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Franco D. Pillarella is a Canadian career diplomat. He is most known for his testimony into the deportation and imprisonment of Maher Arar, which occurred during his tenure as Canadian ambassador to Syria.
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Pillarella earned a B.A. from the University of Ottawa, in 1963; he went on to obtain an LL.B from the same institution in 1966 and was called to the Quebec Bar in 1967. He joined the Foreign Service later that year.
He has served abroad in Bonn, Milan, Rome, Algiers, The Hague and, from 1988 to 1992, as Consul-General in Berlin.
In Ottawa, he held a number of positions, including Director, Human Rights and Social Affairs Division, and Director, Foreign Intelligence Division. Since 1997, he has served as ambassador to Algeria.
On July 27, 2000 Pillarella was appointed ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic with concurrent accreditation as High Commissioner to the Republic of Cyprus.
As of June 2005, he is testifying in Ottawa at the inquiry looking into the arrest and deportation of Maher Arar to Syria in the fall of 2002.
| This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(March 2023) |
During his June 15, 2005 testimony at the inquiry into Maher Arar's deportation and imprisonment, Pillarella claimed he had no conclusive reason to believe Arar was being tortured, and admitted to accepting the word of Syrian officials that he was not.
He further claimed that he had no reason to think that human rights abuses were occurring in Syria during his term as ambassador, claiming that "I did not have any indication that there were serious human rights abuses committed, that I could verify."
These statements prompted widespread shock and incredulity in Canadian media. Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, stated that Syria's human rights abuses were well known and well documented by many sources.
Maher Arar is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syrian and Canadian citizenship who has resided in Canada since 1987.
Argeo Paul Cellucci was an American politician and diplomat from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Republican, he served as the 69th governor of Massachusetts from 1999 to 2001, and as the United States Ambassador to Canada from 2001 to 2005. He also served as the Commonwealth's 68th lieutenant governor from 1991 to 1999, as well as in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate from 1977 to 1991.
Irwin Cotler is a retired Canadian politician who was Member of Parliament for Mount Royal from 1999 to 2015. He served as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election in November 1999, winning 92% of votes cast.
Giuliano Zaccardelli is an Italian-born Canadian retired police officer who served as the 20th commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from 2000 to 2006. His departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the Maher Arar affair. Zaccardelli was later impugned during inquiries into irregularities in the management of the RCMP's pension and insurance fund. He subsequently became a senior official with Interpol in Lyon, France, heading its OASIS Africa program, which aims to help African police forces more effectively combat international crime.
Abdullah Almalki is a Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat.
Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored kidnapping in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpose of circumventing the source country's laws on interrogation, detention, extradition and/or torture. Extraordinary rendition is a type of extraterritorial abduction, but not all extraterritorial abductions include transfer to a third country.
Far' Falastine, also known as Branch 235, is a prison operated by Syrian Intelligence under the charge of Brig. Gen. Kamal Hassan between 2017 and 2020, located in Damascus, notorious for accounts of torture, coercive interrogation, and deplorable conditions related by its former detainees.
Arwad al-Boushi is a Syrian-born Canadian oil-industry worker. He is notable for being at the center of the controversy over the detention and torture of Canadian citizens that has been attributed to Canadian counter-terrorism officials.
Paul Earl Heinbecker is a Canadian retired career diplomat and a former Canadian ambassador to Germany and permanent representative of Canada to the United Nations in New York City. He currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Vincent Thomas Bevan is a retired Canadian police officer who served as the chief of police of the Ottawa Police Service from April 2000 to March 2007. He led one of the largest police services in Canada and was one of only six Canadian chiefs in the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
Robert Fife is a Canadian political journalist and author who was the Ottawa bureau chief for CTV News from February 2005. Since January 2016, Fife has served as Ottawa bureau chief for The Globe and Mail.
The Canadian Afghan detainee issue concerns Government of Canada or the Canadian Forces (CF) knowledge of abusive treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. The abuse occurred after Afghans were detained by Canadian Forces, and subsequently transferred to the Afghan National Army (ANA) or the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) during the War in Afghanistan. The issue has sparked heated debate since Article 12 of the Third Geneva Convention states that "the Detaining Power [Canada] is responsible for the treatment given [to prisoners of war]". If the allegations of torture are true it would mean Canada is guilty of war crimes.
Muayyed Nureddin is an Iraqi-born Canadian geologist who was imprisoned and tortured in Syria after being arrested in December 2003. After a public inquiry in 2008 and then pursuing a civil litigation for nearly ten years, in July 2017, Nureddin and two other torture victims settled their claims with the Canadian government.
Founded in 2001, Project O Canada was a Toronto-based anti-terrorism investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, subdivisions of the project named A-O Canada and C-O Canada were based in Ottawa and Montreal, RCMP Divisions A and C respectively. By December 2001, the RCMP was shifting its focus from gathering intelligence, to seeking information "in a manner suitable for court purposes".
Henry Garfield "Gar" Pardy is a former diplomat in the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs. Although he retired as director general of the consular affairs bureau in 2003, but has maintained a strong presence in the department.
Arar v. Ashcroft, 585 F.3d 559, was a lawsuit brought by Maher Arar against the United States and various U.S. officials pursuant to the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed Arar's complaint due to lack of personal jurisdiction and national security and foreign policy considerations. This ruling was ultimately upheld by a divided en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The following is a timeline of events in the Canadian Afghan detainee issue. This includes many specific dates and statements.
Richard Proulx is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Assistant Commissioner. He was the head of national security investigations at RCMP headquarters in 2003 during the "Maher Arar Affair".
Barbara Louise Jackman is a Canadian lawyer specializing in immigration and refugee law, with particular emphasis on cases involving domestic violence and international human rights issues, torture and other cruel or unusual punishment, allegations of membership in and/or support of terrorist organizations, the rights and protections afforded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Canada's responsibilities under international treaties. She has been described as being one of Canada's most effective advocates for immigration and refugee rights.
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