Some things need reposting. LOTS of reposting.

[noahgibbs]

Apparently the US government is now doing its part to have suspicious Canadians detained and tortured rather than just going for indefinite detainment of random people on the home front. Maher Arar was a Canadian, born in Syria, with dual citizenship. However, he was flying from Switzerland, and begged to be deported there, or back to Canada, rather than Syria where he hadn't been since he was 17, and where he was likely to be arrested for dodging mandatory military service. Instead, he was tortured by the Syrians on our behalf as a suspected terrorist, and forced to sign confessions to things he hadn't done.

Go ahead and read it. You're depressed about our government already, you might as well. But I'll point out that there's a massive outcry about it in Canada, and while they can't get their government to have a full inquiry either, they are trying hard.

I may need to practice saying "eh".

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I remember when he was first arrested. I couldn't find news on him for months.

[selkiediver.livejournal.com]

There was some evidence that the Canadian government actually had a hand in the exportation. I heard on NPR that the FBI had documents that could only have come from Canada (I believe it was the guy's lease). Either way, deporting him to Syria was ridiculous and the list of things that happened to him is grotesque.

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

I plan on learning to say "mate" and going to live on an island full of convicts that has never been involved with a military conflict or a nuclear threat.

And maybe learning to sing opera.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

...an island full of convicts that has never been involved with a military conflict...

Unless you're talking about New Zealand rather than Australia, you overrate them -- I'm thinking Gallipoli here, World War one and two, and I think even a certain amount of involvement in Bosnia and the first Gulf War.

Though, granted, they started none of those.

[angstronaut.livejournal.com]

I read the article earlier today - pointers to it are making the rounds but yes, more people need to know about it - and words fail me. Yes, there is evidence the Canadian government was complicit in this, but the fact that (I'm paraphrasing) "the INS is not the agency which deals with compliance to the Geneva Convention" is something I find bloody unacceptable.