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Torture Scandal's Message
Harper's sorry stance on human rights.
PM in Afghanistan, March 2006.
Someone should ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper if he agrees with embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about the Geneva Convention and human rights. Gonzales is infamous for his chilling remark on January 25th, 2002: "The war on terrorism is a new kind of war, a new paradigm [that] renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitation on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders some of its provisions quaint."
Harper has dismissed complaints about the torture of Taliban prisoners as "baseless accusations" and claimed never to have seen any reports on the subject, despite a now published 2006 report from his own Foreign Affairs Department (and another from the U.S. State Department) that torture is common. Harper accuses critics of caring more about the Taliban than about Canadian soldiers. These comments would seem to demonstrate a contempt for the Geneva Convention similar to that shown by Gonzales.
Oh, it's true that when it suits him Harper will dissemble in favour of human rights -- when he thinks he has to or when he has a particular constituency to please. Thus he went through the motions of a diplomatic note over the American refusal to apologize to Maher Arar or to take him off their Orwellian watch list. But this was a wink and nod operation which caused the U.S. no embarrassment whatever. Harper had to do it -- the Yanks understood, just as they appreciated Harper's open-ended commitment to their "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan.
Silence speaks volumes
But when it comes to international human rights either enshrined in the UN Charter or the Geneva Convention, Harper has shown disdain. The Geneva Convention also states that it is illegal to target civilians in war. But this is precisely what Israel did in its catastrophic (for everyone) invasion of Lebanon. The rights of the Lebanese didn't count for anything as Harper stated that Israel's brutal assault on a defenceless Lebanese population was "a measured response." Measured by what standard? Certainly not by the standards set out by the Geneva Convention.
And what about the human rights of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip? Not a word here, either, even though UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said last year: "The violation of human rights I think in this territory is massive." She said that what she had seen in Beit Hanoun convinced her that Palestinians are suffering from "catastrophic human-rights violations" at the hands of Israel. But the Palestinians seem virtually not to exist in Harper's U.S.-designed foreign policy.
There are many other examples. Does Canada's new prime minister express concern over the hideous human rights record of Burma? In the fall, the UN added to the long list of condemnations, this time for the harassment and arrest of student leaders, and the continuing house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy. Nope, no problem here, if Mr. Harper's silence means anything.
Rights repressed at home
Harper is as dismissive of Canadians' human rights as he is of people's rights around the world. Harper's mean-spirited cancellation of the Court Challenges Program eliminated the instrument by which the rights of the disabled and gays and lesbians were established in this country. It cost a pittance but ensured that ordinary Canadians had access to the otherwise prohibitively expensive courts, turning theoretical rights into substantive ones.
This was not about saving money it was about revenge against the whole notion of "rights" -- a favourite target of all neo-cons. In addition, it was a gift to Harper's extremist right wing Christian constituency. He couldn't take gay and lesbian rights away but he could eliminate the program that helped provide them.
This nurturing of his key constituency also serves to explain the single real exception in Stephen Harper's human rights record. Regarding China, the government is making real noise about the appalling case of Huseyin Celil. Here Canada seems -- rightly so -- to be risking good relations with the Asian giant over the case of a single individual.
But why China? To answer that question you need to go back a ways in Stephen Harper's history and understand the perversity of the right wing of the anti-abortion movement. No country in the world is so hated by evangelical anti-abortionists as China because of its vigorous efforts at population control and the widespread availability of free abortion. Back in 1995 one of Stephen Harper's Reform Party colleagues issued a statement calling on the Canadian government to condemn China for policies she claimed endorsed the "consumption of human fetuses as health food." These people still populate Harper's caucus and form a critical part of his core base. And he is representing them.
More immediate in this unnerving record on human rights is Harper's cynicism regarding Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan (let alone Afghanis). Why did eight Canadian soldiers die in Afghanistan recently? Did they die for Canada? Was it for Afghan democracy? To save the world from terrorism? To ensure that little girls can go to school? Or did they die for Stephen Harper?
Our soldiers’ rights?
Do Canadian soldiers have the right to not be misled about their mission's prospects for success, to not be sent to war on false pretenses, to not kill innocent Afghan civilians as a result of an ill-considered military strategy, to not be ordered by their superiors to break the Geneva Convention by handing over prisoners to almost certain abuse? You won't find these rights in any charter and Stephen Harper does not seem about to recognize them any time soon.
For all his posturing about "supporting our troops" Prime Minister Harper shows disregard for them. Last September he implied the deaths of Canadian soldiers was good for the military, telling the CBC: "I can tell you [the Afghan mission] has certainly engaged our military. It's, I think, made them a better military notwithstanding -- and maybe in some way because of -- the casualties."
Of course, it's not just the soldiers who are treated with disdain by the Prime Minister. It is the First Nations who lost their Kelowna Accord, families who lost their national child care program, women who lost equality programs, victims of gun crimes who are seeing gun control measures weakened. It's just that soldiers pay the ultimate price. No prime minister in the history of Canada has sown such contempt for the people he is supposed to be representing and protecting. It makes him unfit to govern.
Related Tyee stories:
- Aiding Torture
More than a year ago The Tyee showed how our top politicians may have violated international law. - Torture: Hand Off, Wash Hands
Canada risks war crimes by not tracking prisoners. - Canadian War Criminals?
Experts want top officials investigated.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Who Mowed Down the Premier?
- Canada's Economy, Deconstructed (by a 12 year-old)
- Death in Remand: a Tyee Inquiry
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Death In Remand: 'A Gut Feeling'
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Now Is the Time to Talk up Big Ideas
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- Bill C-38: the Environmental Destruction Act
- Alberta Fills Pipes with Corrosive Denial
- Bias in BC's Pesticide Decision? Follow the Bouncing Verbs
- How Our Immune Systems Exaggerate Fear
- BC biotech company seeks approval for GM apple
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- The Ethics of Addiction Studies
- What's Behind BC's Doors?
- The Gem of Canadian Science that Harper Killed
- Sexism Tinges Criticism of Teachers' Job Action
- Should You Run from that Medical Test?
- 'The Dictator'
- Death in Remand: Stacked Deck
- 'Moonrise Kingdom'
- From Financial Advisor to Occupier
- Seven Goals to Build the Conservative 'Dream'
21
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Grumpy
5 years ago
Conservatives don't give a s***
Right wing-nuts, like Harpo & his gang, think they are god's gift to Canada and the notion of human rights is foreign to them. "What me worry" is their motto as they consider the Taliban and assorted others as 'wogs' or lesser humans.
These guy don't care because god is on their side!
sdgreen
5 years ago
DOBBIN IS WAY OUT IN LEFT FIELD
Poor Mr Dobbin just does not get it. In the first instance Human Rights IS a priority for Canada and has been for decades. Year by year we get better at the subject.
In as far as Afghanistan is concerned, it was the Chretien, Martin Liberals who approved the prisoner exchange deal with the Afgh government. It should be noted that the Afghan Government along a VAST MAJORITY OF OTHER NATIONS signed the Rome agreement in 2003 concerning the treatment of prisoners.
So Dobbin can apologise for lying.
In as far as the Court Challenges program is concerned, the only winners were the lawyers. If the issue has merit, then funding should be obtained through means like any other citizen.
Finally, it is clear that Dobbin has little clue what the military does, how battle plans are formulated, and the general challenges of the field of combat. Untikl Dobbin does, he should really be quiet.
The Canadian Forces are well schooled in the subjects of human rights, the treatment of prisoners and even more so as a result of the transgressions of some years ago.
G West
5 years ago
sdgreen
Where exactly did Dobbin lie?
I'd be a little careful of throwing around accusations like that.
They can get you into a lot of trouble - as Minister O'Connor has learned.
murdock
5 years ago
are the Afghanis?
yes well are the Afhganis, the ANA or ANP so well schooled?
This is the problem, The Canadian Forces are not doing the detention, they are 'handing-off' to others whom are mistreating prisoners, according to the ICC.
You correctly point out the the 2003 Rome agreement had many nations involved; the problem is that, since then, most of those nations have rewritten bi-lateral agreements regarding prisoners. Something we, in Canada, have not done; this is what puts the Defence Minister and CDS in the pickle they are in now...
Frank
5 years ago
What?
Funny, under the Liberals the world was a bad place too. Human rights abuses were happening in Burma and lots of other places while Chretien and Martin were in charge as well. What does Mr Dobbin think we should do about it since he's against the use of force? He even criticizes Harper when he supposedly does what Mr Dobbin wants and complains about human rights to China. Because then Mr Dobbin says he's just being political.
A drive-by smear if there ever was one. We were already in Afghanistan before Harper was elected so to personalize it and say the soldiers there are dying for Harper is beneath you Mr Dobbin.
As for child-care and the Kelowna Accord. The Libs did those things in their last days after gutting the system for a decade.
Let's face it, Mr Dobbin would support everything Harper has done if he was a Liberal.
Frank
5 years ago
Quote:For all his posturing
Actually its been common knowledge for centuries or more that a unit that has been "blooded" is preferred over one that is not. Its one of the reasons there was criticism in using Canada's 2nd division at Dieppe. They had no experience. So Harper is right and Mr Dobbin is wrong. Units that have seen action are more reliable.
James Burns
5 years ago
Lying distractions
sdgreen the only person lying is you with your false accusations. If Dobbin is lying point it out.
First of all it isn't a prisoner exchange agreement you fool. For someone harping on about what Dobbin doesn't understand, you clearly lack the mental capacity to understand what the detainee transfer agreement entails. Shouldn't you be apologizing for your lack of intelligence?
The Martin government approved the detainee transfer agreement, which was given a stamp of approval by Hillier, and contained assurances that transferred detainees would not be tortured. The 2006 Foreign Affairs dept. report raising concerns about transferred detainee torture came out during Harper's tenure, but neither Harper, nor Hillier, nor defense minister O'Connor did anything about it until it was raised in parliament a year later. They did nothing. End of story. They should resign. Having monsters willing to condone torture in our government or military is unacceptable.
G West
5 years ago
The fact that Harper is just continuing
The fact that Harper is just continuing what the Martin Liberals were doing is certainly true and Dobbin should have pointed it out.
Those omissions hardly make him a liar though and, at bottom, the fact that the Liberals and the Conservatives are pretty much the same animals shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
James is right: Rick Hillier and O'Connor should have resigned already. I heard a soldier on the CBC this morning saying his opportunity to play ball hockey with some superannuated NHL stars was the high point of his life. Give me strength? It was almost as funny as hearing Tiger Williams say he was proud of our fighting men and women for doing their jobs in 90 degree Celsius temperatures.
Harper, there's no point in even suggesting, but I did notice a poll today that shows Dion's pathetic Liberals are now outpolling the Conmen.
No election this spring I guess.
Frank
5 years ago
a liar
Dobbin is not a liar but he has for awhile now come across to me as bordering on hysterical with his attacks on Harper. Harper could say something to his kid before school and regardless of what it was Dobbin would say it proves he's Bush's poodle (as he did above with Burma and China and his damned-if-you-don't and double-damned-if-you-do bit). What is the point of that?
The article is simply throwing a grab-bag of various shades of mud in order to create an impression that every single thing Harper has done takes us further down the path to hell. Because if Dobbin wants to focus on torture in Afghanistan then what is the point of bringing up national child care? My point is Dobbin doesn't have a point.
In the past Murray has written some excellent articles. I've even gone to hear him speak in person and particularly enjoyed hearing his thoughts on the New Zealand situation with Douglas after he came back. I like the guy. And I used to love his stuff about Paul Martin because the criticisms were thoughtful, valid and presented clearly. But for awhile now he's been "phoning it in". He simply isn't putting the thought into his articles that he was before.
G West
5 years ago
Frank
I think you're right about Murray.
The point is strong enough - relative to what the Military are doing in Afghanistan and to the incredibly incompetent way O'Connor has handled the situation - without bringing up any of the other material Murray mentions. It dilutes his argument and makes his conclusions less than convincing. The good thing about Afghanistan – if there’s anything good about it – is that it is bringing Harper down in the eyes of the average voter. I thought that either First Nations or the war would be his Achilles heel – it looks like he has two of them.
I think it was Murray who did an excellent early piece on Tilma a few months ago in the Winnipeg Free Press but his irrational fear about Harper seems to have unmanned him of late. He'll get his edge back.
There's enough to criticize as it is without diluting the message - my view.
Are the Canucks going to pull it out tonight?
BTW - have a look at Mary's blog - an interesting story from courtroom 54 yesterday.
Frank
5 years ago
Quote:but his irrational
There's enough to criticize as it is without diluting the message - my view.
That sums it up for me.
Yes. Can't say they'll win 3 straight but if this team has the character I think they do they should win it. On the other hand, and no I'm not covering my ass, not winning those two games where they outplayed the Ducks has gotta hurt the morale.
I read that and your post about Gary Mason's column. The man should have stuck to hockey.
G West
5 years ago
My fingers are crossed
Thanks Frank
frank2
5 years ago
irrational fear about Harper
What's irrational about it?
Frank
5 years ago
frank2
I think its that many of the fears he has for Harper are rational. But he appears to be irrational in some of his columns. Harper may not be my pick as PM but everything he does in a day is not worth setting your hair on fire and shouting from a rooftop.
Not everyone agrees with me but I think people paper over how bad a government the Liberals were for 13 years. The only good things anyone ever mentions about them are stuff they did in the last 6 months in office. If Murray wants to say Harper is worse, let's see a comparison article based on facts.
southdeltawalker
5 years ago
Canada's Shame
The latest agreement with the Afghans that Canada can somehow "monitor" the way prisoners are treated when they are turned over is unworkable and almost laughable if it wasn't so tragic.
When are they going to have time to do this- aren't they fighting a war??
Oh well the Stanley Cup is over there now......the news reported last night that it was there to help with the trauma of the eight killed last month. Maybe they could show the Stanley Cup to the torture victims...that'll help!
The brain
5 years ago
Food for thought
Not everyone agrees with me but I think people paper over how bad a government the Liberals were for 13 years. The only good things anyone ever mentions about them are stuff they did in the last 6 months in office. - Frank
Hi, Frank. While it is true that the Cons have been in power for only 16 months, they have definitely been busy. Ending the wheatboard, privatizing the CBC and any other crown for that matter, privatization, deregulation... When, Frank, has BC off shore drilling been on the plate in this country?
Only since Harper.
Kelowna First nations agreement could have been something to note in positive for the Liberals. Not since Harper.
Everyone harps including Harper about what the Liberals did not do for the environment. And what exactly, have the Conservatives done? And what exactly, is the current Liberal opposition led by Dion proposing to do? And the NDP?
And while the Liberals got the blame for being in Afganistan, who was it that sent three times the troops into more perilous harms way? It was Harper.
Were Harpers soundbites with Israel and Lebanon good for Canada's reputation last year?
Does Harpers campaign sound like a Republican one? (well, ok, they've got a Republican calling their campaign strategy now... not to hard to figure out where the Cons found him. Enough said?)
And the question that really needs to be asked, is this. What country in their right mind would elect a former president (for 5 years) of the National Citizens coalition? What electorate in their right mind would knowingly back a political leader that is backed and in the habit of backing up U.S. born multinational's in oil, banking and insurance, including the Republican party itself?
I don't mind if Murray is a bit rabid with Harper in power, Frank, not one bit. Shows a sign of intelligence. What has me livid with the voters in this nation is why voters can't connect the dots with Harper.
Its not a reach to realize that if Exxon can profit 18 billion in a quarter, that the congress and senate can be majority bought with this kind of dough floating around. And its likely they have other oil corp's chipping in. An inconvient truth, shall we say?
So while the Cons get tough on lightbulbs and aresol cans, expect sweet tweet from them in telling oil companies to clean up their act. Conservatives... Republicans... whats the difference? They are all oil burnin' gun totin' war mongerin' environment destroyers in the name of God and golden calf religious nutters who deserve nothing more than to be shown the door. And if we don't, well... its going to get awfully hot out there.
Colin
5 years ago
Brain Unlike the Liberals
Brain
Unlike the Liberals who did so much for the environment while in power right???
G West
5 years ago
Red herring alert
Brain
Unlike the Liberals who did so much for the environment while in power right???
skarr
5 years ago
Libs vs Cons
yes the Chretien and Martin regimes left a lot to be desired with respect to human rights, but that does not excuse the Conservatives, who are in power NOW, and are in fact worse.
Kumakun
5 years ago
Three block war
It is worth noting that the Canadian military is operating under a new type of model in Afghanistan. I think it is obvious to all that the Liberals got us in and the Conservatives are keeping us there. Partisan finger pointing isn't needed. Both governments had a role to play.
What is interesting is the notion of 'Three block war'. This concept was originally thought up by American military planners and has been adopted by the Canadian military. It shoud be noted that I am not well versed on the subject. The point is the shift that has taken place in how Canada approaches the Afighanistan mission and whether or not there is undue focus on combat rather than the humanitarian side of the mission. Anyone care to comment on three block war?
Tigana
5 years ago
But Harper Fosters Pets!
http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/feature.asp?pageId=73
This page from the PM's website is not to be missed, and may cause you to reassess your opinion of him! ;)