US-CANADA: Dismay at professorship for Larry Thompson

Civil rights groups on both sides of the Canada-US border are expressing their disgust after the man who played a key role in sending Maher Arar to a year of torture in Syria was made a law professor at the University of Georgia, writes Diana Mehta for The Canadian Press.

Larry Thompson was deputy attorney general in the United States when he signed a 2002 memo refusing Arar's request to be deported to Canada, consequently paving the way for the Canadian software engineer to be sent to Syria, where he was born. An internal US report later revealed that Thompson feared Canada's 'porous' border would allow Arar to easily return to the United States. His decision was made even as officials concluded that Arar was entitled to protection from torture and that returning him to Syria would "more likely than not result in his torture".

In 2004, Thompson became Senior Vice-president and General Counsel of PepsiCo, a post he is now leaving to teach courses in corporate law and white-collar crime. The university did not respond to criticisms of Thompson's appointment, but did release a statement welcoming him to their faculty.
Full report on the Globe and Mail site