the legal aid decision, and win. The government will be forced to pay his lawyers for the motion.
5. Arars legal aid funded lawyers will continue to bring motions, the government will lose most, and be forced to pay legal costs on top of legal aid.
6. Settlement negotiations will begin. The matter will settle without going to court. The government will be forced to admit racism, publicly apologize on behalf of all Canadians to Arar and all those who have been so grievously wronged and mentally anguished by what happened. Arars lawyers will script everything, and the government will pay the costs.
7. The publicly announced portion of the damage settlement will be about $4 million shared amongst all claimants. The actual amount will be about $10 million.
8. The lawyers will earn about $15-20 million.  
9. While this is ongoing, other lawsuits will spring up as the flood gates open and new forms of high return litigation arise. Bay Street will get involved, and begin financing said lawsuits with venture capital,* in return for a share of the take. [ROI]

In 2 years time, Amnesty International will request the Canadian branch to get into plaintiff's litigation to fund more the search for more hidden government racism agenda's, and to start new actions aagainstindividuals personally.
In 5 years, Alex Neve will retire and "go con$ultant."    
In 10 years time, there won't be any money left to fight TWAT.
In 20 years time, Arar's story will be immortalized ala Louis Riel: our children will be taught how maliciously maligned he was, and that he and his ilk are actually hero's.
In 30 years time, children's and grandchildren's lawsuits for inadequate compensation will begin again.

Anyway, that's just my take on it. Have a nice day.  


* Tax deductible, of course, since this is really a gold mining enterprise, is it not? [the whole truth of the matter principle is of no relevance, since this is a human rights and Charter law suit].

 

[squealiox]

a few simple, undeniable facts:

-- maher arar is a canadian citizen
-- he was kidnapped and tortured by a foreign power, with the cooperation of an agency of OUR GOVERNMENT (CSIS)
-- he was finally released without charge or further punishment (which they would not have done if they really still thought he was a terrorist)

and some of you are surprised he wants to sue the govt? what would you suggest he does -- thank the govt for the wonderful holiday in syria? i don't know about you guys, but i'd rather live in a country where you can sue the govt than in one where the govt can throw you in a dugeon without a fair trial.

 

[dutchie]

If the guy is innocent, and I don't mean 'not guilty' I mean truly innocent, then I feel really bad for him. But if the guy is a shitrat, like I suspect he is, they should send him back to Syria and tell the Syrians he said bad things about them... let 'em cook there for a while.

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

$400 million....what a joke. He's lucky they took him back. Isn't it just too perfect his accomplice, er, I mean wife is running for the NDP?

What a country!

 

[Edward Campbell]

â ?a few simple, undeniable facts:

-- maher arar is a canadian citizen
-- he was kidnapped and tortured by a foreign power, with the cooperation of an agency of OUR GOVERNMENT (CSIS)
-- he was finally released without charge or further punishment (which they would not have done if they really still thought he was a terrorist)â ?

-- maher arar is a canadian citizen â “ agreed;

-- he was kidnapped and tortured by a foreign ... are you sure?   He was detained in the United States and then deported; there is some dispute â “ in US courts, now? â “ re: whether or not US law was properly applied.   He says he was tortured, Syria says otherwise.   There are courts and inquiries which are trying to sort fact from fiction, I didn't realize they had finished their work and appraised you, alone, of their findings;

-- he was finally released without charge or further punishment (which they would not have done if they really still thought he was a terrorist)â ? â “ really? Are you sure?   Maybe Syria just wanted to stir the pot a bit, embarrass the US, maybe ... maybe the intelligence services â “ Canadian and others â “ have other fish to fry and are using Arrar as a stalking horse ...

 

[Edward Campbell]

... i don't know about you guys, but i'd rather live in a country where you can sue the govt than in one where the govt can throw you in a dugeon without a fair trial.

Agreed!

 

[JasonH]

If the Government pays out 400 million to him, then we are a legitimate facilitator of terrorist activities and America will have every good reason to launch a Tomahawk strike into Ottawa....

Can we anyways?!?!!

 

[squealiox]

... are you sure?   He was detained in the United States and then deported; there is some dispute â “ in US courts, now? â “ re: whether or not US law was properly applied.   He says he was tortured, Syria says otherwise.   There are courts and inquiries which are trying to sort fact from fiction, I didn't realize they had finished their work and appraised you, alone, of their findings;

ROJ,
no us govt official has denied he was intentionally deported to syria, despite being on his way to canada. nor has there been any denial of media reports that us officials (albeit unnamed) had the full cooperation of canadian authorities. as for whether he was tortured, i would take anything the baathist syrian authorities say on the subject with a massive grain of salt, to say the least.



as Caesar said,

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

 

[Edward Campbell]

... i would take anything the baathist syrian authorities say on the subject with a massive grain of salt, to say the least.

Fair enough and I agree ... I apply precisely the same taste test to Maher Arar.   What little evidence we have been allowed to see (at e.g. http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/   ) indicates, thus far, only lots of suspicions ... maybe all coincidences but, as you point out: where there's smoke, there's fire

 

[winchable]

Before we have him hanging swinging from the stocks as I've noticed the term innocent until proven guilty, doesn't seem to apply to him, wonder of wonders.

Reading over what we do have it just looks like one massive cockup after another and this guy reallllly got screwed.

Cat Steven's had ties to terrorist groups too, fortunately for him he only had the British citizenship....oh and he's cat stevens.

 

[Cloud Cover]

no us govt official has denied he was intentionally deported to syria, despite being on his way to canada. nor has there been any denial of media reports that us officials (albeit unnamed) had the full cooperation of canadian authorities. as for whether he was tortured, i would take anything the baathist syrian authorities say on the subject with a massive grain of salt, to say the least.

I don't recall the RCMP or CSIS making any statements to the fact he wasn't a terrorist or is not linked to terrorism. 

 

[Agamemnon]

He won't win.

The goverment will pull a lost law on him...saying thanks to this law we can....