harper government is complicit in human-rights abuses - and cover up

This Harper Government is really pissing me off lately. Even more than the Liberals, and I'm getting really pissed off at them, too.

This morning we learn that Stockwell Day, who thinks it's fine if Montana executes a Canadian citizen, doesn't think Canada needs a full national review of taser use by police. The RCMP can investigate itself.

Asked whether he would agree to public hearings about the overall use of Taser weapons, Day said that both the RCMP and the commissioner for complaints against the RCMP are conducting investigations into the incident.

Day added that Quebec has also launched its own review and that he had already asked for a review of the use of the weapons.

He said the RCMP is reviewing the practices related to Taser use and that a report is being prepared. He said he is waiting to see the conclusions of that report before commenting.

"We want to make sure things are maintained, that public safety is maintained and answers are found on this particular issue," said Day.

Currently there are four investigations into the death of Dziekanski underway. The B.C. coroner, the RCMP, the public complaints commissioner for the RCMP, and the Vancouver Airport Authority are all conducting their own investigations.

But Liberal public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said a public-interest review of the issue from a national perspective is necessary.

Dosanjh said the government must appoint an independent body to comprehensively review Taser use in Canada and to produce clear national guidelines for law enforcement officers.

We also learn that the Harper government knew all about the appalling, abusive conditions in Afghan prisons, where Canadian troops were depositing their prisoners, and did nothing except attempt to cover their own asses.

The Harper government knew prison conditions were appalling long before The Globe and Mail published a series of stories last April detailing the abuse and torture of prisoners turned over by Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan's notorious secret police, documents released this week show.

The heavily censored documents also show that at the same time as senior ministers were denying evidence of abuse, officials on the ground in Afghanistan were collecting first-hand accounts from prisoners of mistreatment.

Although large sections of the more than 1,000 pages of documents and messages between Ottawa, Kabul and Kandahar remain blacked out, two disturbing pictures emerge from the pile.

First, that despite working hard to create the impression of careful follow-up in monitoring of detainees, efforts have been hampered by a chaotic and unreliable Afghan system in which scores, perhaps hundreds, of detainees have vanished.

Second, in the months prior to public allegations of abuse and torture, there was compelling evidence of terrible conditions in Afghan prisons. In addition to routine reports by diplomats citing widespread torture and abuse, Canadian officials were also delivering first-hand accounts showing how grim the prisons were.

In one, Linda Garwood-Filbert, the newly arrived leader of a Correctional Service Canada inspections team, asked for better boots in February, 2007, months before the published reports, because she was "walking through blood and fecal matter" on the floor of cells as they toured Afghan prisons.

No explanation of why the floors were covered in blood is given.

The government was forced to release the documents on detainee conditions after a federal judge ordered it to disclose them as part of a suit brought by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

The story continues with more details that should elicit our disgust and outrage.

This isn't quite Abu Ghraib: Canadians were not actually the perpetrators of these abuses. But that distinction is sliced pretty thin.

The torture and abuse is happening on Canada's watch, by people Canada is supporting. Canadian soldiers are sending people to these prisons. The Harper government knew about the prison conditions. The only actions they took were attempts to cover their own asses.

Once again we see the connection between what happened to Maher Arar, what is happening to Ronald Smith, and these revelations. Canada doesn't torture. It just hands people over to people who torture.

Canadians want to believe that their country is a more humane and just society than the United States - and I believe it is, too. But we must ensure that that belief remains grounded in fact, and not merely wishful thinking. And since Canada is still a functioning democracy, we all have to tell the government what we think of these revelations.