It's Telling That Ottawa Has Not Demanded Answers From Washington

This moral abyss helps explain the actions of our national police force, as revealed in Justice O'Connor's report last week on the horrific ordeal suffered by Canadian engineer Maher Arar. In this moral abyss, our society has come to accept as normal the lawlessness of President George W. Bush's "war on terror," which includes waging illegal war and perpetrating grotesque human rights violations, including secret prisons, torture and perpetual detention without trial. While many Canadians reject this new norm, Ottawa has embraced it. Under the Liberals, Parliament passed a sweeping anti-terrorism law that wiped out crucial civil liberties. It was in this context of hysteria that RCMP officers decided to play fast and loose with the truth, providing U.S. authorities with false information that Arar and his wife were "Islamic extremist individuals," with suspected links to Al Qaeda. This was like waving a red flag in front of an angry, agitated bull. The RCMP further titillated the angry bull with more false information — including that Arar was in Washington on 9/11, even though he was actually in San Diego. Keen to learn more, the U.S. handed Arar over to Syria for torture and imprisonment. http://tinyurl.com/m5ezs [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 25, 2006]

Note: http://tinyurl.com/m5ezs