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Toronto Star - Dec. 7, 2006
Maher Arar case:
Blunder costs top Mountie his job
BY TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA—RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, a 36-year veteran Mountie, quit yesterday in a storm of controversy after telling dramatically contradictory stories about when he learned of RCMP errors in the Maher Arar investigation.
In a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Zaccardelli submitted his resignation, apparently without being asked, 24 hours after he vowed to remain in the post.
"Clearly, the RCMP and I depend upon the confidence of Canadians and their elected representatives. Without this we cannot succeed," he wrote.
Faced with outright mocking and accusations of incompetence and perjury from opposition MPs, and challenges by Conservative MPs about what confidence Canadians could have in his leadership, Zaccardelli stepped down "with regret and sadness," he wrote.
"The continuing controversy ... makes it increasingly difficult for me and for the institution to fulfill its responsibilities to the Canadian people."
Described by friends and associates as a "workaholic" who rose through the ranks, Zaccardelli, 59, is the first casualty at the national police force since an inquiry judge slammed the RCMP over its false and inflammatory description of Arar as an "Islamic extremist."
That erroneous and unverified information about Arar was transmitted to U.S. officials during the post-9/11 counter-terrorism frenzy, which Justice Dennis O'Connor said "very likely" led to the U.S. decision to ship Arar — a dual Canadian-Syrian citizen — to Syria, where he was tortured and jailed for more than a year.
On Sept. 28, Zaccardelli told a Commons committee that he learned at the outset of Arar's detention in a Syrian jail in October 2002 that the RCMP had made errors on the file. He also said the RCMP briefed its political bosses about those errors, something three of the ministers in charge of the RCMP at the time contradicted him on publicly.
But on Tuesday, appearing before the same committee under oath, Zaccardelli changed his story and said that neither he nor senior RMCP officers knew that investigators had wrongly labelled Arar and his wife "Islamic terrorists" tied to Al Qaeda until this fall when they read O'Connor's inquiry report.
To the end, Zaccardelli did not admit to having misled anyone, nor did he accept that he or any RCMP officer bungled the Arar investigation, or failed to inform their political masters.
He said he had always tried to deal with the government in a "transparent and accurate way."
Harper, who reportedly stood by Zaccardelli publicly and privately in face of complaints within his caucus and cabinet, announced the resignation in the Commons and said he had taken "appropriate action." …………..
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