– Canada’s foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured. Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats. Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture. “It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten,” Bernier said in a statement.
The document — made available to Reuters and other media outlets — embarrassed the minority Conservative government, which is a staunch ally of both the United States and Israel. U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said the listing was absurd, while the Israeli envoy said he wanted his country removed. Asked why the two countries had been put on the list, a spokesman for Bernier said: “The training manual purposely raised public issues to stimulate discussion and debate in the classroom.” “When it comes to an issue like torture, the government’s main concern should not be embarrassing allies,” Alex Neve, the group’s secretary-general, told Reuters. Under “definition of torture,” the document lists U.S. interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding prisoners.
Uncle Dave’s earlier post here.
Ah! The smell of corruption!!
And I am sure the US showed them proof that torture was not being performed rather than use political or economic bullying to get them to change what they say they think. Not.
Or am I too cynical?
That’s the way of the Canadian Conservative Government. Last week they fired the nuclear watchdog because she had decided to shut down an unsafe nuclear facility. And now this…
When will Russia and China do the right thing and nuke the United States off of the planet for good?
Dammit Canada why?
This new consersative goverment isnt doing much good, Of course the US and Israel should be on the list.
Maybe their lawyers and accountants threatened with a strike.
Watch out, these governments are known to blindfold their prisoners!
The list was right the first time and the USA and Israel should both be on the list.
If they don’t want to be on the list, they should stop torturing people.
As for Canada. Get some balls !!!
Ahem,
As a Canadian, I can steadfastly claim that no amount of corruption, bribery or political influence would change the mind of the Canadian Government. Stephen Harper and the recent “Conservative” party in Canada has faithfully toed the US party line. Therefore, the Canadian government honestly believes that the US and Israel do not torture their prisoners. As to the truth of that statement, that’s not the point of course…
And I was going to move there. Canada, I mean. I’m wanting to leave BEFORE the Democrips get Romney elected. And yes, I KNOW Mitt Romney is a Republitard. The Dems are drinking their own Kool-Aid if they think Hillary or Obama can really get any of the swing vote in this xenophobic, misogynist and racist country. If Hillary gets the nomination, she’s lost the African-American vote entirely, and as someone who has and does work with blue collar folks, they’d vote for Satan himself instead of a human being with dark skin.
The Dems think it’s the 21st Century out there. It ain’t, not by a light year.
10,
It’s still better up here. Regardless of the said removal.
I am just praying the New Zealand is still half way livable in 20 years. I use to think Australia was a good alternative when I wanted to get the Hell out, but with their new wacky government in place, that has been snatched away from me.
#9 How naive are you? Your government has been infected, not misguided.
I remember about a year ago Mexico announced it was going to de-criminalize certain drugs in order to combat the nasty effects of criminalization/prohibition. It was reported the GOUSA was concerned about this. Then nothing happened.
Now I assume with Mexico that some drug lord posing as a Capitalist simply had someone in Washington tell Mexico that if they did this some massive amount of aid would not be delivered, or something financial to that effect.
What “tools” does GOUSA have against Canada though? Why would any country have the moral courage to see and report the truth, and then back off it?
Our Conservative government, as mentioned in #9, basically does whatever the US wants. I doubt very highly there is anyone in any capacity within our three political parties who has the balls to say “No thank you” to the US administration. They’re all twats. The last decent PM we had was Trudeau – at least he knew he was an asshole and told Nixon where to get off.
I say keep the US and Israel on the list. And just to piss them off put the French on the list too.
13,
Read my 9 again. You’ll get it the second time.
15,
Chretien was also pretty ballsy. Afterall, he was the originator of the Shawinigan Handshake. Loved that man!
Another failed political thread.
The real issue here is how this impacts Canadian politics, because the story is meaningless to the other nations involved.
14, 15. Right. Like it is such a stretch of the imagination to think that a conservative government might actually want to support and carry out conservative objectives. Like it’s impossible to believe there might be someone, somewhere in a government management position who strongly disagrees with the GoC point of view in a land where the popular vote is decidedly not Conservative.
RBG
thank goodness the Conservatives weren’t in power when Bush invaded Iraq. Afghanistan is bad enough.
The courts up here (in Canada) still have some balls. Canada has a treaty with the US which says that refugees can’t shop around for a country to take them in. So if a “refugee” from say Guatemala, enters the US, then fails in his bid to stay in the US, flees to the Cdn border, the Cdn govt used to be able to send him back to the States. But the Cdn courts have recently ruled that the US is not a safe third country! Refugees entering Canada from the US can’t be sent back to the US!
My, how the image of the “good old” USA has been tarnished.
Maybe Mister Uncle Ben & Canucklehead can get together to work out their differences.
RBG
U.Ben is right. The Conservative government is a lap-dog.
The courts aren’t (yet).
Which one is Canada?
RBG
20 Canucklehead
“Canada was one of the first nations to agree to condemn Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and it quickly agreed to join the U.S.-led coalition. In August 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney sent the destroyers HMCS Terra Nova and HMCS Athabaskan to join the maritime interdiction force. The supply ship HMCS Protecteur was also sent to aid the gathering coalition forces. The Canadian flotilla lead the coalition logistics force at sea. A fourth ship, HMCS Huron arrived in theatre after hostilies ceased. The ship was the first to visit Kuwait at the end of the war.
After the UN authorized full use of force in the operation Canada sent a CF-18 squadron with support personnel. Canada also sent a field hospital to deal with casualties from the ground war. When the air war began, Canada’s planes were integrated into the coalition force and provided air cover and attacked ground targets. This was the first time since the Korean War that Canadian forces had participated in offensive combat operations.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
“Operation FRICTION was a Canadian military operation that saw the contribution of 4,500 Canadian Forces personnel to the Gulf War (Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm) of 1990-1991.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_FRICTION