Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Commissioner, for being here.
I understand that yesterday, Commissioner, you attended a public function and spoke about the Arar case. I'd just like to read to you one quote from there, talking about the inaccurate information:
This was not recognized by the RCMP at the time, and senior officials, including myself, were not informed until the Commission of Inquiry completed its work. All the above information is documented and detailed in the Justice O'Connor's report.
My friends opposite have talked about the differences, and I would read to you a couple of other quotes from September 28, from the record. One of your answers was:
As I explained to Mr. Cotler, this happened at the same time. It is when I was inquiring into what happened in Mr. Arar's case that I learned that our investigators were trying to correct the false information that had been conveyed to the U.S. authorities. It is at that time that I was made aware of the correspondence between the Americans and the RCMP investigators. This is then that I found out that false information had been conveyed concerning Mr. Arar.
And then on to Mr. Ménard again:
Mr. Chairman, as I have said, I learned that a mistake had been made, that the information concerning Mr. Arar was false, after Mr. Arar was imprisoned. At the same time, I learned that the investigators had made an effort to correct that false information, but it was after Mr. Arar was imprisoned.
Then you went on to say, again in answer to Mr. Ménard:
When we learned what had occurred, we had discussions with the minister to inform him of the situation and we began to notify the authorities of what had happened in this case.
I think Canadians legitimately would question what's happened here. I know you've indicated that after reading Mr. O'Connor's report, but I don't see what Mr. O'Connor's report has to do with either one of these situations.
I think it was pretty clear to the committee—and I understand why our friends opposite are upset—that on September 28, you were very clear about when you learned what you learned and some of the information that was passed. Can you tell us how that difference comes about today?