By Alison@Creekside “They’re stealing all our best shit,” wailed CPC MP Remplestiltskin from her parliamentary selfie twitter account, rattling off all the HarperGov ideas embraced by the Liberals since they formed a majority government in October: Saudi arms deal – check TPP signed – check Return of the F35 bid – check Keystone XL pipeline […]
Canadians & torture: We like to watch
By Alison@Creekside Canada’s collateral fallout from the Senate Intelligence Committee summary on the torture of prisoners at CIA “black site” prisons around the world: A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office said Wednesday that Canada does not engage in, or condone, torture by national security agencies but … Canada will act on ‘a tip […]
Stephen Harper’s stickhandler
By Alison@Creekside Five times convicted fraudster Bruce Carson — currently under RCMP investigation for influence peddling and illegal lobbying of Indian Affairs to obtain a water filtration contract that would have netted his 22-year old fiancee, Michele McPherson, 20% of sales — was granted a secret security clearance in 2006 by some “low level staffer,” […]
Canada’s favourite torturers
By Alison@Creekside CBC: “The Canadian Forces have for years arrested children suspected of working with the Taliban and handed them over to an Afghan security unit accused of torture. The document, obtained under an Access to Information request and marked ‘secret,’ shows that Defence Minister Peter MacKay was briefed on the topic of juvenile detainees […]
Day One in Khadr’s kangaroo court
By Alison@Creekside Below: Daphne Eviatar of Human Rights Watch is interviewed as she leaves the courtroom on Day 1 of Obama’s first big pretrial for a military commission into the possible terrorist actions of a 14-year old. Terrible sound, I know, but well worth it for her explanation of how after Khadr has been tortured […]
Ottawa expands its terror kit
By Alison@Creekside Your government announced on Friday that it needs more powers to combat terrorism. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson: “These provisions are necessary to protect our country from the threat of terrorism.” A redo of the panicky, now-defunct Anti-terrorism Act of 2001, the new Combating Terrorism Act includes preventive arrest and forcing people to testify […]
The Colvin e-mails: so unimportant we can’t see them
By Alison@Creekside Over at the Military Police Complaints Commission, Department of Justice lawyer Alain Préfontaine is trying to prove that diplomat Richard Colvin’s emails flagging abuse of Afghan prisoners were so vaguely worded that the government could not possibly be held responsible for failing to understand what he was talking about. Colvin and MPCC chair […]
Jim Abbott explains why torture is okay
By Alison@Creekside Back in 2007 the Cons claimed that the Geneva Conventions do not apply in Afghanistan because we are not officially at war with Afghanistan. On Tuesday in the Afghan parliamentary committee, Con MP Jim Abbott attempted to resuscitate that position. Appearing as a witness before the committee, Paul Champ, human rights lawyer for […]
Where were we? Oh yes. Torture.
By Alison@Creekside On Friday Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced the government was appointing Frank Iacobucci, a former Supreme Court judge with no legal hold over them, to determine what documents pertaining to the Afghan detainee issue could be released without compromising national security, national defence, and/or international relations. The scope and terms of Iacobucci’s appointment […]
Canada v. Khadr, abridged
By Alison@Creekside Shorter Supremes :While it is true that the Canadian government violated the Canadian charter rights of a Canadian citizen when it sent Canadian agents to interrogate him in a foreign concentration camp and then turned the contents of that interview obtained under duress over to the owners of that concentration camp, and while […]
