Public Safety committee  In that paragraph, the second full paragraph, he in fact discloses that--in my belief--either Commissioner Zaccardelli or some other senior person within the government knew earlier than when the report came out about the border lookouts and the documents that accused Mr. Arar and Dr. Mazigh of being Islamic extremists, which I think everybody on this committee thinks triggered his ultimate incarceration in Syria. Commissioner Zaccardelli had put out in his letter, at paragraph four of page two, that he was never told.

Public Safety committee  When we talk about mistakes that were made, first of all, there was a document, the lookout document, that contained the names of a number of people. Those people were legitimate targets of Islamic extremist investigation. Mr. Arar and his wife were added to that list. They should not have been. If they were, they should have been identified. That is the first mistake we're talking about.

Public Safety committee  Arar was a terrorist and “a very bad guy”, which Justice O'Connor said had a devastating effect on Maher Arar, even though you knew, by your own statement then and your own statement today—and that at least is consistent—that there was no evidence to the effect that Mr. Arar was an Islamic extremist associated with al-Qaeda. As you stated today, there was no basis to arrest him, to detain him, to refuse his entry into Canada. Yet when all these damaging leaks came out—and Mr.

Public Safety committee  We have a system that tries to funnel the most important files, the ones that I need to be briefed on, and at what time and so on. This was a file that, remember, targeted a number of suspected Islamic terrorists. Mr. Arar is a peripheral figure; he's a person of interest that comes into the file. This is not something that I would normally be briefed on. So when he did become of interest, after he was in prison in Syria, I did start to get briefed on the file.

Public Safety committee  Why would they simply not be saying he's a person of interest, and stop at that point? Where does the link with al-Qaeda, or his being a terrorist, an Islamic fundamentalist, or a fanatic...? Why would they be addressing that to the Americans unless they knew? That, Mr. Commissioner, is really my problem. Is there more information that they communicated to the Americans that didn't come out in the O'Connor report and that you've not disclosed to us?

Public Safety committee  Why would I ask, “Did you describe Mr. Arar as an Islamic extremist?” No, I wouldn't do that.

Public Safety committee  As far as I remember, in the briefings I had, I was clearly told that information was shared and that the information was in relation to Mr. Arar. As I say, however, to the best of my remembrance, he was never described as an Islamic extremist to me.

Public Safety committee  By the time I became minister, nobody was describing Arar—and Mr. O'Connor documents this—as an Islamic extremist. Based on what Mr. Justice O'Connor discovered, they had corrected the information by that time, so nobody was describing him as an extremist to me.

Public Safety committee  But I think my friend is suggesting the RCMP considered him an Islamic extremist.

Public Safety committee  The problem is that there is deep concern with the fact that the RCMP would have sent information to the United States that indicated that Maher Arar was an Islamic extremist and potentially a terrorist, and the fact that they then would not have shared that with you, with Mr. Easter before you, or with other government officials. That's the concern.

Public Safety committee  But we know now that part of the information the RCMP had given to the American authorities said that they, the RCMP, considered Mr. Arar to be an Islamic extremist.

Public Safety committee  All I can say is that I do not, to the best of my recollection, ever remember being told that Mr. Arar was an Islamic extremist.

Public Safety committee  My question is, do you not believe that a Minister of Public Security in a post-9/11 universe, whoever that minister would be, should have been advised that the RCMP considered Maher Arar, or any other person who they might have had such views of, to be an Islamic extremist associated with al-Qaeda? Should not this be the kind of information that would be normally conveyed to a Minister of Public Security?

Public Safety committee  One would presume so. In fact if one believed that someone was an Islamic extremist with al-Qaeda connections, this is indeed the kind of thing a Minister of Public Safety should know and should be informed of. As I said earlier, to the best of my recollection, Maher Arar was never described in those terms, by anyone, to me.

Public Safety committee  All I know is that I didn't receive such information. But if at some point the RCMP or CSIS believed someone to be an Islamic extremist with al-Qaeda connections, one would presume that this information would be conveyed to, at a minimum, the Minister of Public Safety.