Maher Arar is urging Canadians to rally behind his cause, as he presses the federal government to make information about his case available to the public.

"The public has a right to know what has been happening to this inquiry," Arar said at a press conference in Ottawa Monday afternoon.

Reminding reporters that Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan ordered the inquiry a year ago, Arar said "very little has been public" since.

When it opened last June, the inquiry held less than two weeks of public testimony before it went in camera.

"And now the government seems to be blocking the commissioner's first attempt to provide the public with a summary of what has been happening behind closed doors," Arar said.

"There must be a balance between national security and the public's right to know, but what we are seeing here is undermining both."

Some of the information, he added, is "apparently favourable to me." But besides clearing his name, Arar said the issues affect more than his family.

To that end, another crucial question he would like to see answered is "whether the security services in this country are contracting out interrogations to foreign agencies."

Arar, who is a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was detained as he transited through a New York airport in September 2002, on suspicion of ties to the al Qaeda terror network.

U.S. authorities then deported him to Syria via Jordan, where he was allegedly tortured before his release last year.

A summary of Justice Dennis O'Connor's inquiry hearings was released on Monday, but much of it was blacked out -- including much of the information related to the time Arar spent in U.S. custody.

Monia Mazigh, who championed her husband's cause during his incarceration, said it might take a swell of public concern to push the dispute to a resolution.

"I believe if it were not for the public's support my husband would still be in prison in Syria today," she said. "That is why today I am appealing again to the public for help."

"Please help us remind the Government of Canada how important it is to all Canadians that this public inquiry remains public."

Their news conference came just hours after the lead lawyer for the Arar Commission held his own news conference demanding much the same thing.

"We are very surprised and disappointed in the government's position on what the public is entitled to know," Paul Cavalluzzo told reporters in Ottawa.

"Unfortunately, the government whose conduct is under review feels that much of the information we wish to disclose should be held back from the public. We strongly disagree with that position and feel that the public is entitled to know more."

The appeals coincide with Arar's appearance on newsstands as Time magazine's top Canadian newsmaker of 2004.