RCMP commissioner Zaccardelli resigns amid criticism over Arar

RCMP commissioner Zaccardelli resigns amid criticism over Arar file

Canadian Press

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli has resigned. (CPimages/ Tom Hanson)

OTTAWA (CP) - Embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli has resigned amid criticism over conflicting statements about the Maher Arar case.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement Wednesday during question period in the House of Commons. "Today, Commissioner Zaccardelli submitted his resignation to me and I have accepted it," Harper said. "The commissioner has indicated to me that it would be in the best interests of the RCMP to have new leadership as this great organization faces challenges in the future.

"I'd like to thank the commissioner for his long and dedicated service to the RCMP and the country."

On Tuesday, Zaccardelli admitted he got his facts wrong when he testified at a Commons committee in September about when he first knew the RCMP had passed erroneous information to U.S. authorities.

An inquiry concluded that the information - which suggested Arar had ties to al-Qaida - likely led the U.S. to deport him to his native Syria where he was tortured.

Opposition critics have been demanding Zaccardelli's resignation. Harper said Tuesday that the government would examine the facts and respond "in a manner that is objective, professional and dispassionate."

"We do not fire people without due process. But we will proceed appropriately and ensure there is accountability for actions."

Zaccardelli was back before a Commons committee Tuesday to "set the record straight," as he put it, about what he knew and when he knew it in Arar's deportation to Syria as a suspected al-Qaida agent.

His performance left opposition MPs howling for his resignation, and even Conservative members expressed disbelief at the new version of events.

At issue is when the commissioner first learned that the RCMP had passed erroneous information to U.S. authorities wrongly describing Arar as an Islamic extremist with suspected terrorist ties.

Zaccardelli indicated in testimony on Sept. 28 that he knew of that mistake shortly after Arar was deported by the Americans to Damascus, where he was tortured into false confessions of terrorist activity.

But he was unable to offer an explanation of why he didn't go public to set things right, or brief the Liberal government of the day on the matter.

The commissioner now says he was wrong in his original explanation of what had transpired. He couldn't go public or tell his political masters, because he didn't know at the time about the mistaken terrorist label the force had hung on Arar.

© The Canadian Press 2006

Toronto Star Editorial: RCMP chief torturer must go

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Editorial: RCMP chief must go
Dec. 6, 2006. 01:00 AM

What did Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli know about the Maher Arar fiasco and when did he know it?

After Zaccardelli's credibility-shredding flip-flop yesterday before a House of Commons committee probing his role in one of the great RCMP bungles, it is anybody's guess.

But it is clearly Prime Minister Stephen Harper's problem. After expressing "surprise and concern" at Zaccardelli's erratic performance, Harper should go the next step, seek his resignation and have an outside police force look into this affair.

Canadians also expect swift action from the Conservatives when Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor tables his recommendations next week to place the RCMP's national security operations under closer scrutiny.

In a damning report on Sept. 18 about the Arar case, O'Connor concluded the RCMP told U.S. officials that Arar was "an Islamic extremist" based on bad information. That "very likely" led to his arrest in New York in 2002 and removal to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured.

When Zaccardelli testified before a House of Commons committee just 10 days after O'Connor released his report, the RCMP chief said he had been "personally shocked" in 2002 to learn his force had supplied "false or incorrect" data. He claimed the force "made an effort to correct that false information" before Arar was deported. And "we let Canadian officials know about that." In that story line, the RCMP knew it had erred and scrambled to make it right.

That's not how O'Connor saw it.

He found the RCMP kept federal officials in the dark about the errors. Key ministers in the Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin governments recently confirmed that finding.

Yesterday, in a bizarre about-face, Zaccardelli changed his tune.

"I made a mistake in inferring or leaving an impression that I knew information about those mistakes in 2002 when, in fact, I couldn't have known. I knew it in 2006 (after reading O'Connor's report)," he said.

The RCMP did try to correct part of the record by telling the Americans they could not link Arar to Al Qaeda and could not detain him. But they continued to regard him as a suspicious "person of interest." And they never corrected other bad data they had passed along.

All this left Mark Holland, a Liberal member of the committee, wanting to know when Zaccardelli had "perjured" himself: on Sept. 28, or yesterday. Opposition members of committee now want him fired.

Whichever story is right — and O'Connor's findings support yesterday's version — the damage is done.

If Zaccardelli did know the RCMP shared bad information on Arar in 2002, why didn't he speak up then, to clear him of alleged extremist ties?

If Zaccardelli did not know exactly how the RCMP bungled in 2002, and still didn't know until O'Connor reported four years later, what does that say about his leadership? How long does it take to sort out a mess? Why was no one held accountable?

It is all bad. Harper's reluctance to fire Zaccardelli and bring in an outside police force to probe how this file was handled is inexcusable.

O'Connor's thoughts on stronger oversight have never been more urgently needed.