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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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 Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject: Canada Puts US & Israel On 'Torture Watch List' |
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Canada Puts US & Israel On 'Torture Watch List'
The manual refers to Guantanamo Bay where a Canadian is being held The United States has been listed as a country where prisoners are at risk of torture in a training document produced by the Canadian foreign ministry.
It also classifies some US "interrogation techniques" as torture.
The manual - part of a training course on torture awareness for diplomats - also includes Israel, China, Iran and Afghanistan on its watch list.
A government spokesman said the manual did not reflect the views of Canada, which is an "ally" of the US and ... Israel.
"The training manual is not a policy document and does not reflect the views or policies of this government," said a spokesman for Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier.
The manual lists US interrogation techniques such as forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners under "definition of torture".
It also refers to the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where a Canadian man is being held. Critics say it ridicules Ottawa's claims that Omar Khadr is not being mistreated.
There was no immediate response from either the US or Israel.
Exonerated
The document was provided to Amnesty International as part of a court case it is bringing against the Canadian government over the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan.
Canada has come under growing criticism following allegations that detainees were tortured in Afghanistan after its soldiers transferred "suspects" to Afghan security forces.
Amnesty is calling for stopping all transfers of prisoners to the Afghan authorities.
The torture awareness course was introduced after Ottawa was strongly criticised for its handling of the case of a Canadian who was deported from the US to Syria in 2002.
Syrian-born Maher Arar - who was accused of being an al-Qaeda member - says he was tortured during his 10 months in a Damascus jail - a claim strongly denied by Syria 
A Canadian government inquiry exonerated Mr Arar of any links with terrorist groups. It also showed that Canadian diplomats had not had any formal training on how to "detect" whether detainees had been abused.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7195276.stm |
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Zutronius
Joined: 16 Apr 2007
Location: Suncheon
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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Ottawa later reversed their stance and said the countries were put on the list by mistake.
http://www.thestar.com/article/295706
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Ottawa reverses torture stance
BRENNAN LINSLEY / AP
The U.S. Navy detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, houses accused "enemy combatants," including Canadian Omar Khadr. Email story
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Canada torture manual (.PDF) U.S., Israel wrongly included, foreign affairs minister says of federal government manual
Jan 20, 2008 04:30 AM
Michelle Shephard
National Security Reporter
The Canadian government now says Guantanamo Bay, the United States and Israel were mistakenly included as sites of possible torture in a government manual that was inadvertently disclosed last week.
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said yesterday he has ordered the manual be rewritten and assured the U.S. and Israel the document did not reflect the government's position.
"I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training. It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies," Bernier said in a written statement.
His comments yesterday enraged human rights lawyers who accused the government of playing politics rather than guarding the rights of its citizens.
"This is what we've always suspected. It's outrageous," Toronto lawyer Lorne Waldman said yesterday. "The government is more concerned with international relations than making sure Canadian citizens aren't tortured."
Waldman represented Canadian Maher Arar, who was arrested by U.S. authorities in New York as a suspected terrorist and then sent to Syria, where he was tortured and detained without charges for a year. Arar was issued an apology and $11.5 million settlement from the government last year for Canada's role in giving the U.S. erroneous information.
A federal inquiry investigating Arar's case recommended that Canadian foreign affairs officials receive training on how to identify signs of torture. Foreign Affairs created the "Torture Awareness Workshop Reference Materials," a manual that gives the legal definitions of torture and instructs consular officials of how to detect signs of abuse.
Under the heading, "Possible Torture/Abuse Cases," the manual lists Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Guantanamo Bay, Iran, Israel, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the U.S.
The document was accidentally released last week as part of the government's disclosure in a legal challenge launched by Amnesty International, which is protesting against the actions of Canadian Forces in transferring detainees into Afghan custody where they say they have been tortured.
The inclusion of Guantanamo Bay in the training manual was especially embarrassing to the government because it has publicly stated that Canada accepts assurances that the U.S. treats detainees humanely despite the international outcry over abuse at the prison. Toronto-born Omar Khadr is now the only Western detainee remaining in Guantanamo and Canada the only ally of the U.S. who has not denounced the prison.
Amnesty's Canadian secretary general said yesterday he was disappointed by Bernier's statement.
"To see now that they're pulling back and clearly the motivation for that is not that there's been some reassessment of the human rights records of those countries, but rather only the concern that we don't want to embarrass close allies. That's disturbing," Alex Neve said yesterday.
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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| Ottawa later reversed their stance and said the countries were put on the list by mistake. |
They just didn't want to be kidnapped and tortured. Can't blame them for back-peddling like that. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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| twg wrote: |
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| Ottawa later reversed their stance and said the countries were put on the list by mistake. |
They just didn't want to be kidnapped and tortured. Can't blame them for back-peddling like that. |
But haven't they sent a message by initially putting the US & Israel on the watch-list, and then taking them off?
Its not like their position didn't have merit? I think this was a clever way to express their concern, and in an election year no less. |
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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| The government took them off the list because it was an embarrassment. Not because the information was wrong. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Truth is indeed often politically "incorrect". |
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