Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Day 6

Day 6 documentary: Reinventing Maher Arar

In 2002, Syrian Canadian Maher Arar was travelling back to Canada after a family holiday overseas. On a stop-over in New York, the FBI accused him of being an al-Qaeda operative and sent him to a Syrian prison where he was tortured. An inquiry later cleared his name. Julie Ireton's documentary looks at how he's trying to move from "former terror suspect" to something else.
CBC Radio ·
Maher Arar at CauseSquare headquarters, in the Vanier office building he owns. (Pierre-Paul Couture/CBC)
Day 69:46Day 6 documentary: Reinventing Maher Arar


In 2002, Syrian Canadian Maher Arar was travelling back to Canada after a family holiday overseas. On a stop-over in New York, the FBI accused him of being an al-Qaeda operative,then secretly sent him to a Syrian prison where he was tortured. 

Later, an inquiry cleared his name, and he received an apology and $10 million in compensation from the Canadian government. 

Now, the computer engineer is the front-man for for a new app called CauseSquare designed to connect millenials with charities. And he hopes it will help change the way people see  him. 

"A lot of people don't know that when I was arrested, I was actually working on a software prototype"

Julie Ireton's Day 6 documentary "Reinventing Maher Arar" looks at how Arar's trying to move on from being labelled a "former terror suspect."

"Now I want to contribute in a different way. But at the same time have fun, and do what I love doing in life, which is to be involved in high tech,"  says Arar.

More from this episode