XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Panca@nyet.ca   
      
     — CP — Dec 9 2014   
      
   Harper ignores call to rescind torture policy   
      
      
   OTTAWA - The official Opposition pointed to a new U.S. report that discredits   
   torture in renewing a call for the Conservative government to rescind its   
   information-sharing policy.   
      
   The long-anticipated U.S. Senate intelligence committee report concludes the   
   Central Intelligence Agency's use of simulated drowning, confinement in small   
   spaces, sleep deprivation and threats of violence against family members did   
   not yield valuable information in the post-9-11 fight against terrorism.   
      
   In the House of Commons, New Democrat MP Peter Julian said Tuesday the   
   conclusion to be drawn from the American report is simple — torture doesn't   
   work.   
      
   However, Julian pointed out, the Canadian government has issued directives to   
   several police and security agencies allowing them to use and share information   
   derived using brutal methods.   
      
   The instructions give five federal agencies — the Canadian Security   
   Intelligence Service, the RCMP, the military, Canada Border Services and the   
   Communications Security Establishment — the go-ahead to exchange information   
   with a foreign partner even when doing so may give rise to a substantial risk   
   of torture.   
      
   A federal framework document obtained through the Access to Information Act   
   outlines a "consistent process of decision making" across departments and   
   agencies when the exchange of national-security related information puts   
   someone at serious risk of being abused.   
      
   Julian said the Harper government's acceptance of torture had repudiated basic   
   Canadian values.  "Will the government rescind these directives immediately?"   
   he asked.   
      
   Prime Minister Stephen Harper ignored the demand.   
      
   "This is a report of the United States Senate," Harper told the Commons.  "It   
   has nothing to do whatsoever with the government of Canada."   
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   The Canadian policy has drawn persistent criticism from human rights advocates   
   and opposition MPs who say it effectively condones torture, violating   
   international law and Canada's United Nations commitments.   
      
   The federal framework says when there is a "substantial risk" that sending   
   information to — or soliciting information from — a foreign agency would   
   result   
   in torture, the responsible deputy minister or agency head should be consulted.   
      
   In deciding what to do, the agency head is supposed to consider factors   
   including the threat to Canada's national security and the nature and imminence   
   of the threat; the status of Canada's relationship with — and the human   
   rights   
   record of — the foreign agency; and the rationale for believing that sharing   
   the information would lead to torture.   
      
   Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained in New York in September 2002   
   and shipped overseas by U.S. authorities — ending up in a filthy Damascus   
   prison.  Under torture, he gave false confessions about involvement with   
   al-Qaida.   
      
   A federal commission of inquiry, led by Justice Dennis O'Connor, concluded that   
   flawed information the RCMP handed to the Americans after the 9-11 attacks very   
   likely led to the Ottawa man's year-long nightmare.   
      
   O'Connor recommended that information never be provided to a foreign country   
   where there is a credible risk it will cause or contribute to the use of   
   torture.   
      
   The U.S. Senate report did not examine the treatment of detainees like Arar who   
   were in the custody of foreign countries.   
      
   Arar declined interview requests from media Tuesday.  But he was following the   
   U.S. Senate report's release.   
      
   "What's shocking is that despite massive human rights violations U.S. is   
   involved in, it still considers itself a country based on rule of law," Arar   
   wrote on Twitter.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)