A senior CSIS official informed a parliamentary committee this week that the average Canadian would not object to the use of intelligence potentially obtained by torture if it meant saving Canadian lives.
Canadian law recognizes that a confession made under the utterly intolerable conditions of torture is unreliable. Torture is oppressive, inhumane and violates Canada's obligations under its international treaty obligations.
The suggestion by the CSIS official that in a dire situation the practice of torture may be acceptable is based on an entirely flawed premise.
As Chief Justice McLachlin noted in the Symons Lecture she delivered in 2008, "[t]hose who argue in favour of permitting the use of torture in extreme circumstances often cast the argument in very stark terms -- would you torture a person to prevent a city being destroyed by a nuclear attack? But examples such as this pose an artificial dilemma. The reality is that decisions to use torture are typically made in much more mundane circumstances. And history has shown that use of physically or mentally abusive methods of interrogation may produce unreliable information and are subject to overreach and abuse. This is the real face of torture, and why democratic societies generally do not condone it."
U.S. rejects Canada's diplomatic overture to suppress Khadr's interrogation by CSIS agents
In rejecting Canada's request, the decision was delegated to the military judge presiding at Omar Khadr's war crimes trial. The curt written response added that relevant safeguards were in place including "the exclusion of all statements obtained by torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment."
As described in a Globe editorial (May 7), the evidence called at Khadr's pre-trial hearing has demonstrated that the confessions of the 15-year-old detainee were taken in an atmosphere of "fear, pain and rightlessness" and can hardly be trustworthy.
In accord with Canadian law, Khadr's statements could never be proven to be made freely and voluntarily. The mere fact that the admissibility of Khadr's statements remains a live and uncertain issue attests to the inherent injustice of the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay.
Steve Nash speaks out instead of playing it safe
The state of Arizona has adopted a new law creating an odious policy of racial profiling. The law requires local police to check the legal status of suspected undocumented immigrants.
The Phoenix Suns, including their Canadian captain, Steve Nash, displayed their support for the Latin American community targeted by the new law by wearing "Los Suns" jerseys during a recent playoff game. Nash stated on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" that, "I think this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties. I think it opens up the potential for racial profiling… racism. I think it's a bad precedent to set for our young people. I think it represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world…"
Harper government may revive minimum pot sentences
The Tory government is set to reintroduce a drug bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences of people convicted of growing small numbers of marijuana plants.
Mandatory minimum sentences have become the government's favourite flavour food to appease the Canadian public's appetite for tough law and order measures. Their lack of proven viability, their affront to the independence of judges, their bursting impact on the courts and prisons is all ignored in the spirit of political expediency.
As lawyer Enzo Rondinelli notes, "studies have consistently shown that minimum mandatory jail terms do not reduce crime. Our American counterparts have already gone down this road a few years ago. Their efforts have only led to exorbitant prison costs and no apparent success in the ‘drug war'. In fact, many states have repealed their mandatory minimum sentences. There is nothing to suggest that Canada will have a different experience."
President Obama to make Supreme Court decision this week
The expert prognosticators are claiming that the president will nominate Solicitor General Elena Kagan early this week to replace the outgoing justice, Justice John Paul Stevens. With Kagan's appointment, seven of the 18 justices on Canada's and America's highest courts will be women.
Conrad Black's appeal ruling days away
The New York Times (May 6) suggested that the Supreme Court could strike down the law that was used to convict Conrad Black of his three fraud charges as early as this month. The Times reported that the former Senate leader of New York, Joseph Bruno, was sentenced to two years in prison on federal corruption charges, but "underscoring the serious doubts surrounding the constitutionality of the law used to convict him, Mr. Bruno was allowed to remain free until the Supreme Court rules on the [honest services fraud] statute."
The Wall Street Journal reported (May 5) that Solicitor General Kagan told a legal conference that the Black appeal along with two related appeals are being closely monitored by the Justice Department. According to the Journal, Kagan observed "that the Justice Department's approach to a wide range of criminal prosecutions hung on forthcoming Supreme Court rulings on appeals by Conrad Black and Jeffrey Skilling, former high-flying executives convicted of 'honest services' fraud."
As the finish line is in sight for Conrad Black's legal odyssey, the Law Society will begin hearing opening statements this week in Toronto into alleged conflict of interest allegations of two lawyers from Torys, Beth DeMerchant and Darren Sukonik, in relation to the sale of Canadian newspaper assets of Hollinger International.
