Both the Canadians and the Americans should be extremely ashamed of their conduct in this matter. In my mind, with a trillion dollars being spent on an unjustified war, paying this man $9 million is nothing. (Arar had first asked for $400 million, then backed away from that number and asked for $37 milion.) A more appropriate punitive measure would be to force both governments to contribute $900 million to a legal defense fund for all the future Maher Arars. We could call it the Maher Arar Innocence Fund.

Mr. Arar, who worked for a software company , has been unemployed since his ordeal in Syria, where by his account he was held for 10 month in a tiny cell and beaten repeatedly, often with a frayed electrical cable. In an interview in September 2006, he said that he now suffers from depression and other psychological disorders. ... Mr. Arar has also sued American officials and agencies over his detention and deportation to Syria. A trial court dismissed the suit, largely on jurisdictional grounds, but the decision is being appealed. ... The apology by Mr. Harper today is the third Mr. Arar has received from the Canadian government. In September, the House of Commons passed a motion offering its apology. And Giuliano Zaccardelli, who resigned last month as head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after giving incorrect testimony about his role in the affair, also apologized to Mr. Arar. (New York Times, Jan. 26, 2007)