Maher Arar Gets His Apology and a Little Spending Money.... - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Indi · 01-26-2007, 01:22 PM

About time the govt stepped to the plate and admitted they screwed up. I have to give kudos to Maher Arar and his family for hanging in there and getting the government to come clean.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/...r-apology.html

JBR · 01-26-2007, 01:30 PM

When this happenned, did Maher scream "You can put it in the win column!!!!"

Looger · 01-26-2007, 01:39 PM

an apology from a bilderberg stooge like harper means about as much as what came out of my ass this morning.

but whatever - if this gives arar a small amount of peace, good for him.

CaptainCrunch · 01-26-2007, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Looger

an apology from a bilderberg stooge like harper means about as much as what came out of my ass this morning.

but whatever - if this gives arar a small amount of peace, good for him.

Yup an apology from Chretian and the former head of the RCMP would have been far more fitting.

Looger · 01-26-2007, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Yup an apology from Chretian and the former head of the RCMP would have been far more fitting.

well, what i meant with the reference to harper's 2003 bilderberg king-making speech was that a judas goat, a 'good shepherd', like stephen OR cretien OR martin or whoever else has sold canada out to globalist one-world government interests is as meaningless as from any traitor.

'hey this country that i am selling out as we speak is sorry'

yeah... real sorry. meanwhile we'll just send the other 30 million canadians down the river by not repealing the security and prosperity partnership agreement or NAFTA or any other sovereignty-destroying framework.

FlamesAddiction · 01-26-2007, 01:59 PM

If Arar is happy now, then that is what is important. Arar had positive comments about the Conservatives and the Liberals.

The only problem I have with this is that Syria (the real perp in this), and the U.S., do not feel like they have done anything wrong. At least Canada has acknowledged our flaws in this incident.

Is Arar even angry at Syria for this? I have only heard him bash/blame Canada and the U.S.

Looger · 01-26-2007, 02:03 PM

syria and egypt buy political capital with these torture renditions.

this one's news to us because it's a canadian, but syria has a long track record of this kind of behaviour - not exactly a free country.

if syria and the US apologize for this, then what of the other dozens / hundreds of provably innocent people that they jail and torture every year?

metallicat · 01-26-2007, 02:04 PM

So is there any chance this whole thing was a "if there's smoke, there's fire" situation? I don't know enough details about this case.

ericschand · 01-26-2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

So is there any chance this whole thing was a "if there's smoke, there's fire" situation? I don't know enough details about this case.

Here's wikipedia on him

FlamesAddiction · 01-26-2007, 02:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Looger

syria and egypt buy political capital with these torture renditions.

this one's news to us because it's a canadian, but syria has a long track record of this kind of behaviour - not exactly a free country.

if syria and the US apologize for this, then what of the other dozens / hundreds of provably innocent people that they jail and torture every year?

I can see your points, but still, I would like to see him become an advocate for human rights in Syria. Being an ethnic Syrian, he should now put his money where his mouth is.

In his comments after the settlement, he said that it was a victory for human rights, but I don't see how it is a victory for human rights if he gives Syria a pass on this. A victory for an individual... sure, but not for humanity. I guess we'll see now how serious he is. He has the fame and resources to make a difference... hopefully he uses like he expects Canada to.

Looger · 01-26-2007, 02:29 PM

i don't think it's automatically up to him to fight this battle, it's up to other people that abide by their government's behaviour with little or no comment.

and the second syria stops torturing whom the US sends them they'll be decried for being 'soft on the global war on terror (TM)' and a step closer towards a punching bag in the coming disaster in the middle east that think tanks and nutcases are screaming for.

Devils'Advocate · 01-26-2007, 04:02 PM

Can I be tortured for a couple of years for $10M?

His wife ran here in Ottawa for the NDP. Monia is the stronger person of the two. She's the one that argued with officials every single day to get enough political pressure to get him back to Canada.

I don't think anyone is giving Syria a pass on this. But how can we start telling other countries how to treat their own people if we condemn our own to torture?

The Goon · 01-26-2007, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBR

When this happenned, did Maher scream "You can put it in the win column!!!!"

I'm sorry, but I had to step away from my desk at the office, this made me laugh so much. Well done.

I-Hate-Hulse · 01-26-2007, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Can I be tortured for a couple of years for $10M?

That's a punchline that's rolling around many an office right now but I suspect Syrian Torture sessions aren't exactly going to be a walk in the park. Think of all the nasty thing that could be done to harm your Golden Globes, multiply that by 5, and then think if that's really worth any amount at all...

CaptainCrunch · 01-26-2007, 04:39 PM

Syrian torture is a little more nasty then making a person wear his underwear on his head or being part of a naked human pyramid

Looger · 01-26-2007, 04:58 PM

yep.

the current regime run by old man assad's son - the optomologist - still has many of the institutions and jails that hafez did.

any regime that was privately praised by henry kissinger - is a bad one.

RougeUnderoos · 01-26-2007, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Looger

well, what i meant with the reference to harper's 2003 bilderberg king-making speech was that a judas goat, a 'good shepherd', like stephen OR cretien OR martin or whoever else has sold canada out to globalist one-world government interests is as meaningless as from any traitor.

'hey this country that i am selling out as we speak is sorry'

yeah... real sorry. meanwhile we'll just send the other 30 million canadians down the river by not repealing the security and prosperity partnership agreement or NAFTA or any other sovereignty-destroying framework.

I don't want to derail this thread, but I gotta ask what you think of Conrad Black's recent troubles. He was the one who invited Harper (and other international influence peddlers like Canadian bookseller Heather Reisman and witty blogger Mark Steyn) to the event in question, but it's all come crashing down. How does that happen to a permanent member of the most powerful secret group on earth? I saw him on TV personally carrying boxes of incriminating records out the back door of his office and loading them into the trunk. Pretty shabby behaviour for a kingmaker and master of the universe, wouldn't you say?

On topic though, good for Arar. Hopefully he can enjoy that loot and have a good life. If I was him I might try to do some things about human rights from my home in Kamloops, but I sure as hell wouldn't be making my way to either Syria or the United States anytime soon.

Looger · 01-26-2007, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I don't want to derail this thread, but I gotta ask what you think of Conrad Black's recent troubles. He was the one who invited Harper (and other international influence peddlers like Canadian bookseller Heather Reisman and witty blogger Mark Steyn) to the event in question, but it's all come crashing down. How does that happen to a permanent member of the most powerful secret group on earth? I saw him on TV personally carrying boxes of incriminating records out the back door of his office and loading them into the trunk. Pretty shabby behaviour for a kingmaker and master of the universe, wouldn't you say?

you should check into who else owns / owned hollinger international and who lost money... as simply one of the companies he stole from.

this wasn't a 'black versus society' case but a 'untouchable mogul versus untouchable mogul' thing.

as to black's real-world troubles... i'll believe it when i'm locked up in the cell next to him. i have little doubt that he's got it pretty cushy and is probably put on a diet and trotted out with prison clothes for an occasional photo-op.

but black - i really can't comment too much on, i don't even bother to follow what happens with singular members of the kingmakers. i pay attention to what they collectively decide and who they collectively target.

you don't get a membership to bilderberg without being one form of creature or another, black just went for too much and someone somewhere decided to make an example.

call me when the lot of these criminals is locked up - and not when there's a tiffy at the top.

the ottawa meetings for example had shouting matches as the neo-con throw-away-gun faction of the ruling class was brought to heel over their plans for iran, we'll see if they'll listen to the mild imperialists or go for broke...

can't comment on reisman and steyn, not familiar with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

On topic though, good for Arar. Hopefully he can enjoy that loot and have a good life. If I was him I might try to do some things about human rights from my home in Kamloops, but I sure as hell wouldn't be making my way to either Syria or the United States anytime soon.

no kidding. syria isn't too concerned with their reputation in canada and they'd probably take a cue from the excited states and have arar arrested again.

redforever · 01-26-2007, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Can I be tortured for a couple of years for $10M?

His wife ran here in Ottawa for the NDP. Monia is the stronger person of the two. She's the one that argued with officials every single day to get enough political pressure to get him back to Canada.

I don't think anyone is giving Syria a pass on this. But how can we start telling other countries how to treat their own people if we condemn our own to torture?

We never condemned our own in this case. It was the US who sent him back to Syria, on misinformation from our RCMP. However they did it on some special rendition clause which allowed them to do so without Arar having recourse to any deportation hearing which should be standard. And the US did so without consultation from Canada.

FlamesAddiction · 01-26-2007, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

On topic though, good for Arar. Hopefully he can enjoy that loot and have a good life. If I was him I might try to do some things about human rights from my home in Kamloops, but I sure as hell wouldn't be making my way to either Syria or the United States anytime soon.

The least he can do is drop his dual Syrian-Canadian citizenship. Why would he keep his allegiance to a country that tortured him?