Dark Days book launch

This evening I attended the Ottawa book launch for Dark Days: The Story of 4 Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror (Kerry Pither, Penguin Books Canada). The focus of the event was a round-table discussion; there was also time set aside for book-signing and snacks.

The round-table was frankly a little disappointing. Or, perhaps that's the wrong word--disheartening is perhaps more apt. Shirley Heafey (former Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP) in particular seemed to have a rather hopeless perspective. She repeatedly suggested that the RCMP were essentially beyond control; that their ingrained culture valued protecting the organization itself above all else; and that nobody really had any recourse in the face of this. She seemed at a loss to suggest any way to change this. Alex Neve was a little more optimistic, noting that the second O'Connor report from the Arar Commission contains a prescription for "A New Review Mechanism for the RCMP’s National Security Activities". That is, in fact, the document's title.

Only this report languishes, nearly two years after its release. On the same day that it was published, Stockwell Day announced the Iacobucci Inquiry, which has been widely criticized as being too secretive. But it defused the short term pressure to do anything.

Note that in one of the rare public hearings conducted as part of this inquiry, the Department of Justice argued that the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) creates no obligations on Canadian officials with respect to actions of foreign governments. That is, so long as Canada doesn't itself practice torture, the convention offers no restraint against Canadian government complicity in torture abroad. This is, it would seem, the policy of the current Conservative government. But, lest the Liberal party try to make any hay of this, one should recall that two previous Liberal governments did very little while Maher Arar was being tortured in Syria, an oversight for which they were criticized (see item 16) by the UN Human Rights Committe.

The Iacobucci Inquiry, meanwhile, is supposed to table its report on or before October 20. Which might be in the middle of an election campaign. Kerry Pither noted during the round-table discussion that there had been some suggestion that if Parliament wasn't sitting, the report might be held back until it was. But, either way, it seems like a good question to ask the candidates when they come knocking on your door this fall is "What's your position on torture?" Then you can ask them what they intend to do with the recommendations of the O'Connor report.