CONTACT HARPER TO DEMAND JUSTICE FOR MAHER ARAR

October 3, 2006

(Montreal, Quebec, Oct. 2, 2006) - The Muslim Council of Montreal (MCM) calls on the Muslim community to stand up for Mr. Maher Arar and for justice, by contacting Mr. Stephen Harper.

According to a recent report released by Mr. Justice Dennis O’Connor, RCMP investigators wrongly provided inaccurate, unfair and overstated evidence about Mr. Arar, causing him to be labelled as a terrorist threat and suffer deportation, detention and torture overseas. The report declares Mr. Arar’s innocence, highlights the wrongdoings of CSIS and the RCMP and proposes a series of recommendations to the federal government.

Please contact Mr. Stephen Harper, as well as your Member of Parliament, to demand that the federal government do the following:

Apologize to Mr. Arar and his family;
Financially compensate Mr. Arar for the extreme psychological and economical hardships he faced;
Hold accountable the members of CSIS and RCMP who were responsible for providing false and misleading information, which lead to the arrest and torture of Mr. Arar;
Establish a system of checks and balances to ensure such injustices do not occur again;
Create an independent watchdog body to monitor and oversee all national security operations;
Introduce legislation to ban: a) the supply of information to foreign governments that engage, directly or indirectly, in torture or where there is a risk that the information may subject people to torture; b) the use of foreign information obtained through the means of torture; c) the deportation of any person to countries where there is a risk they will be tortured.

Contact information:
Mr. Stephen Harper
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, K1A 0A2
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
Fax: 613-941-6900

Find your Member of Parliament: http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?Source=SM