The Best Of All Possible Countries
My country, 'tis of thee. Canadians love their country. It is a bastion of freedom, a liberal democracy that celebrates the diversity of its population, where pluralism is the order of the day, with every citizen assured of their rights and freedoms under the country's vaunted Charter and Constitution.This is a societally well balanced country, a fair and just society. What more could any citizen wish for than to live in peace and security and to just get on with their lives? For most of us this is just how it is.
For some rare few of us, mostly those who haven't enjoyed the good fortune of being born Canadian, and who have migrated to this country to enjoy its freedoms and revel in their newfound rights, things sometimes go spectacularly awry. But then, who could have anticipated world shattering events that would have the end result of casting suspicion on many who, though innocent, may have presented as potential threats to society?
We all are aware of the misfortunes visited upon Maher Arar and his wife, Monia Mazigh. And it was through his experiences and the enquiry that followed that we learned there were others. Ahmad Abou-El-Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin, all three of whom are Canadian citizens, albeit also citizens of their Middle Eastern birth countries. All three of whom suffered similar imprisonment and torture that Maher Arar did.
That is truly unfortunate, that innocent people are held in suspicion, arrested, incarcerated and tortured. Not in Canada, it simply would not, could not happen like that in Canada. But, it would appear most unfortunately, Canada, through its agencies, has been complicit through neglect and sloppy investigative techniques and sheer disinterest in the harm done to innocents, in complicity in these peoples' arrests, incarcerations and torture.
Not a pretty picture. Particularly when descriptions of incarceration and torture are made public. Seventeen months in a dark underground cell. Hands locked behind one's back, being forced to eat off a floor. Whipped and beaten, interminable fearful interrogations. Physical and psychological torture. Fearing they would never be freed, never see the light of day, their family's faces again.
It's not quite that Canadian authorities were in complete ignorance of the fact that torture in Egyptian and Syrian and other Middle-East jails is commonplace. It's that, knowing this, they shared clumsy and faulty intelligence with agents in those countries that practise torture. And in the process provided them with a list of questions to be put to the victims, hoping for useful responses - through the use of torture.
But this was out of sight, therefore out of mind. The techniques used by other agencies to extract information was of no concern to CSIS, the RCMP and the Department of Foreign Affairs, it would seem, from the conclusions reached by former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci on the release of his report examining Canada's role in the tragedy that befell these three men.
It's simple enough to get yourself into the full spectrum of dread and despair that these men faced for intolerable periods of incarceration, questioning, and brutal violence. Read Terry Waite's "Taken on Trust" description of his 5-year-incarceration in Beirut, Lebanon, a prisoner of Hezbollah, who valued him as a bargaining chip because he was renowned for his efforts in trying to obtain the release of Western abductees.
An unfortunate but perhaps predictable echo of what had befallen Maher Arar. This is unforgivable, and unfortunate as well. Not only because of the dire and dreadful experiences of these men alone. But also because this country does face real and present threats to the security of the country through the auspices of those in the country whose goal it is to create division and strife and disaster.
If our critical security agencies cannot get themselves to the point where they govern themselves professionally to do their jobs, to protect the country, the government and society at large, how can we trust them?
Labels: Canada, Political Realities, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, October 23, 2008
<< Home