After reading his article about the role of our out-of-control secret police in Abousfian Abdelrazik’s six-year exile, I guess I know how Globe & Mail journo Paul Koring spent his summer vacation.
CSIS, as it turns out, played a major role in the exile, trying to buy time for the CIA to render Abdelrazik to Gitmo for torture interrogation.
Let no one imagine for one minute that the government was not aware of this: and in fairness remember that the Martin Liberals passed the torch to the Conservatives in the matter.
It’s been steadily downhill ever since. “Anti-terrorism” legislation is in the offing to give police more powers over citizens. The government is stoutly defending its conduct in the Abdelrazik affair, and CSIS is surreptitiously trying to spike his chances of being removed from the UN’s “no-fly” list. In an increasingly polarized Canada, Harper has made it safe for ugliness of all kinds to emerge.
For a small sample of the latter, check out the racist and illiterate comments here. This is Stephen Harper’s natural constituency, in all of its unrestrained glory.
May decency, once a pan-Canadian value, survive the next five years.