PrintJanuary 18, 2008
Canada Puts US on Torture Watch List
Not very neighbourly of them:
An official Canadian government document has put both the United States and Israel on a watch list of countries where prisoners run the risk of being tortured, CTV television reported on Thursday.Perhaps we could put the Canadians on a few of our own "Watch Lists:"
The revelation is likely to embarrass the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch U.S. ally. The document mentions the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held.
CTV said the document was part of a course on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats to help them determine whether prisoners they visited abroad had been mistreated.
It said the document mentioned U.S. interrogation techniques such as "forced nudity, isolation, and sleep deprivation." Other countries on the watch list include Syria, China, Iran and Afghanistan, CTV said.
1. The Watch List for bad food.
2. The Watch List for Islamofascist coddling politicians.
3. The Watch List for rude French speaking waiters.
4. The Watch List for bad 1970's Pop Music (Anne Murray? Heart?).
We could go on, of course. The point being, none of the Watch Lists I want to put Canadians on is any more serious than the "Torture" Watch List the Canadians want to put the United States on.
As it turns out, this document is even less serious than "Rude French Speaking Waiters":
"The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government," he said.Perhaps I should have added A Watch List for the looniest "Rights Groups" on earth.
The mention of Guantanamo Bay is particularly sensitive, since the Canadian government rejects allegations that a citizen may have been mistreated there. Omar Khadr has been in the facility for five years. He is accused of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15.
Right groups say Khadr should be repatriated to Canada, an idea that Ottawa firmly rejects.
