Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria in 1970, came to Canada in 1987. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in computer engineering, Arar worked in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer.
Arar with his daughter (file photo)
On a stopover in New York as he was returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia in September 2002, U.S. officials detained Arar, claiming he has links to al-Qaeda, and deported him to Syria, even though he was carrying a Canadian passport.
When Arar returned to Canada more than a year later, he said he had been tortured during his incarceration and accused American officials of sending him to Syria knowing that they practise torture.
His wife Monia Mazigh has a PhD in financial economics and ran for the NDP in the 2004 federal election in the riding of Ottawa South. She lost. Arar and Mazigh have two young children. In the summer of 2006, the family relocated to Kamloops, B.C., where Mazigh took a teaching position at Thompson Rivers University.
Arar and his family are seeking compensation from the federal government for his abrupt deportation and imprisonment in Syria. Judge Dennis O'Connor, who conducted the inquiry into the matter, recommended in his report dated Sept. 18, 2006 that Ottawa pay up.
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