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So, | guess we torture people now

      

Liam Britten
editor in chief

y faith in Canada as a nation of
Me has been deeply shaken this

past week. Turns out Omar Khadr
could be just the tip of the iceberg when it
comes to our being complicit with torture.

The testimony of Richard Colvin, a former
diplomat to Afghanistan, that all prisoners
captured by Canadians in Afghanistan and
turned over to Afghan authorities were tortured
by their captors is as shocking as it is sickening.
While other countries like the U.K. and the
Netherlands monitor prisoners turned over to
Afghan prisons and have the Red Cross conduct
additional monitoring, we’ ve simply been
washing our hands of these people; we don’t
require the Afghans to provide them a fair trial,
safety or anything really. Prison officials get
a carte blanche from us to do whatever they
please to detainees and it seems like every
Canadian authority was either ignorant or
approving of such actions.

To be fair, apparently Canada does inform
the Red Cross about prisoners given to the
Afghans, just like the British and Dutch forces.
The only difference is process. The CBC’s
Brian Stewart revealed that alerting the Red
Cross by Canadians consists of six steps: local
soldiers inform local commanders about a
capture, then local commanders inform central
command in Ottawa, then central command
passes the information on to the Department
of Defense and Foreign Affairs, then Foreign
Affairs notifies the Canadian embassy in
Geneva (what?) who then tells the Red Cross
about the prisoners. The whole thing takes a few
weeks or a month, during which time Afghan
prisoners are untraceable and their fates are
known only to them and their captors.

Compare this to the methods of the British
and Dutch forces, both of whom only have one-
step procedures: local forces tell the Red Cross.
The British have the Red Cross informed in 24
hours and the Dutch in less time than that. If
these two countries can afford to avoid the red

tape and follow the international laws of war
that all Western powers have been signatory to
since 1929, why can’t we?

The whole thing really doesn’t look
good for Canada, and it also doesn’t help the
cause for why we should be in Afghanistan
in the first place. We’re supposed to be nation
building, right? But what kind of nation are we
building? One that permits torture? One that
allows complex bureaucratic shields to flout
international law? What exactly are we fighting
for over there? I thought Canada was a country
that took the high road.

And if my arguing for the safety of so-
called “terrorists” (who could potentially be
civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time)
doesn’t make this particularly compelling for
you, how about the safety of Canada’s soldiers
who have to deal with legitimate enemy forces
in that country? Without the Red Cross or
Canadians monitoring these prisoners, whether
they let go or not is entirely up to Afghan prison
wardens. That means that these wardens could
theoretically be letting go the actual bad guys
shooting and blowing up our soldiers and we
would have no way of knowing where they
went or who they are. It just adds to the threats
our men and women have to face because
our officials are either too incompetent or too
sinister to follow the laws of war.

What this whole thing really demands is
a serious government inquiry about who was
in control and who knew what about these
detainees. No more government smokescreens,
no more Peter McKay and General Hillier
calling this whistleblower a fraud, how about
some answers? Like I’ve said, Canada’s a
country that has laws about how we deal with
our enemies, even if our enemies don’t. Our
actions and behaviour in war have been part of
what makes Canada great— it’s about time we
started acting like our old selves again.

Your friend in high fidelity,
Liam Britten

Editor in chief

The Other Press

 

 

 

Looking for a talented photographer to take photos at college events and capture college life on film.

    
 
     

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jo

PC,