After more than a year in a Syrian prison, a Canadian will be reunited with his family Monday.

Maher Arar, who was freed Sunday, should arrive in Montreal Monday afternoon, 374 days after he was arrested by U.S immigration officials and deported to Syria.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said quiet Canadian diplomacy and recent lobbying of Syria's foreign minister and the secretary general to the Arab league lead to Arar's release.

Arar with his daughter (file photo)
Arar with his daughter (file photo)

"There's a recognition here by the Syrian authorities of a respect for the Canadian position. That's one reason they took this step."

"And that's how we keep those good relations, by working in diplomatic channels that are there, not by making threats that in turn cause other people to get their backs up and not co-operate with you.

Monia Mazigh in a CBC interview Sunday
Monia Mazigh in a CBC interview Sunday

Graham says Maher, a father of two young children, is in good health but wouldn't say whether he'd been tortured.

Arar was first detained by U.S. authorities in September 2002 while he was changing planes in New York. The software engineer was travelling from Tunisia to Canada.

U.S. authorities suspected him of being a member of al-Qaeda and deported him to his native Syria. While he has both Syrian and Canadian citizenship, he hasn't lived in Syria for more than 15 years. Arar was jailed upon his return, but not formally charged.

Both Amnesty International and Arar's wife Monia Mazigh had lobbied hard to keep Canadian officials focused on the case.

Mazigh said both Canadian and American officials need to answer questions about her husband's deportation and year-long incarceration. "Now he is back, but we need his name to be cleared," she told CBC News.

"Why the American deported him to Syria with his Canadian passport? Why (did) Canada wait one year, 374 days, to get him back? Why didn't they push harder since the beginning?"

Graham brushed off criticism that the federal government failed to put enough pressure on Syria.

"I don't think it would have been done any more quickly by screaming and yelling," he said.

Alex Neve, the head of Amnesty International Canada, said Graham must keep pressuring Syria if it turns out Arar was tortured. He said Canada must also demand answers from Washington.

"The fact remains that U.S. officials treated a Canadian citizen with contempt for his basic rights, over a year ago."

Graham wouldn't say whether Syria was transferring any information to Canadian authorities about Arar's alleged links to terrorism.