OTTAWA

Canada’s top policeman resigned on Wednesday, a day after he admitted misleading legislators about how his force had botched the case of a Canadian deported to Syria by U.S. agents.

The position of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli had become increasingly untenable since September, when an official report said police had falsely told Washington that software engineer Maher Arar was a suspected Islamic extremist.

“The commissioner has indicated to me that it would be in the best interests of the RCMP to have new leadership,” Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons, describing Zaccardelli’s decision as appropriate.

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