statism watch

A legislator, actually doing their job and writing independent legislation to fix a national problem? It’s a novel idea but it just may work. One might have thought, or hoped, that this was already covered under existing legislation (eg; The Geneva Convention) but it appears not.

Flashback: Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | MP threatens motion on Afghan documents | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
March 15, 2010

NDP human rights critic Wayne Marston has tabled a private member’s bill in the Commons that he says will prevent any government complicity in torture.

If passed, the Prevention of Torture Act would oblige officials to “report knowledge of torture to the proper authorities” and would establish diplomatic protocols for the “immediate repatriation for any Canadian citizen [abroad] at risk of torture,” Marston said Monday.

He said the proposed new law would not undermine Canada’s ability to investigate or prosecute those citizens in Canada, but would make it a criminal offence to use information acquired by torture.

“It would also call for a creation of a government watch list of those countries known to engage in torture,” said Marston, MP for Hamilton-Stoney Creek.

The House rarely passes private members’ bills, but Marston said he believes the bill will gain support because it recognizes that Canadians don’t condone torture “in any form, at any time.”

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This is really Harper’s last and only chance to speak from the heart and lay out whatever master plan he’s been keeping under wraps all these years. To put on that blue sweater and truly appeal to Canadians, to give us some straight talk on the issues we really connect with. (Cough) Getting choked up here. See you Tuesday, Steve. Can we call you Steve now? Let’s have this straight up, no pretense. Canada’s watching.

Related: PM turns to YouTube – and takes questions | Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Mike Blanchfeidl, The Canadian Press
March 12, 2010

Prime Minister faces dozens of tough, varied questions via online video

After being called a “pansy” by a cartoon Sarah Palin, Stephen Harper’s experiment with YouTube might yet leave him pining for the parliamentary press gallery.

By late afternoon Friday, the response to the Prime Minister’s pitch this week to hear from Canadians via the popular video website yielded 1,200 questions. They hit on a wide variety of topics, including many Mr. Harper likely won’t be eager to address like legalizing marijuana and 9/11 conspiracy theories.

It often wasn’t so much what they asked – it was how. Many did Marshall McLuhan proud, using the medium of do-it-yourself video to ask tough questions, while lampooning Mr. Harper with stinging messages. His controversial prorogation of Parliament was a prime target.

“You are what we call in Alaska, a pansy,” said a digital cartoon of ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin in one posting.

“Is it a Canadian tradition for Canadian leaders to run away and hide? If a president did what you did, there would be rioting in the streets? How did you get away with it?”

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Is this a response to CanadaParticipates.ca, the website launched by the group that staged the anti-prorogation rallies? Or simple a belated nod to the thousands of Canadians that got out to those protests. Either way, this is what leaders and their staffers should be doing in the Internet age. But like a fuzzy sweater, the image of a consensus-driven leader doesn’t really work on Harper. That suit is an ill-fitting one. To wait so long, and to have done so many things to centralize power in the PMO, this small consultative effort is of course going to draw fire. Let’s assume he knew that. It will be interesting to see how he handles the response interview on Tuesday. Now, go post some comments on the TalkCanada channel. It can’t get any easier, you’ve got a direct line to Harper’s staff until Sunday 1PM EST.

Related: Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Richard J Brennan, Toronto Star
March 11, 2010

OTTAWA –– Prime Minister Stephen Harper draped himself in Olympic gold medals Thursday as he boasted – in the House of Commons and via YouTube – that his Conservative government almost single handedly pulled Canada back from the precipice of financial ruin.

“Bad choices now – unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, dithering on deficits and difficult decisions – will doom those countries who choose them to years of debt, stagnation and joblessness. A country of 33 million people that can win the most gold medals ever at an Olympic Games does not deserve that. And, on our watch, Canada will not get it,” Harper concluded at the end of a 30-minute speech.

Giving his official response to last week’s throne speech, Harper went beyond the television sets of Canadians and had his speech livestreamed on YouTube.com, where viewers were also invited to submit questions. Harper will make a return visit next Tuesday at 7 p.m. to answer a selection of questions.

In turning to the popular video-sharing website to get his message out to Canadians and others “unfiltered” by the national media, Harper opened up a social media can of worms.

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Flashback: CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | MP threatens motion on Afghan documents | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
March 8, 2010

An internal government memo obtained by CBC confirms that Canadian authorities began formulating a plan for dealing with accusations of torture of prisoners in Afghanistan as early as March 2007 — months before such allegations first came up in the media.

The memo, drafted by officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs, instructs staff to inform the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Red Cross if “NGOs, relatives, media or otherwise make credible allegations that detainees transferred by CF [Canadian Forces] to Afghan authorities have been potentially abused following their transfer.”

Officials must also “follow up separately to address potential concerns with the conditions of detention,” the memo says.

First drafts of the document were written in March 2007, months before the Globe and Mail reported that 30 prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities by the Canadian military were “beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks during interrogations.”

The timing of the memo shows the government was concerned about the possibility that detainees were being abused while in Afghan custody long before revelations about actual cases of abuse became public.

The existence of a plan to deal with allegations of abuse came to light in November 2009 during hearings held by the parliamentary committee examining Canada’s mission in Afghanistan and the issue of detainee transfer.

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The question of prorogation isn’t about it how often it has been done, but why. In the past, prorogation was effected because the agenda of the house was finished, or because it was the only way Parliament was able to squeeze in a holiday at the time. It was not done in order to duck responsibility.

(Update 2010/3/5): The government has called for a ‘review’ by Justice Iacobucci of whether any of the documents in their hands would be ‘injurious’ if released. No indication of how long that might take.

Flashback: MP threatens motion on Afghan documents | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
March 4, 2010

Opposition demands unredacted documents over Afghan detainee transfers

Opposition MPs wasted no time during the first question period in the new session of Parliament to renew their condemnation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament for six weeks.

Speaking Thursday in the first question period since Dec. 10, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the Conservative government of trying to avoid facing legitimate questions about allegations of torture of prisoners transferred by Canadian soldiers into Afghan custody.

“Everyone in this House and everyone in the country knows why the prime minister shut down Parliament,” Ignatieff said.

Ignatieff and NDP Leader Jack Layton called for the prime minister to support limiting the government’s powers of prorogation and preventing its future abuse. Layton called the power “outdated” and cited the tens of thousands who took to the streets across Canada in January to protest the move.

“A lock on the doors of the House of Commons is not worthy of Canadian democracy,” said the New Democrat leader, who received a standing ovation from his caucus when he rose to speak. Layton disclosed last month he is being treated for prostate cancer. Harper said he was glad to see Layton “in fine form.”

The prime minister then replied that federal governments have prorogued Parliament almost annually on average for the past 140 years and his government had no plans to make changes to its use.

In response to Ignatieff, Harper acknowledged his own “unusual” use of the power in late 2008 to assert the principle that the opposition must face an election if it wants to replace the government.

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Flashback: Conservatives cracking down on criticism of Israel, NGOs warn | Watchdogs describe coming ‘under attack’ by Conservative government | Fury grows over Tory anti-Semitism charge levelled against Canadian churches | Federal website changes undermine Iraq resisters: critics | UK Anti-war MP banned from Canada | Kenney’s comments prejudice hearings for war resisters, critics say | Canada losing moral standing over treatment of Omar Khadr: Dallaire

CBC News
March 2, 2010

Opposition to government’s choice for president grows

Three senior managers at the federal government’s human rights agency who were suspended for publicly declaring their lack of confidence in three Conservative appointees to their organization’s board of directors earlier this year have been fired.

The news was confirmed by lawyer Julius Grey, who is representing the three, on Tuesday.

Rights & Democracy, created under Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government to encourage democracy and monitor human rights around the world, has been in turmoil since the Harper government appointed new board members last year.

The new members challenged grants being made to three human rights organizations known to be critical of Israel’s human rights record.

Federal opposition politicians and the family of former president Rémy Beauregard, who died in January, are calling for an independent inquiry into the organization.

Since Beauregard’s death, almost every staff member of Rights & Democracy has signed a letter stating non-confidence in the interim president and two board members.

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CAPP has this journal’s support. A non-partisan group urging all Canadians to get involved in civics is a great idea, and sure to arouse no small degree of consternation amongst the elite, entitled political classes of this country. Take the system back, Canada! And for goodness’ sake let’s get some principled classical liberals and libertarians out to these things, there’s no need to let them be another exclusive vehicle for socialists and left-anarchists. You’ve seen that Canada has what it takes to meet the Olympic gold standard. Now it’s time to get off your ass – get involved and bring that focus and commitment to bear on holding this state to a higher standard.

Flashback: Thousands of Canadians protest shuttering of Parliament | Anti-prorogation protest dogs PM | Harper says Parliament brings ‘games’ and ‘instability’ | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | PM suspends Parliament | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Decision to prorogue parliament sets ‘very dangerous’ precedent: constitutional expert | Harper halts parliament amid row | Comedian begins asking Harper question, cuffed by RCMP | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | PM’s tactic `authoritarian’ | Parliament losing power, author says | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Elected Parliamentarians Neutered by PM-Appointed ‘Courtiers’ | ‘What is it they’re trying to hide?’ NDP asks for military export data | The Mulroney Affair: Why politicians seek out the rich | Harper to create government-run media centre: report | Steven Harper and the Bilderbergers Secret Meeting

Gloria Galloway, The Globe and Mail
March 2, 2010

Do you remember that Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament – the one that, at last count, had 225,392 members? With federal politicians returning to Ottawa on Wednesday, it has rather lost its raison d’etre.

But the organizers say they will continue to fight democratic apathy under the banner of Canadians Advocating Political Participation. And they will hold a news conference Tuesday to discuss launch a new website CanadaParticipates.ca.

Justin Arjoon, CAPP’s central coordinator, said the main goal is to encourage greater political participation.

“We want Canadians to participate in democracy,” said Mr. Arjoon. “We want to reverse this trend of apathy that Canadians seem to be feeling towards our system of government by holding our government accountable and also be educating Canadians and encouraging them to get involved at a local level.”

Just 58.8 per cent of registered Canadian voters turned out to the polls in the 2008 federal election. But Mr. Arjoon said his group is about more than just getting out the vote.

“It’s getting Canadians to understand what’s going on and to try to get them engaged in things other than voting. Like going to town halls or holding events about issues that concern them, talking to politicians.”

Watch their Youtube video:

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Do it. It will get the issue right back on the agenda, and teach this administration they can’t push issues to the side by shutting down parliament.

Flashback: PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Claims troops mistreated prisoners unfounded: military police | Peter MacKay, Red Cross discussed detainees in 2006 | Canada’s troops investigated for Afghan abuse | Colvin disputes witnesses’ detainee testimony | Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting | Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
March 1, 2010

A Liberal MP is threatening to table a motion in the House of Commons that, if passed, could see the government in contempt of Parliament for not complying with a House Standing Order to produce unredacted documents about the handling of Afghan detainees by the Canadian Forces.

Ontario MP Derek Lee, who has drafted the three-part motion, said the government hasn’t complied with requests to release the documents, one made by the Afghanistan committee looking into the detainee situation and the other by an order of the House.

“If the government doesn’t deliver on the House order, and the majority in the House feels this way, they can find the government or a person in contempt and go about seizing the documents … just as a court would,” Lee told CBC’s Power & Politics.

Lee, who waged a year long-battle in 1991 with the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney over a parliamentary committee’s right to see government documents and won, said he hopes the government will act accordingly with parliamentary law and procedure.

“Otherwise, there’s confrontation coming between the government and the House of Commons,” he said.

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Flashback: Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Jeff Davis, The Hill Times
February 22, 2010

PMO urged staffers to pare down Access to Information documents before release.

Access to information: Dimitri Soudas, press secretary to the Prime Minister, pictured last month. Mr. Soudas recently told Cabinet staffers that adherence to the Access to Information Act ‘is a condition of continued employment within this government.’

Cabinet ministers’ offices had been under orders to pressure bureaucrats to pare down the amount of information released under the Access to Information Act up until The Canadian Press recently broke the story on how one political staffer killed the release of a document, forcing the Prime Minister’s Office to get involved and to do some damage control, says one Conservative staffer.

“Since we formed government, the PMO has been pressuring us to take a hard line on ATIP requests,” the staffer, who did not want to be identified, told The Hill Times.

The claim of apparent centrally-directed political interference in Canada’s access to information system comes in the wake of a Feb. 7 CP story that reported on how Cabinet staffer Sébastien Togneri ordered the “unrelease” of a sensitive report on the government’s real estate portfolio last July. At the time, he worked for then minister of Public Works Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Que.) and subsequently pressured officials to release only 30 pages of a 137-page document. Public servants, Justice Department lawyers and consultants had agreed there was no legal basis to withhold any of the document, CP reported.

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Flashback: Ottawa reluctantly asks U.S. for assurances Khadr trial will not use evidence CSIS obtained in violation of rights | Omar Khadr’s rights were violated: Ruling sees top court clash with Tories | Omar Khadr to face Military Commission trial in US | Omar Khadr ‘innocent’ in death of U.S. soldier | Kuebler dropped as Omar Khadr’s lawyer | Supreme Court to hear government’s appeal of Khadr case | Ottawa to appeal Khadr ruling to top court | Harper hints at appeal of Khadr ruling | CSIS ignored Khadr’s human rights: Parliamentary report | Ottawa appeals court order to repatriate Omar Khadr | PM must press U.S. for Khadr’s return from Guantanamo, court rules | Khadr’s military lawyer reinstated | Pentagon fires Omar Khadr’s lawyer | Arar in Canada when ’seen’ by Khadr, hearing told | Khadr, interred in rubble, couldn’t have thrown grenade in firefight: Evidence | Stop ignoring Omar Khadr case: Opposition MPs to PM | Bid to dismiss Omar Khadr’s charges fails | CSIS faces review in Khadr case | Low Level Driver Convicted Of Terror Charges While Bin Laden’s Senior Body Guard Was Let Go | Protesters push for Omar Khadr’s release | ‘You don’t care about me,’ Omar Khadr sobs in interview tapes | Canada’s top court orders partial access to Khadr transcripts | Canada losing moral standing over treatment of Omar Khadr: Dallaire | Khadr Defence chips away at military prosecution

The Canadian Press
February 17, 2010

Lawyers for accused terrorist Omar Khadr were scheduled to appear in Federal Court in Ottawa on Wednesday to file a motion to quash a decision by the federal government to ask the U.S. government to refrain from using any evidence gathered by Canadian officials in any future prosecution of Khadr.

They hope the motion will be heard before April 1.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced late Tuesday that the government made its request in a diplomatic note sent to Washington earlier in the day.

It was Ottawa’s first response to the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that found the Canadian government’s participation in Khadr’s U.S. detention violated his constitutional rights. The ruling did not order the Conservative government to repatriate Khadr.

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