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Last year, The Globe selected Maher Arar and Sergeant Patrick Tower of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry as The Globe and Mail's Nation Builders of 2006.
As Edward Greenspon, The Globe's editor-in-chief, wrote in his Saturday column Who will be the Nation Builder of 2007:
"For some, it might have appeared odd to group together a victim of the war on terror and a soldier on the front lines of that war.
"But after sifting through hundreds of nominations and discussing it among ourselves, the editors felt that, beyond his personal valour, Sgt. Tower was taking up arms for the very rights and freedoms that Mr. Arar was so brutally denied."
Maher Arar
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The Globe has already invited you, our readers, to submit your own nominations for this year's winner.
We will be printing some of the best nominations online before the winner is announced late this year in The Globe.
To start that process, here is Mr. Arar's nomination for this year's winner — Mr. Justice Dennis O'Connor, who chaired the inquiry which determined that Mr. Arar had no link to terrorism.
Justice O'Connor's report, based on testimony from dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of documents, said Mr. Arar was unfairly branded a terrorist by the RCMP, which shared that conclusion with U.S. authorities. The Americans in turn arrested Mr. Arar and sent him to Syria.
The inquiry also determined Mr. Arar was indeed tortured in Syria, as he said.
Maher Arar's nomination of Justice O'Connor: "The Arar Inquiry taught Canadians how hard it is to fight against unjustified government secrecy in the post 9/11 environment.
"Although the Arar Inquiry was announced as a public inquiry, there was a great deal of government pressure to hold most of its testimony privately, in camera.
"It would have been understandable for Justice O'Connor to concede to this pressure, but instead he was able to balance the government's need for in-camera hearings with the public's right to know.
"Furthermore, he believed, after looking at all the evidence in context, that his entire public version of the report should be released with no censored portions.
"For that, he challenged the government in Federal Court and eventually prevailed in August 2007.
"Had it not been for the courage, persistence and dedication of Justice Dennis O'Connor, his lead council Mr. Paul Cavalluzzo, and the rest of the commission's team, Canadians would still be in the dark about how the Canadian government and its national security agencies conducted themselves early in the post 9/11 era.
"It took close to three years of hard work and patience, not just by Justice O'Connor, but also by his team, and by their families who made huge sacrifices by allowing their loved ones to be away for sometimes weeks on end.
"One can only look around to see how their efforts made a huge positive difference in our society.
"For example, the commission's report became an important part of the public record that even the Supreme Court has since quoted from in challenging the validity of security certificates.
"For their patience, dedication, and the immense contribution to civil liberties in Canada, I nominate Justice O'Connor and his team as the Nation Builders of the Year 2007.
"Their efforts should not be taken for granted."
