Maher Arar

[chickenfeet]

So the report of the inquiry into the deportation of Maher Arar to Syria is in and it exposes bungling, malfeasance, lying and indifference from both the RCMP and the Canadian diplomatic corps. It also gives a passing nod to the practice of torture by Syria and the use of 'extraordinary rendition' by our torture happy neighbours to the south but, quite properly, Mr. Justice O'Connor's report focusses on what went wrong in the Canadian bodies involved.

Both the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star have editorials calling for 'heads to roll' but it's already apparent from the government reaction, best summed up as 'not on our shift' and 'we'll get back to you' that nothing is going to happen and, indeed, who would expect it?

What do the charges amount to? Firstly, extreme sloppiness and indifference to human rights by the RCMP in pursuit of sucking up to the US Torture Machine. Well, sucking up to the Americans is the principal function of the entire Canadian security establishment and is fully endorsed, indeed sealed with a loving ass lick, by the Prime Minister. So nothing is going to happen there.

Second, utter incompetence. Well, when has that ever resulted in action being taken against the RCMP? The recent history of the RCMP is one long catalogue of malfeasance and incompetence. Why do anything now?

Third, misleading senior officials and ministers. This is actually the interesting one. The briefings which, inter alia, allowed Bill Graham, then Minister for External Affairs, to get up on his hind legs and say that he was reliably informed that Arar had not been tortured happened at a time when the press was full of stories that just that had happened. I'm 99.9% sure that no-one was actually misled in those briefings but they certainly provided the 'plausible deniability' for ministers which was surely their true purpose.

So what happens now? My money says SFA. Stephen Harper is not going to do anything that jeopardises his status as second poodle to Dubya. So the incompetent will be promoted, the public will be reassured that procedures are in place to make sure it can never happen again until the next time and so on.

It's not a good day for Canada and it ought to be a wake up call to those who look at the train wreck to our south and say 'it couldn't happen here'. Next time you are voting, remember that both the Tories and the Liberals are deeply implicated in this.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

...and vote for whom?

[forthright.livejournal.com]

You are quite right, of course, that both the Tories and Liberals are guilty of the sort of logic that allows each to blame the other for problems (or to pass the buck off to the RCMP). And of course, as I am someone who is well to the left in the political spectrum, and in a riding that is one of the safest Liberal ridings in the country, I have choices come the next election other than blue or red. One or more of them may even be good choices (if symbolic)! Alas, for probably half of the rural ridings in this country, there will be no meaningful choice, just as there never is. One only has to look at last night's New Brunswick election results to see that.

It's pretty obvious that the Tories have rightly perceived that torturing brown-skinned people is not a hot-button issue with the electorate. It won't be a wake-up call because even if they were fully aware of it, I'm not convinced that most Canadians, regardless of political leanings, really care enough to change their voting behaviour.