Fire Zaccardelli

It's certainly more than ironic that RCMP Chief Zaccardelli is now saying that he didn't intend to mislead the committee investigating the Arar affair when he tesitified in September. He told the media today that he just didn't have the proper information at the time to provide accurate testimony. This - coming from the same RCMP machine that has had to admit that it didn't give the US government accurate information about Arar's security status either.

When Zaccardelli appeared before the committee on Sept. 28, he said he first learned of RCMP mistakes some time after Arar was imprisoned and that he informed senior government officials about the problems. Zaccardelli testified that he knew the RCMP were trying to correct the record with their U.S. counterparts while Arar was being detained in Syria.

But at a speech Monday and again at the committee meeting this morning, Zaccardelli told a different version of events.

He told MPs that he knew Arar was a “person of interest,” but did not learn that the RCMP had passed inaccurate information to U.S. authorities until much later, when he read O’Connor’s report.

Zaccardelli said today that his senior officers were not aware that Arar had been mislabeled or that false information had been passed on to U.S. authorities and, therefore, there’s no way he could have known because his senior officers are responsible for briefing him on such matters. Throughout his testimony, Zaccardelli repeated that he only learned the full scope of how the RCMP mishandled the Arar case when he read the inquiry report.

How are we now expected to believe that his testimony was just a mistake? You'd think he would know when he actually learned about Arar's situation. It's time for those 'senior government officials' and MPs to step forward to either confirm or deny Zaccardelli's sudden reversal (not that they'll necessarily tell the truth if they decide they want to help him save his butt).

Regardless, Zaccardelli's changing story is an admission of incompetence and he needs to either resign or be fired for screwing around with a Canadian's life to the point where that person ends up being tortured in a Syrian jail due to RCMP 'mistakes'.

Update: When asked about this during question period by Stephane Dion, Harper began his answer with this: 'I know the Liberal party doesn't like the RCMP.' In response to a second question from Dion, Harper once again attacked the Liberals (because that's all he knows how to do): 'The animus of the Liberal party towards the RCMP and the commissioner is well known...'

Screw you, Steve. Just do your job and fire Zaccardelli. And, while you're at it, give Stockwell Day his walking papers too.

Update: CTV has the reaction from Maher Arar's lawyer and video of Zaccardelli's testimony today.