A human rights scholarship for law students at the University of Ottawa has been named in honour of Maher Arar and his wife, Monia Mazigh.

Arar, who was wrongfully deemed a terror suspect in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was tortured, was the guest of honour at a crowded dinner at Parliament Hill Wednesday night establishing and raising funds for a scholarship that has been unofficially named the Canadian Muslim Network Arar-Mazigh Scholarship.

Maher Arar shares a table with federal political leaders at a dinner that raised $40,000 for a scholarship named in his honour.
(CBC)

There, Arar gave a speech about his ordeal and was presented with a letter of apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a conference hall crammed with politicians and Muslim leaders.

Bruce Feldthusen, the dean of common law at the University of Ottawa, said naming a law scholarship after Arar is very appropriate.

"I think the entire sequence of events speaks to the importance of the rule of law — both the failure of countries to follow it and the success of the rule of law in doing our best to straighten things out after the damage was done," he said.

University of Ottawa spokeswoman Amanda Leslie said about 200 people attended the dinner, which raised $40,000 that will be matched by funds from the Ontario government to create an $80,000 endowment — enough for an annual scholarship of about $3,500.

The scholarship was initiated by Tyseer Aboulnasr, an electrical engineering professor at the university and a member of the Canadian Muslim Network, Leslie added.

Apology renewed faith: Arar

Arar told those attending the dinner that the judicial inquiry into his ordeal, the apology and the $10.5-million compensation offered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in January, have gradually renewed his faith in the Canadian government.

"Canada needs to make sure that human rights don't get trumped by security concerns again," he said.

Arar was detained at an American airport by U.S. authorities while returning home to Ottawa from a vacation in 2002. American authorities deported him to Syria based partly on information from the RCMP that a Canadian judicial inquiry later found to be misleading.

Arar now lives in Kamloops, B.C., with his wife and two children.