Bill Casey

[Foreign Affairs, October 6th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Solicitor General, and it is the fifth time I have asked the question. I would like to have a really straight answer. I will ask it very simply.

Did any agency of the Government of Canada, RCMP, CSIS or any agency or department give any agency in the United States any information about Maher Arar before, during or after he was detained in New York?

[Zahra Kazemi, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to support the motion. I applaud the member for raising it. On one hand I applaud it, but on the other hand I think his party has let down this family dramatically by not pushing harder and by not demanding that the issue be dealt with differently from day one.

Again, I applaud the member for his motion, but I criticize the government for mishandling from day one. It has not put enough pressure on Iran. It has not made the demands that should have been made and now the family is requesting that the body be brought back to Canada. Perhaps if it came back to Canada, we could find out what actually happened to her and how her death occurred.

Every indication is that the Iranians will not take this issue seriously. They arrested two people, then they released them. Then they arrested somebody else and so on but there is no real action on this. There is no satisfaction from anybody's point of view. What happened to her was awful and we should demand that the body be brought back.

[Foreign Affairs, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, he is right. I do not like the answer because he did not answer the question; I said all agencies.

But moving right along, when asked why Canadian citizen Mr. Arar was held in custody in Jordan for 12 days, foreign affairs officials indicated that the Jordanians said he was just, and I quote, “in transit” for 12 days. That just does not make sense.

Could the minister tell this House the real reason that Mr. Arar was held in Jordan? And could the minister tell this House who held him in custody: the Americans, the Jordanians or the Syrians?

[Foreign Affairs, October 1st, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, in early summer both the Prime Minister and the Solicitor General expressed concern that information about Maher Arar may have come from Canadian sources to the United States.

I ask, did any agency of Canada give any agency in the United States any information about Mr. Arar before, during or after he was detained in New York and deported by U.S. authorities to Syria?

[Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, my question was, did the minister contact the United States security and immigration officials in the event that these identities are used to gain illegal access to the United States?

If this happened on September 4, why did we wait a month to notify the victims?

[Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, September 30th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the theft of 120,000 identities from Revenue Canada computers undermines the credibility of Canadian identity documents.

Has the Government of Canada provided the United States security and immigration officials with the 120,000 Canadian identities stolen from Revenue Canada in the event that these names are used to gain illegal access to the United States?

[Fisheries, September 25th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans announced a number of grants under the Atlantic innovation fund a little while ago. One was for $1.5 million for Acadian Seaplants. The problem is that the president of Acadian Seaplants is also a member of the board that approves the grants. Obviously, there is a potential for a conflict here.

What steps did the government take to ensure that a member of the board did not approve a $1.5 million grant to his own company?

[Foreign Affairs, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, I just simply asked who transferred this Canadian citizen to Jordan? Why was he transferred to Jordan, and then 12 days later transferred to Syria? However, I will move on.

U.S. officials have said that Canadian authorities had indicated that Mr. Arar was not welcome back in Canada. Did Canadian authorities ever question Mr. Arar, or accuse him of any terrorist related activities?

[Foreign Affairs, September 24th, 2003]

Mr. Speaker, with respect to Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, has the Government of Canada asked the United States government why Mr. Arar was deported to Jordan for 12 days and then transferred to Syria? Who transferred this Canadian citizen to Jordan and who moved him to Syria?

[Supply, September 23rd, 2003]

Madam Speaker, that is another dimension of the broad effect or impact of this disaster. On the weekend I talked to car dealers who have trucks on their lots that should not be there. They should be sold. There should be cattle dealers on the road. They should be delivering cattle to the U.S. The dealers have trucks lined up that they cannot sell because the farmers have no money. They have no income. Even if this is fixed today it is going to take a long time to catch up to where they were.

Tractor sales are down. I talked to a tractor dealer who has all kinds of tractors and implements in his yard that normally would be gone at this time of year but are not. They are still there, because the impact of this problem goes right from one end of our country to the other. It affects our small and rural communities, not just farmers. As I said, that was a very good point: it is not just about farmers, it is about small business people, and it does not matter whether it is groceries, clothing, farm tractors or trucks or whatever business it is in these small communities.

It is a tremendous amount of money. I think somebody mentioned a minute ago that it is $11 million a day. If we take $11 million a day out of the economy, that is going to hurt a lot of the car, implement and clothing dealers and the grocery stores. It is $11 million a day and what are we doing about it? Nothing.