EMBASSY
The government has recently taken a very public position that Canada should not be a safe haven for alleged torturers and war criminals. To open its doors yet again to Mr. Bush sets a disturbing double standard.
By Matt Eisenbrandt , Katherine Gallagher
Published Oct 20, 2011 7:34 PM
On Oct. 20, survivors who were tortured in US custody under the administration of former US president George W. Bush filed criminal charges against him in Surrey, BC where he came to speak at a business forum.
Under Canadian law, the government has both the right and the obligation to hold a torturer on its soil accountable. If the government were following its own laws, it would have supported the survivors by issuing an arrest warrant upon Mr. Bush’s arrival in Canada.
The survivors’ action comes on the heels of last month’s joint submission against Mr. Bush by the Canadian Centre for International Justice and the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights. The human rights organizations called on Canada’s attorney general to investigate Mr. Bush on torture charges in anticipation of his arrival in Surrey, and the groups provided the legal and factual basis for initiating a criminal investigation.
There was nothing but resounding silence from the attorney general.
This is the second time in less than a year that Mr. Bush has faced the possibility of a criminal prosecution outside the United States for his administration’s well-documented torture program.
In February, survivors were prepared to file complaints against Mr. Bush in Switzerland before he cancelled his trip at the last minute.
The 69-page “draft indictment” and 4,000 pages of evidence presented by the Canadian Centre for International Justice and the Center for Constitutional Rights are substantial. They detail the multi-faceted torture program, which included holding detainees in secret CIA sites around the globe, extraordinary rendition, and the torture of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Most of the factual record is composed of US government documents and Mr. Bush’s own admissions about his authorization of waterboarding and other forms of torture that he and his administration euphemistically called “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
Among the documents is a 2007 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross that described the “techniques” employed by the Bush administration. In addition to water-boarding, they included prolonged stress while detainees were forced to stand with their arms shackled above their heads; using collars to bang detainees’ heads and bodies against a wall; beating; kicking; confinement in boxes; forced nudity for periods ranging from several weeks to several months; sleep deprivation through use of forced stress positions, cold water and loud noise; exposure to cold temperatures; prolonged shackling and threats of ill-treatment to detainees’ families.
Mr. Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney, who both ventured freely to Canada in September, continue to hide behind the excuse that their administration’s lawyers advised them that those acts did not constitute torture. Credible human rights experts have overwhelmingly concluded otherwise.
In addition to our organizational calls for investigation and prosecution, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also demanded that the Canadian government pursue charges against Mr. Bush.
The United States has refused to prosecute Mr. Bush or other top officials, so other countries must uphold their own legal obligations to act.
Canada has ratified the Convention Against Torture and incorporated it into its domestic legislation. Under the global treaty, Canada has the obligation to prosecute a torture suspect present in Canada unless another country seeks the suspect’s extradition to stand trial elsewhere. This is not a matter of discretion. When Mr. Bush is present in Canada, he must be extradited or prosecuted.
The Criminal Code of Canada gives the government the power to prosecute.
Even when the torture occurred overseas, if the victim is a citizen of Canada or the torture suspect is physically present in this country, the code gives jurisdiction for the case to be heard here.
Ultimately, Canada’s silence on this issue will itself be judged as politics trumping law.
The government has recently taken a very public position that Canada should not be a safe haven for alleged torturers and war criminals. To open its doors yet again to Mr. Bush sets a disturbing double standard.
Faced with the government’s inaction in September and silence in response to the draft indictment, torture survivors have made their own demand for legal action. One way or another Mr. Bush must face justice for torture.
Matt Eisenbrandt is legal co-ordinator for the Canadian Centre for International Justice and Katherine Gallagher is senior staff attorney for the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
http://www.embassymag.ca/dailyupdate/view/140
