Where is Maher Arar? Canada doesn't know what happened to its citizen after the U.S. deported him to Syria, a country he hasn't lived in since he was a teenager.

"It has been 21 days since Monia Mazigh last spoke with her husband. She has just one question for the people responsible for deporting the Ottawa man to Syria without the federal government or his family being notified. Where is Maher Arar, and what has happened to him?"

"Mr. Arar, 32, was deported to Syria on Oct. 7 or Oct. 8 from Kennedy Airport in New York during a stopover on his way home to Montreal, officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs revealed yesterday. The Canadian government was not contacted about Mr. Arar's case until after he had been deported, on Oct. 10."

"Mr. Arar, who holds dual Syrian-Canadian citizenship, has not set foot on Syrian soil in 16 years. The thought that her husband is back in the country he chose to leave pains Ms. Mazigh. "Just the idea is a torture for him," she said. "Syria is not a democratic country. Anything can happen there. "The proof: I don't know where he is and I have no contact with him."

"Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham admitted yesterday that Canada has no idea where Mr. Arar is being held. And in a statement yesterday, Syrian Ambassador Ahmad Arnous denied any knowledge of Mr. Arar's whereabouts. "We have no information regarding Mr. Arar, only what we know from the Canadian press," said Mr. Arnous. "It's a matter between the Canadian government and the American government."

"In a speech yesterday, Mr. Graham said Canada has "registered our protest to the United States. Our position is that a person travelling on a Canadian passport is a Canadian citizen and has a right to be treated as a Canadian citizen."