People may have mocked Jean Chrétien, but for all his faults, I never felt more admiration and pride for him when he stood up in the house of Commons and declared that Canada would NOT join the Iraq invasion. I mean no disrespect to any or all Americans with this comment, but from a Canadian, it was one of a few times when Canada stood it’s ground. I only wish Harper could see that Bush’s agenda does NOT always mesh with what’s best for Canada.

As allies, Canadians and Americans have a great thing going. We share power, natural resources, water (a very important one) and many other needed resources. This is why think it’s prudent for Canadians to be aware of American politics, and vice versa, because one does affect the other, either directly or indirectly.

On a comical note, for the US, Bush is gone after this, but for us Canucks, who knows how long our little Aryan boy will stuck around?!?!

Don’t worry, we are embarrassed of our governments torturing for you.

Bush/Cheney
Hague Trials ‘09

Buck Fush

Cheers,

guess i’ll have re-think my retirement plans. there’s always iceland or new zealand, i ’spose.

Israel engages in the genocide of Palestinians, but thats ok presumably because they are our ally and do not use ovens, and because we are doing the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. This ally thing works well, you can pretty much justify anything.

Life goes on, for most of us anyways.

LOL! Very funny!

Comment by Starve-A-Bush_Feed-A-Beaver — January 20, 2008 @ 7:23 pm

Actually only the size 12 ugly ones with a high price tag will be in short supply. Thank the skies!

From the BBC article:

In a statement on Saturday, [Canadian Foreign Minister] Mr Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the list and promised it would be changed to reflect the Canadian government’s official position.
“It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten,” he said.

The Canadian government, through their foreign minister, already apologised, retracted their list, and promised to “correct” it.

It certainly sounds like they removed the US from their torture watch list to me…

And I thought that, when it came to torture, a democratic, law-abiding, human rights-respecting government’s main concern should be to denounce it anywhere it happens, even if the truth embarrasses some allies (tough luck, I’d say). Silly me.

Amnesty International Canada criticized the move, stating, “When it comes to an issue like torture, the government’s main concern should not be embarrassing allies.”

That’s right. Don’t embarrass your allies who torture by actually putting them on a watch list, for God’s sake. Doing that would be an embarrassment upon your own country too. After all, what kind of country holds as an ally, another country that uses torture?

EMBARRASSING… INDEED!

I just can’t help but think and question, is this the level of reasoning as to why Musharraf is our best ally?

.

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/295773
RCMP denies ‘extreme ecstasy’ flowing to U.S.

Jan 20, 2008 02:38 PM
Camille Bains
THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER – The head of the RCMP’s national drug branch is debunking claims by the United States’ drug czar, who claims organized crime rings in Canada are dumping dangerous, methamphetamine-laced “extreme ecstasy” into his country’s illegal drug market.

Supt. Paul Nadeau said he doesn’t know why John Walters, of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, would make such statements in a widely distributed news release without checking facts with Canadian officials.

ttp://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/295706

Ottawa reverses torture stance
BRENNAN LINSLEY / AP
The U.S. Navy detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, houses accused “enemy combatants,” including Canadian Omar Khadr.

U.S., Israel wrongly included, foreign affairs minister says of federal government manual
Jan 20, 2008 04:30 AM

The Canadian government now says Guantanamo Bay, the United States and Israel were mistakenly included as sites of possible torture in a government manual that was inadvertently disclosed last week.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said yesterday he has ordered the manual be rewritten and assured the U.S. and Israel the document did not reflect the government’s position.

“I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department’s torture awareness training. It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies,” Bernier said in a written statement.

The inclusion of Guantanamo Bay in the training manual was especially embarrassing to the government because it has publicly stated that Canada accepts assurances that the U.S. treats detainees humanely despite the international outcry over abuse at the prison. Toronto-born Omar Khadr is now the only Western detainee remaining in Guantanamo and Canada the only ally of the U.S. who has not denounced the prison.

Comment by RUCerious — January 20, 2008 @ 4:02 pm

We are on the same page. Here’s my previous post at #21

It appears that all of that illegal wiretapping is paying off.

Comment by dixie blood — January 20, 2008 @ 2:00 pm

Wonder what pressure was applied to Canada ?