Cowered Canadian Government
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Couple of days ago, reuters had a story that said: “Canada places U.S. and Israel on torture watch list“. Today, the same story link was updated and replaced to say: “Canada takes U.S., Israel off torture watchlist“.
The original story is no more available, but the magic of the internet always keeps a copy of what gets published. So here is excerpts from the cached original story (full can be found here):
(Reuters) - Canada’s foreign ministry has put the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured and also classifies some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture, according to a document obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel. Both nations denied they allowed torture in their jails.
The document — part of a training course on torture awareness given to diplomats — mentions the U.S. jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
The man, Omar Khadr, is the only Canadian in Guantanamo. His defenders said the document made a mockery of Ottawa’s claims that Khadr was not being mistreated.
Under “definition of torture” the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.
“The United States does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances,” said a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.
A spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier tried to distance Ottawa from the document.
“The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government,” he said.
The government mistakenly provided the document to Amnesty International Canada as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.
Amnesty Secretary-General Alex Neve told Reuters his group had very clear evidence of abuse in U.S. and Israeli jails.
The funny part is the Foreign Minister’s spokesman who tried to distance Ottawa from the document, in spite that the document is a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats!!!
The new story is linked at the original location but with the new version of the story:
(Reuters) - Canada’s foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured.
Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged that they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.
Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture.
“It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten,” Bernier said in a statement.
“The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the government’s views or positions.”
The document — made available to Reuters and other media outlets — embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel.
U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed.
Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: “The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom.”
The government mistakenly gave the document to Amnesty International Canada as part of a court case the rights organization has launched against Ottawa over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.
Oh… you should not even think of to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom… and what? Truth!
This show the transparency of democracy (in the three governments, Canada, U.S. and Israel) and how can facts be turned fiction, just for the eyes of the real terrorists, U.S. and Israel.
What a joke!
Screen shots from the original story and the new version here:
The link of the story (origonal and updated) is:
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnN17388465.html
Try google is to see the cached one.
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9 Comments on “Cowered Canadian Government”
I nearly praised the Coward Canadians .
It is torture just listening to our leaders.
They sound too “US”.
Stephen Harper is a Bush wannabe.
I have many friends here in Canada from Iraq, Lebanon etc. They are worried the direction we are taking.
Don’t blame Canadians, just their politicians.
Kimmy, Canadians can’t help whatever Shenanigens their politicians come up with. This is important to note.
Here’s the BBC article on the story, which is downright outrageous. If THIS isn’t prisoner torture, then nothing is.
Stupid hypocrites.
There is still a lot missing.
There are still a lot of lies.
Israel and the US is still wrong.
Speaking of Canada, here is an interesting article just out
Canada Report 2007, part II: Canada’s policy on Israel/Palestine
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2855.shtml
I read the story on Wikinews, but if you look at the bottom it says it was in the Washington Post, New York Times and on CNN.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/01/18/canada.torture.list.ap/
That one on Wikinews states: It was developed as part of a “torture awareness workshop” in response to the case of Maher Arar. Arar is a Canadian-Syrian citizen who was detained by the United States on suspected ties to terrorism, and deported to Syria where he was tortured. He was eventually returned to Canada, where he was awarded $11.5 million in compensation by the Canadian government.
Arar ALSO received an official apology from the Canadian government for their cooperation with US officials who subsequently sent him to rendition and TORTURED him. Now, the Canadian government ended up paying A LOT of money and apologizing for one of their citizens being tortured by the US. Now they want to APOLOGIZE for adding the US to the torture list and take the US off the list? Somehow I see a CONTRADICTION there!
A start is good, its good from the canadians.. since they are a leading democracy they have higher responsibility. Later on, more preassure maybe will be applied.
When I first posted about this that is my posting asked the question why is Canada being 2faced?
It does not matter if Canada removes the United States & Israel’s
names. History has already recorded the fact that they were listed
in official documents by Canadian Government.
It’s nice to have a so called democracy confirm what the world already knew.