Falling On His Sword

Mounties' top cop resigns Not enough. He has fallen on his sword for his political masters and for his officers.

In Letters: The Zaccardelli resignation

What a difference 24 hours makes in Canadian politics.

Embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said today that he got his facts wrong about the Maher Arar affair when he testified at a Commons committee in September but he steadfastly refuses to resign over the matter.

Zaccardelli was back before the public safety committee to “set the record straight,” as he put it, about what he knew and when he knew it in Arar’s deportation to Syria as a suspected al-Qaida agent.

But his performance left opposition MPs howling for his resignation, and even some Conservative members expressed disbelief at his new version of events.

OTTAWA - When the Prime Minister unleashes his lapdogs to join a parliamentary pack attack, someone is about to die.

Conservative MPs treated RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli with kid gloves when he appeared before a parliamentary committee two months ago to explain his involvement in the Maher Arar affair.

They dropped the gloves and savaged him yesterday during his second appearance, when he admitted to misleading MPs due to a severely flawed memory.

It was an all-party Zach attack, and when Stephen Harper stood in the Commons a few hours later, urging patience for "due process" before anyone gets fired, well, all that's left to discuss are the terms of severance.

Notice that this has relieved the Tories of demanding he discipline and reprimand the officers who violated the law, those who subesquently he rewarded with promotions rather than sackings. And incompetence is no excuse.

Former RCMP complaints commissioner calls Zaccardelli "incompetent"

There are heads to roll but they won't since the New Law and Order Government loves its Secret Police State. No matter it is illegal and incompetent.

Canadian police said Tuesday they had told U.S. authorities they had no evidence an Ottawa software engineer was an Al Qaeda agent before Washington deported him to Syria , where he was tortured.

Yesterday, Zaccardelli, 58, said he didn't know the RCMP had given false information to U.S. authorities until the report came out in September. He had said in earlier testimony that he learned about the errors in 2002 and had briefed the appropriate ministers.

The U.S. accused Arar of links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network when authorities detained him at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a stopover on his way back to Canada from Tunisia. The investigation was ordered by former Justice Minister Anne McLellan in January 2004.

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