There's been a few cases of Canadians getting deported to the wrong country hitting the press up north. There was the case of
Berna Cruz an Indian-born Canadian who was deported because INS officers in Chicago decided her legitimate Canadian passport was altered or a fake (or something). Then there was the case of
Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian who was "accidentally" deported to Syria instead of Canada.
When Cruz came home she made a stink in all the papers. But when Arar came home things hit a new low. Now the Canadian government is being accused of "outsourcing torture" and the American government is admitting to it.
Arar was
apparently deported so he could be tortured for information about al Queda. US officials, while not commenting on his case, admit this is common. The case has been getting press up north since the deportation, and it's
not good press. There are even allegations that the Canadian government is
"'subcontracting' torture" to other countries.
Americans don't seem to understand how bad the backlash from something like this can get. I have heard undocumented reports from Up North that the politics is already moving to the left as politicians and parties try to distance themselves from President Bush. Now imagine a very (VERY!) large and very angy immigrant population demanding retribution - a new hardline anti-American element in Canadian politics. There will be pressure to stop sharing intelligence; Canada is the only country in the world which shares criminal lookouts with the US, and that could end with that kind of political pressure. There's nothing good about that.
CSIS is good at what it does and it would be a real shame if some cowboy Americans screwed it up. The secret police have no friends in a democratic society. It would be good for folks in DC to remember that.