Canadian complicity in torture and international crime

[Croghan27]

Ho Hum ... another day, some more evidence that 1) Canada knew more about prisoners being tortured than the politicos acknowledge, and 2) Harper, speaking through Mackay, is full of kaka - and full of kaka in front of Parliament.
 
Afghan detainee oversight lacking: Laroche
 
(This is Brigadier General Guy Laroche of the 'Van Doos'.)
 
As reported by the CBC:

Laroche, who served as the commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan Roto 4 for 10 months beginning in 2007, said the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's secret police force, had a sordid history and had repeatedly failed to treat people in accordance with the law.
 
And he said he "absolutely" agreed that Canada's responsibility for detainees did not cease just because they were handed off to Afghan authorities.
 
"Torture is torture," Laroche said in French.

The one time commander of the JTF, a bunch not noted for gentility, bluntly states: "Torture is torture." after pointing out that we have dirtied our hands with it.
 
I have to wonder, like one of the comments asks - when the diss'ing and reputation smearing of the General by the Conservatives will begin?

[Toedancer]

I've been waiting for this, didn't expect it to happen so soon.

British documents reveal new claims of detainee abuse Koring uses the word 'denial' re: our lying gov't, I think that is far too soft. They knew, they know, we won't because the Liberals sold us out.

[Toedancer]

One in five Afghan detainees reported abuse to Canadian diplomat

Major-General Guy Laroche, who commanded the military in Kandahar during   that time, says before halting the handover of prisoners, he needed   hard evidence of possible abuse.      “We make the best decisions based on the information we have,” Maj.-Gen. Laroche testified. 
  A lawyer for two human-rights groups fighting to stop the transfers   altogether, Paul Champ, said the documents show most prisoners   complained they were tortured in the same manner. The number of   allegations should have given ground commanders pause, he said. 
  But Maj.-Gen. Laroche said they were allegations that needed to be   investigated and it was impossible to stop handovers every time there   was an unproven claim.

I'm not that well versed in Torture and the Geneva Conventions and the UN torture conventions, but ev. skdadl/pogge/all of you have posted has told me one just has to have 'knowledge' of torture, not hard proof to halt handovers.

So why is LaRoche even in a post of command? Remember when McKay asserted 'not a single Taliban prisoner turned over by Canuck forces can be 'proven' to have been abused?  Why do we have to re-invent the wheel? The push back on this file is not even a nudge so far!

And I might add - none of the parties really wants to besmirch Canada's reputation. They want to score political points oh yes, but they don't really want to push this.

[skdadl]

I'm not that well versed in Torture and the Geneva Conventions and the UN torture conventions, but ev. skdadl/pogge/all of you have posted has told me one just has to have 'knowledge' of torture, not hard proof to halt handovers.

I'm sure that this is true, although I don't have the ref to hand -- maybe pogge or Alison will? It is enough to have a reasonable suspicion that prisoners will be abused for a handover to become a violation, and there's always been all kinds of reasonable suspicion.

Why is it continuing? Because the U.S. set the standard for defying international law, and influential nations went along with it. There may be repercussions in some places -- the UK investigations are inching along -- but it is going to take longer here. The law still depends on the political will of the people, and if the culture is sick, then the law doesn't have a chance.

[Toedancer]

Oh look a A Canadian Federal Court Judge practicing the principle of Democracy

Ruling limits government’s ability to hide information when torture involved. Of course the gob will appeal it.

Oh wait I have to add what Mosley said, just have to.

Mosley   ruled that, aside from a file number and other administrative detail,   the letter will remain in the public domain. The government, he said,   did not establish that the information it contained would injure   national security, and when it did, public interest trumped that   concern.
“The public interest in holding government   accountable for the alleged actions and omissions of its servants is an   important consideration in this case,” Mosley ruled.

[skdadl]

 

Mosley is an exceptionally good judge. Keep in mind that he was the DFAIT guy who drafted the anti-terrism act in 2001-02, so he's no cream-puff and they can't say he is. But he released the Khadr video and memos; he's got ovaries! (I can't type the b-word.)

[skdadl]

Can someone explain this to me? Every search I do for the original Iacobucci inquiry/report (including from links at the CBC and the Star) gets me to this site. Does anyone know how to get to the inquiry site/report, and can you explain why this is happening?

[pogge]

The page you're seeing when you follow that link is what typically happens when someone forgets to renew his domain registration. A search at CIRA (Canadian Internet Registration Authority) shows that domain still registered to the Privy Council Office with an expiry date of next year and yet the status is "auto-renew grace" which indicates that a deadline has been missed. I'm also curious as to why the PCO is using Tucows to register domains. Pure speculation: Tucows pre-registered for five years but PCO hasn't paid for the last year.

If you want to see the original 544 page report from the inquiry, I have a copy in pdf format that I downloaded when it was first released. I haven't actually read it all. I just wanted to be sure it would remain accessible. I wonder if I should look into putting it online -- maybe at Scribd.com. Meanwhile, if you really want to see it, let me know and I'll email it to you.

[skdadl]

Thanks, pogge. It just seems imposs that a public document would suddenly become inaccessible, but I guess that's what the PCO has allowed to happen.

Colin Freeze, in this report, has a link to the supplement. He quotes from the main report, so I wondered why he didn't link to it too. I guess he ran into same problem I did.

Because this has a small cablegate link and is a Suleiman story, I was going to write a squib on it, but I wasn't sure whether Freeze's quote came from the publicly available report or was in some suppressed section. It doesn't matter, I guess, and probably was public. I may even vaguely remember that line.

But yes, I think it would be great if you'd put the report online. What an amazing situation.

[pogge]

Things aren't quite that dire. PCO has archived the proceedings of all federal government commissions online. I grabbed the link to the main index one day when Kady O'Malley posted it. That link is also available on our media page under Reference. Note the link that allows you to call up an alternate index by commissioner which is what I used to find the Iacobucci Internal Inquiry. There's a link there to the final report which works. I checked.

[Holly Stick]

I found it archived too.  Note that the supplement report is there as well (on the side):

http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/206/301/pco-bcp/commissions/internal_inquiry/2010-03-09/www.iacobucciinquiry.ca/en/documents/final-report.htm

[Toedancer]

War crimes investigation proceeding against Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper?

Hell Yes. According to the ICC, Canadian officials (mainly Stephen Harper and   Peter MacKay) may be in breach of the Geneva Convention and have   launched an official war crimes investigation.
I wish this was in our own online and paper media. Come on journos, get with it!
And on top of that I want to see this story, Harper hired goons even the U.S. found too Unsavoury

[Antonia]

JimBobbySez (I think) tweeted this a week or so ago and there was a discussion as to its veracity. I tried my best but nada.

[skdadl]

Not that I've followed it up as much as I should, but there's a real problem with the ICC. They announce things, and then ... nothing happens.

I sympathize with them. They've kind of got the UN problem: they mean well, but if the members aren't co-operating, it doesn't work. Worse, since the worst criminals are USians and the US is not a member (but many members are subservient to US), they are being openly and freely defied all the time, which is bad not just for image but over the long run for legitimacy.

As long as Western nations are determined to suppress prosecutions of their own state actors (and almost all are collaborating in that effort right now), the ICC is just another way to demonize the former colonies, so far as I can tell.

[Toedancer]

Harper gov went to federal court last week to muzzle commission report