OTTAWA—Canada's top Mountie, under heavy fire for botching the case of a man deported to Syria by U.S. agents, came under immense pressure to resign on Tuesday after he admitted to misleading legislators about the affair.
The fate of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli looked ever more precarious after Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was concerned by what the police chief had done.
Zaccardelli's woes stem from an official inquiry that found the RCMP had mistakenly told Washington that Canadian software engineer Maher Arar was an Islamic extremist.
U.S. agents arrested Arar in 2002 and sent him to Syria, where he says-and the inquiry concurred-that he was repeatedly tortured during the year he spent in Damascus jails. Arar was released in 2003 and is now suing Ottawa for damages.
Zaccardelli appeared before Parliament's public safety committee in September and told legislators he had first learned of the inaccurate information in 2002. But on Tuesday he said he had been mistaken and had in fact not become aware of the problem until the inquiry issued its report this year.
"I obviously did state certain things that were not accurate, and so I apologize for that," he told the committee.
Disbelieving legislators from both the governing Conservatives and opposition parties told Zaccardelli they did not think his explanation was credible.
"I'm a little bit incredulous that a police officer with 36 years' experience could make such a mistake ... I think you can appreciate why, on both sides of this committee, we find that a little bit hard to believe," said Conservative Laurie Hawn.
"I can understand that, sir," replied a clearly uncomfortable Zaccardelli, who formally apologized to Arar during his September appearance.
Zaccardelli told reporters he would stay in his job and push through reforms to ensure the Arar case was not repeated. But Harper, who has until now been supportive, is clearly losing patience.
"The government is surprised and concerned by the change of story in the testimony today. This government will examine the facts and will respond in a manner that is objective, professional and dispassionate," Harper told Parliament.
Pressed by opposition leaders to fire Zaccardelli, Harper said the previous Liberal government had gotten into trouble by dismissing officials too quickly.
"Because something is said in a parliamentary committee or something is said in a report, you can't—the government—just go out and fire people without due process," he said.
Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois said Zaccardelli should quit and mischievously named a possible successor.
"If it's normal for a policeman to act like that, we'll give them (a name) to replace him-Inspector Clouseau of the Pink Panther," he told reporters, referring to the famed fictional bumbling detective.
The official inquiry strongly criticized the police for incompetence and dishonesty. It found the Mounties had asked U.S. customs agents to put Arar and his wife on a special watch list, calling them "Islamic extremist individuals".
Zaccardelli said the RCMP had twice told U.S. authorities before Arar was deported that Canada did not have any reason to arrest him. But he stressed Arar had remained a "person of interest" for Canadian authorities until the official probe declared he was totally innocent.
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