Time Magazine Canadian Newsmaker of the Year, 2004.
Council of Canadians Human Rights Award, 2005.
Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award, 2006.
Nation Builder, The Globe and Mail, 2006.
British Columbia Civil Liberties Association Reg Robson Award, 2007.
Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Nipissing University, 2007.
Time 100, 2007.
Maher Arar (Arabic: ماهر عرار) (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987.
Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunis.[1] He was held without charges in solitary confinement in the United States for nearly two weeks, questioned, and denied meaningful access to a lawyer.[1] The US government suspected him of being a member of Al Qaeda and deported him, not to Canada, his current home and the passport on which he was travelling, but to Syria.[2] He was detained in Syria for almost a year, during which time he was tortured, according to the findings of a commission of inquiry ordered by the Canadian government, until his release to Canada. The Syrian government later stated that Arar was "completely innocent."[3][4] A Canadian commission publicly cleared Arar of any links to terrorism, and the government of Canada later settled out of court with Arar. He received C$10.5 million and Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized to Arar for Canada's role in his "terrible ordeal."[5][6] Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition" but the US government insisted it was a case of deportation.[12]
Arar, represented by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights, filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of New York, Arar v. Ashcroft, seeking compensatory damages and a declaration that the actions of the US government were illegal and violated his constitutional, civil, and international human rights. After the lawsuit was dismissed by the Federal District Court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal on November 2, 2009. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the case on June 14, 2010.
^ abc"Apologizing to Maher Arar: A Beginning, Not an End". jurist.org. 2005-01-21. Retrieved 2007-02-07.
^Mayer, Jane (February 14, 2005). "Outsourcing Justice: The secret history of America's "extraordinary rendition" program". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 3, 2010.
^Cite error: The named reference hell was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Maher Arar will not testify before the Commission of Inquiry" (PDF). Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar. 2007-09-06.
^"Harper apologizes for Canada's role in Arar's 'terrible ordeal'". Archived from the original on 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2011-12-26.
^Cite error: The named reference settlement20070126 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"U.S. denies Arar was deported under America's 'extraordinary rendition' policy". CanWest News Service. September 20, 2006. Archived from the original on May 15, 2013.
^"Renditions: Extraordinary, erroneous, ineffective?". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. February 5, 2007. Archived from the original on September 5, 2013.
^"RIGHTS-US: Rendition Victim Appeals Ruling Barring Suit". Inter Press Service. Archived from the original on 2012-02-12.
^""Rendition, Torture and Accountability" (editorial)". The New York Times. November 19, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
^Tim Harper (2007-01-18). "Senator Patrick Leahy, tears a strip off U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales". Toronto Star newspaper. Archived from the original on 2008-01-12. Retrieved 2008-01-13.
MaherArar (Arabic: ماهر عرار) (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987...
the arrest and extraordinary rendition of an innocent Canadian citizen MaherArar, which occurred in September 2002 at John F. Kennedy International Airport...
to MaherArar: Analysis and Recommendations" (PDF). (1.17 MB), Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar "Renditions:...
departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the MaherArar affair. Zaccardelli was later impugned during inquiries into irregularities...
Canadian author and academic best known for her efforts to free her husband MaherArar from a Syrian prison. A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she was the New Democratic...
Turkish singer MaherArar (born 1970), Canadian-Syrian engineer, deported from the US Arar v. Ashcroft, a legal case brought by MaherArar Mustafa Wahbi...
had been frozen out of intelligence gathering and skills had atrophied. MaherArar was arrested, rendered to Syria and tortured as the result of unfounded...
Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar was a public inquiry investigating the rendition and torture of MaherArar released on September 18, 2006....
Montreal, MaherArar was detained by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, acting upon information supplied by the RCMP. Arar was sent...
posed by terrorist activity, and this has led to the memorable cases of MaherArar and Omar Khadr. The institutional focus of CSIS returned to state actors...
spelled Maher or "Mihir-A", Arabic: ماهر) is an Arabic given name meaning "skilled" or "expert". Notable people with the name include: MaherArar, Canadian...
deportation victim Arar On January 26, 2007, the government announced a compensation worth $11.5 million to Syrian-Canadian MaherArar due to an error from...
into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar. In the aftermath of the Arar affair, the commission of inquiry recommended that the...
case where MaherArar, a wrongfully-accused and tortured victim, sought to sue Attorney General John Ashcroft for his role in deporting Arar to Syria to...
most known for his testimony into the deportation and imprisonment of MaherArar, which occurred during his tenure as Canadian ambassador to Syria. Pillarella...
issues, including the introduction of anti-terror laws in Canada, the MaherArar fiasco, the no-fly list (Passenger Protect), the religious law arbitration...
Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar, led by Justice Dennis O’Connor found that Arar was innocent, that the Royal Canadian Mounted...
several minutes to identify MaherArar from one of the photographs. The report also stated that Khadr thought he saw Arar at a Kabul, Afghanistan safe...
in the wrongful rendition and torture of Canadian citizens, including MaherArar, who was tortured for ten months before being found innocent of the officers'...
studying in Karachi, Pakistan. In November 2003, a Canadian-Syrian national, MaherArar, publicly alleged that he had been tortured in a Syrian prison after being...
over comments he made on the case of MaherArar, Cellucci gave an interview in which explained his position on the Arar case. While he was Ambassador, Cellucci...
Robert-Baldwin in the National Assembly of Quebec. (of Syrian descent) MaherArar - human rights activist; deportation and tortured victim in Syrian jail...
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, about the MaherArar affair and the extraordinary rendition of Arar to Syria. Leahy endorsed Barack Obama, the Democratic...
Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar. (2006). Report of the Events Relating to MaherArar: Analysis and Recommendations (PDF). Ottawa...
Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to MaherArar led by Justice Dennis O'Connor released its report. The Committee was...
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, in matters related to MaherArar. Upon the defeat of the Liberal government in the 2006 election, he was...
left the organisation in April 1994, earlier than intended. In 1997, MaherArar listed Almalki as his "emergency contact" with his landlord. In 1998,...
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