OTTAWA—Anne McLellan, the former public safety minister and deputy prime minister who called the O'Connor inquiry into the Maher Arar scandal, says she was never told that the RCMP had labelled Arar as an "Islamic extremist."Former Liberal Solicitor-General Wayne Easter is quick to agree that Liberal Cabinet Ministers were blameless. He was shortly thereafter echoed by former Liberal Foreign-Affairs Minister Bill Graham, who distinguished himself this week by falsely accusing a Conservative Party staffer of being a racist.
McLellan is the second former minister responsible for the RCMP — Wayne Easter was the first — whose recollection of briefings contradict assertions by RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli that government authorities and ministers were fully briefed.
Apparently the Three Stooges want us to believe the RCMP was running the Canadian government at this point in time.
Their accounts were in direct contradiction to the RCMP Commissioner's testimony to a Parliamentary Committee last week.
Commissioner Zaccardelli insisted the RCMP provided full timelines and briefings to the government "almost immediately" after Arar's plight became known.Now this is a real quandry. Do we trust the word of a lifelong Peace Officer who rose to head our National Police Force, or three Liberal ex-cabinet ministers scrambling to cover their asses?
Geez, that's a tough one.
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