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Posts Tagged ‘Afghanistan’

Something that I’ve tended to think about the current tenure of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is that although his government has pushed through (or tried to push through) much legislation that I personally disagree with (cuts to the CBC, cuts to arts funding, “tough on crime” legislation), by and large the government has been competent (there have been exceptions to this though too.) Being one who has never had much love for the media, Harper had made no public comments on his recent prorogation of the Canadian parliament until he recently deigned to sit down with the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge for an interview:

At 5:24 into the piece, Mansbridge asks the PM about his decision to prorogue the current parliamentary session; in a very casual manner, and apparently doing his best to dissuade me of my belief in his government’s competency, Harper says “coming off an extraordinary year [2009][...]we want to take some time to recalibrate the government’s agenda, both on the economy and on some other matters.” What kind of government is not capable of evaluating what you’ve done in the past, realign goals for the future and govern at the same time? Not one worthy of governing in my opinion. Unfortunately this video clip cuts off without showing Harper’s comment that since the controversy about the transfer of Afghan detainee’s isn’t on Canadian’s radar at large it’s not something that his government is going to be concerned with. To see that as well as Mansbridge’s logical followup question “Just because it’s not an issue in polls, does that not make it important?” you can view the full clip here.

Something I find rather interesting is to compare our PM’s assertion that the government needs two months to ‘recalibrate’ and that they are focused on the economy, not silly little things like the rule of law and how we adhere to international treaties, with the constant criticism that President Obama faces in the US that he is not ‘focused’ enough for his decision to deal with the terrible legacies Bush left in the GWOT, healthcare, the economy, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan/Pakistan and whatever other issues an effective executive needs to deal with. The blogosphere in the States makes the easy analogy that one can walk and chew gum at the same time to illustrate that good governments needs to be multifaceted, as we are a multifaceted society. It’s a shame our PM either feels that is not the case, or crassly makes that case to defend his current politicking.

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This last week of the year (and decade) has been very enjoyable and relaxing for myself as I’ve just returned home from a visit to my families house in Northwestern Ontario but it appears that it was not the ideal week to check out of blogging. Alot of pretty big news stories these past few days have been unfolding (or continuing to unfold.) In Iran the first week’s anniversary of the death of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri coincided with the Day of Ashura and we saw people from all walks of life (not just the priviledged elite of Tehran) come out and protest what is in essence a military junta leading the country. Closer to home the Prime Minister (ever the tactician) has prorogued parliament for the second year in a row. And overseas, deadly attacks continued apace as yesterday brought the deaths of 4 Canadian soldiers and a Canadian journalist, as well as the deaths of at least 7 CIA agents in Afghanistan. If only there was some sort of online, published tool that would be ideally suited to unpacking all of this news. Glory, glory, Halleluja there is and it’s called a ‘blog’. I just happen to have one of those. How convenient.

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Richard Colvin Testifying Before a Commons Committee

Stephen Harper really came into power about five years later than what would have been optimal for him. So many of the decisions and maneuvers he makes seem to mirror the petty and weak actions of the horrible administration of George W. Bush. Earlier this week it was the revelation by the CBC that the Conservative government is looking at reducing the emissions goals for the oil and gas industries that made Mr. Harper appear like Mr. Bush. Ongoing as well is the debate over the transfer of Afghan detainees. The government’s response so far is one that seems more in line with the Bush approach to foreign policy than the incremental positive steps that President Obama has started to push forward on.

It is worth taking a moment to pause and remember what is actually at issue here. No claims are being made that Canadian soldiers tortured detainees.

…they were beaten, whipped, frozen and starved once they were transferred from Canadian military custody to Afghan security forces. [emphasis mine]

The question at hand is whether we continued to transfer prisoners to the Afghans after learning that they were torturing the prisoners we transferred. It is important to remember that prior to 2005 we transferred prisoners to the US. This process was stopped because of concerns that the US was not fulfilling their treaty obligations under the Geneva Convention. If we are knowingly transferred prisoners to an entity that then tortures said prisoners, we have also run afoul of our treaty obligations.

I would consider a Canadian diplomat in Afghanistan raising concerns about prisoner abuse to be a credible voice. Richard Colvin, just such a diplomat claims he did as much from 2006 to 2007. When reports began to come out in 2007 from monitoring agencies like the Red Cross that detainee abuse was indeed being perpetrated by Afghan security forces, the Canadian government quickly renogtiated a new transfer agreement with Afghan authorities that allowed Canadian access to the prisons the detainees would be transfered to. On November 18th, appearing before a Commons Committee, Colvin stated that:

All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent.

The CBC news story from that day also goes on to say:

Colvin said they began informing the Canadian Forces and Foreign Affairs officials about the detainee situation in 2006 with verbal and written reports.

He said the warnings were at first mostly ignored, but by April 2007, they were receiving written messages from government officials that in the future not to put things on paper, but instead use the telephone.

Colvin mentioned David Mulroney, a deputy minister who is now the ambassador to China, as one of the officials who didn’t want to hear the allegations.

Once again it should be pointed out that no one is arguing Canadian Forces tortured detainees. What is claimed howerver, is that it was known that detainees were being tortured after their transfer to Afghan Forces, that this fact was brought to the attention of military and government officials who in turn ignored this information and detainee transfers continued. Were this to be the case, Canada would be in violation of it’s treaty obligations.

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For far too long, Canada has been content to let her international image and reputation warmly bask in the residual glow of glories and

Van Doo's Paratroopers in Part Said, 1956

good works long gone past. However, our squeaky clean image is quickly diminishing in the worlds eyes.

Post World War Two, this countries most prominent moment on the world stage arguably came during the Suez Canal Crisis. For his leading in role in organizing the first UN Emergency Force that was then deployed to Egypt, as well as spearheading negotiations amongst the disputing parties, Lester Pearson, then the Minister of External Affairs and later to be Prime Minister, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. When the prize was announced, the selection committee stated that Pearson had been responsible for “saving the world.”  Since that time, Lester Pearson has been considered the father of the modern day idea of peacekeeping, and peacekeeping has been a central pillar of ‘Canadianess.’

As the leader of a minority government from 1963-1967, Pearson also oversaw several other key developments in how Canada is perceived, both by herself and the world. The adoption of universal health care, an open immigration system and the current Canadian flag were all realized during Pearson’s tenure as Prime Minister. Pearson’s work has also helped foster the image of Canada as a helping, caring nation. The still as of yet unrealized goal of developed nations contributing 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) towards  official development assistance (ODA) was born of out of a commission that Pearson headed for the World Bank in 1969. Tying these accomplishments together presents a rather typical viewpoint of Canada; a nation of peacekeepers that provide the basics of healthcare to all their citzens. A country that provides high levels of aid to the world, works for the betterment of the planet and also actively encourages immigration into it’s expansive borders,  where new citizens are charged with both assimilating to the tenets of a liberal democracy, while also retaining elements of the culture from ones homeland. Unite all the people who hold those ideals under the red maple leaf and you get: Canadians. These giant progressive leaps forward have served as the foundation for Canada’s stellar international reputation for decades.

Canada’s claim as a peacekeeping nation has been severely undercut by the realities of how many boots we have we have on the ground that are available for peacekeeping missions. As of October 2009, Canada ranked 56th amongst nations with 179 military and police personnel attached to peacekeeping missions. Those numbers put us just ahead of Cote d’Ivore, Cameroon and Zimbabwe. Of course Canada’s contributions to the NATO mission in Afghanistan have severely limited the numbers of bodies that could be made available to peacekeeping missions, but our contributions have been on the decline well before the start of the quagmire in Afghanistan.

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