"Yes, Ottawa is satisfied with the U.S. response to the Maher Arar case. You could say we’re happy about it."

"But Mr. MacKay, the letter from Condoleeza Rice contained no apology."

"I can respect that."

"But he was deported without notification to Syria where he was tortured."

"It’s not what the letter says, it’s what it doesn’t say. You have to be able to read between the lines on communications like this."

"Mr. Arar’s lawyers don’t share your enthusiasm. They noticed there was no apology."

"Apology, schmapology. Why is everyone hung up on apologies these days? They said they’d notify us next time that they ship off one of our citizens to Syria. What more do you want?"

"I think an apology would be in order."

"Again with the apology? We’ve covered this."

"Can you tell us if they removed Mr. Arar and his family from their watch lists?"

"They never specified that but let me say that I, uh, we are satisfied with the substance of the letter from Secretary of State Rice."

"With no apology Mr. MacKay, how can you possibly be satisfied with the letter?"

"I, er, this government is happy with not apologising. I think we have shown that already. Maybe they feel they don’t have anything to apologise for. I mean we’re the ones who tipped them off in the first place."

"Why are you happy with the letter?"

"Look at the signature. Condy signed Rice with a heart above the I."