Saturday, December 13, 2008

Don't ignore tortured Canadians.

This is from the student newspaper at Carleton University.
As I predicted the Iacobucci report has virtually dropped off the mainstream media radar. Nothing has been done and no one has been held accountable. Almalki was a former student at Carleton as this author mentions. I assume some action will still be taken in court but I have heard no news lately about this.


Don't ignore tortured Canadians
I have come to the conclusion that the Canadian Government is complicit in torturing Canadian citizens. To add insult to injury, one of those citizens was a Carleton student. For those of you who are skeptical, let there be no doubt in your mind: the Iacobucci report confirms that Canadian security and governmental officials had a direct role in the torture of Canadian citizen and Carleton student Abdullah Almalki.
by Clint Grant




Clint Grant is a first-year humanities student. He thinks that Canada should pay more attention towards tortured Canadian citizens rather than ignoring them

I have come to the conclusion that the Canadian Government is complicit in torturing Canadian citizens. To add insult to injury, one of those citizens was a Carleton student. For those of you who are skeptical, let there be no doubt in your mind: the Iacobucci report confirms that Canadian security and governmental officials had a direct role in the torture of Canadian citizen and Carleton student Abdullah Almalki. Let's not be fooled by semantics: when I say direct, I mean CSIS and the RCMP saw to it that Almalki was arrested on false charges and held in a Syrian torture prison for two years. Further, they requested that Almalki be interrogated despite the fact that Syrian Military Intelligence had previously warned them that this process would involve actions officially recognized as torture. Our government may have left the physical whipping to those outside the reach of Canadian human rights laws, but it is nonetheless complicit in breaching international anti-torture conventions.It's a bitter truth to swallow, but the truth is that our government failed, and continues to fail, to uphold the rights and dignity of the citizens it is charged with protecting. Our government's complicity in torture is not isolated to the Almalki case. There are many more Canadians being imprisoned and tortured at the behest of our own security agencies all over the world. Go online and search for yourselves. For one raised believing Canada stands for peace, dignity, freedom and justice, our involvement in blatant human rights abuse is a real letdown. The willingness of our government to take part in the torture and illegal imprisonment of Canadian citizens is an affront to the security of us all. Those that we entrust with the security of our nation are either incapable or unwilling to protect Canadian citizens when they are fully aware that grave injustice is taking place. Further, their unwillingness to take responsibility for their complicity is an absolute insult to every Canadian. How can we be safe from any real external threats if we aren't safe with the ones who are supposed to keep us safe?If our government wants to fight a war against terrorism, they had best be able to identify the true threat to our security: governmental unaccountability. We aren't even safe from ourselves if we allow our government to trounce around stripping us of our freedoms and dignity without an outstanding reason to do so. Simply, to stop terrorism, stop terrorizing. Our dignity and freedoms are the most important part of us; no government has the right to take that away from any one of us. If the government strips one of us of our rights, it strips all of us of our rights. Truly put, an injustice to one is an injustice to all. I believe I speak for all Canadians when I announce to those responsible for the torture of Canadian citizens: you failed us. You failed to apologize to those you committed wrong against, and you have failed to apologize to this nation for neglecting to respect the integral importance of our dignity and freedom. You have misrepresented our beliefs as a nation, and have spat in the face of an entire generation of Canadians dedicated to justice. The issue of torture is not the fault of one party. Canadians have been tortured at the behest of multiple administrations. Rather than take action to stop more abuse, you squabble amongst yourselves over some coalition government. You say the opposition parties have lost confidence in the leading party; what about the entire generation of youth who have lost confidence in you because you continually fail to address issues of basic human importance? It's time for you to re-evaluate your priorities. We didn't give you permission to do what you've done.

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