Ottawa, Sept. 2003 — Monia Mazigh holds a procession for the return of her husband, Maher Arar. She's joined by their two children, Barâa (to her side) and Houd (in stroller), her own mother (left) and Maher Arar's mother (right). Photo: Philippe Duhamel.

When I met Monia Mazigh in 2003, she was a dignified, immensely worried lone campaigner for her husband's release. 

On September 25, 2002, Maher Arar left his wife Monia, their 5-year old daughter Barâa and 7-month baby son Houd in Tunisia, where they were vacationing on her side of the family. He had to return to work in Canada. The rest of the family would return later. They bade him farewell and he took a taxi to the airport. 

This was the last time Monia and the kids saw him for over a year.

Maher Arar was pulled aside during his stopover in New York, while waiting for his connecting flight to Canada. He was interrogated for hours, detained incognito, and then "renditioned" (sent secretly) to Syria, where he was tortured and held for 10 months and 10 days in a tomb-like cell where rat packs would run, and cat pee would rain from an opening in the ceiling.

It was a slow buildup. First there was radio. Then a news headline in the local paper.