Looks like I’m not the only one who thinks Canada should stand by Bert Tatham in his time of need. BGen Tim Grant, Canada’s top soldier in Afghanistan, seems to think loyalty should mean something as well, and has publicly put his support in writing.
I’ll take that kind of company.
Don’t know what to think of this one. When I first read the story my BS meter started quivering. Perhaps our top cop in Afstan has more knowledge and information than the rest of us do but I’m not quite ready yet to accept Tatham’s explanation.
He’s not “one of ours”. He was working for the U.S. state department.
Unless the Dubai customs guys planted this hash and poppy bulbs on him …Which did not happen by his own admission….. Then he broke the law.
If he’d got busted at Canada Customs he would be just as guilty.
The only difference is that in Dubai he will serve his sentence.
That being said I’d be willing to give the dumbass a break and have him sent home before the Arabs beat the shit out of him too badly!
And by the way Mr.exile … are you saying that he committed some offense by working for a foreign employer? Or just because that employer was The US State department? Last time I checked …. It was perfectly legal for Canadian Citizens to do so! What’s your problem boy?
He got caught with illegal drugs. Game set match. Are you a moral relativist Damian? Who has the proof they were planted? Hard to argue they were planted when Mr. Tatham admits to carrying illegal poppy heads across the border. Since when did ignorance of the law win release Damian? Nice that Tatham has a supporter in Canada’s top soldier in Afganistan, but does that trump Dubai law? Should it trump Dubai law Damian?
For Law and Order Conservatives, you guys are awfully quick to call for leniency and amnesty.
I doubt the guy was trying trying to bring over opium for the purpose of trafficking. But gtting caught with a half-gram of hash? The guy could have at least waited until he got back to B.C.
Exile, explain if you will why Tatham a Canadian citizen working for our one of our allies in a war sanctioned by UN would receive any less assistance from Canada than say Ahmed Said Khadr.
http://www.answers.com/topic/ahmed-said-khadr
I doubt that there was any significant enough amount of opium in those heads. If he spent a year in the pot and poppy fields, he had every opportunity to get stoned every bloody day and not risk being caught in a foreign country. A guy, who decreased North America’s hard drug supplies by a few dozen tons deserves to walk free with half a gram of pot.
Some of you don’t seem familiar with the term, “extenuating circumstances.”
Loyalty is the trait of the soldier, not the politician.
Politicians, and those compromised lock step partisans that blindly follow them, cannot conceive of loyalty as shown by a stoic fighting man willing to die for principle and loyalty….it is a reminder of how debased politics has made the political class so they despise the soldier and the warrior….thus is the craven compromised realm of the political nattering class.
“A guy, who decreased North America’s hard drug supplies by a few dozen tons deserves to walk free ”
Well lets see. The majority of the worlds medical opiates are produced by France. Meanwhile, huge dollars are being spent trying to prevent destitute Afgan farmers from harvesting opiates. Is this a really good idea? No, why not turn it into a profit centre. Lets buy the opium from Afgani’s, supply the entire world with low cost medical opiates, and use the savings to buy off the French opium farmers.
Never in the history of drug eradication has any program been successful. This one won’t be either. Warlords make fortunes in Afganistan, just like the drug cartel’s do in Columbia. Make it legal to grow opium in Afganistan, and guarantee to buy the whole damn crop every year. Even if you destroy the opium after it is harvested, you put the Taliban out of business pronto.
I realise that as a BC’er my take on drugs is considered suspect, but, the crime he committed is not in any way a serious one. 0.6 grams of hash, and a couple of dead opium poppy heads?
Yes, out here he’d have probably not even been arrested, that’s why BC is such a terrible place to live. People are fleeing by the thousands.
With all the crap going on in the ME, and all our efforts to help out, you’d think maybe they could cut this guy a break, and just send him home.
And he deserves at least as much assistance as Omar Khadr.
…Never in the history of drug eradication has any program been successful…
geothermal: He was not tried for that. You are backstabbing the guy. Puke on you, you socialist scum!
” Puke on you, you socialist scum!”
Thats funny. I am a socialist am I. Cut my teeth as a roughneck, have started and sold 8 businesses. Children went to private school “because” of socialism in public schools.
So instead of insulting, why don’t you give me an example of where and when crop eradication has succeeded in stopping the flow of drugs.
Furthermore, how am I “stabbing the man in the back” buy supporting law he clearly broke.
As for the genius how said that a couple of poppy heads contain insignificant amounts of opium, what difference does that make if it is illegal to bring them into Dubai? Second point on the topic, with a little research you can find out amazing things. Here is the recipe from a sight I will save you the work to search for and offer you their advice on getting high on Pods:
“Choose number of pods per person. Between 1 and 3 for new drinkers, 2-5 for experienced, and 5+ for addicts. Too much makes you sick and does not increase the enjoyment.”
It will do no good to try and put Canadian “values” with regards to this lost soul. He broke the law, was tried and convicted of said crime and should do his time. You have to respect their country and laws when you are there. It should also be pointed out that this isn’t one of the flakey countries where you can rot in jail for looking the wrong way.
That being said, I wouldn’t really mind if Foreign Affairs got involved and offered to let the dude serve his sentence in a Canadian Club Fed.
From the previous thread: “I would also add that he regularly briefed and advised Canadian forces brass on the “bad guy” activity in the region.”
We have a word for Canadians who go to other countries to gather information on their nationals and regularly pass it on to the Canadian military. The word is “spy”.
If this aid worker is a spy then how many other Canadian aid workers in Afghanistan are spies? And how does the outing of this particular spy impact their safety?
“Exile, explain if you will why Tatham a Canadian citizen working for our one of our allies in a war sanctioned by UN would receive any less assistance from Canada than say Ahmed Said Khadr.”
It’s a moral judgment, not a legal one. I’d be in favour of giving him about as much assistance as Khadr.
Yes, Andrew, gathering intelligence for a foreign, but UN mandated, military is “spying.” So what? Is he accused of espionage? No, he was convicted of carrying a small amount of hashish and some poppy plants. How can anyone tell for sure what his intentions were? He obviously needs to be interviewed by Canadian consular officials pronto (if that hasn’t already happened). Then we will have some “intelligence” to work with. Hope for his sake this was just very bad judgement from someone who should have known better.
Geothermal, on buying poppy crop. I agree this is the best idea even if it had to be destroyed. The Warlords, and probably the Taliban, would surely put up a fight; so, we would need way more military resources, which the world seems hesistant to provide. The idea is good, though the execution is sketchy at this point.
I put a lot of weight and credibility on the general’s opinion. This needs to be sorted out now.
The majority of the worlds medical opiates are produced by France.
Quite the assertion, given the information I’ve seen, which states that France produces only 20-25% of the world’s total licenced opiates (p.173 of this report: http://www.senliscouncil.net/modules/publications/008_publication/licensed_opium_cultivation_and_production_exec_summ/licensed_opium_cultivation_worldwide), and that from less than one tenth of the world’s legal hectares under cultivation (p.170 of the same report, showing approx. 10,000 hectares in France farmed for poppies).
Of course, that’s a sidebar to the real issue, which seems to be that some people don’t see any value in his contribution to the Afghan mission, and are rather more hung up on the letter of the law than the spirit of it.
Dubai is completely within its rights to throw the book at Mr. Tatham. Just as the Government of Canada is perfectly within its rights to lobby for clemency given the context of the infraction. I obviously favour the latter.
There are plenty of socialist scum who bought and sold dozens of companies and whose kids went to Oxford.
Aaron: “There are plenty of socialist scum who bought and sold dozens of companies and whose kids went to Oxford.”
Whom did you have in mind? (Not that this has any bearing at all on the topic under discussion.)
Fair enough Damian on Frances production. I was wrong to say “majority”. Interesting that they produce 20-25% with only 10% of legal hectares under production.
If anyone cares, other countries who produce legally are India, Turkey, Tasmania, Australia, Japan, UK.
Fair enough also to favor clemency. I just don’t. Nor do I see the value in thrashing poor farmers livelihood. Tatham is not guilty of altering farmers livelihood though, nor do I favor the Dubia courts because of his profession.
Thanks for setting me straight on legal production.
Have to agree with geothermal. Buying the crop,then producing legal opiates from it would be great. But then as mentioned,the Taliban would fight this tooth and nail,to the death,which would require more troops. Why have very few governments legalized even “recreational” use of “soft”drugs? Because that would not get them votes. Plus,they would lose the “protect the poor down-trodden addict/homeless” industry upon which socialist countries,like Canuckistan/USA thrive upon. Put 10,000 pushers out of a job,and you lose Billions in funding,and put 100,000 bureacrats out of a job. Plus cops might have to start walking the beat for jay-walkers again,instead of picking up the remains of some innocent killed in a gang war over drugs. No MSM sound bites in jaywalkers!
Very weird responses, has to be Ted et al trolling.
0.6 grams is a really, insanely small amount of drugs. The size of pocket lint in the corner of the pocket of your jeans.
The flower heads were dried and have no drug content or value. 0. So all you supposed hard asses don’t have a clue.
I do love theswe people that are wanting to hang out one of our own out to dry, while supporting murderers and traitors. LOVELY.
to Hey:
exactly.
heres a wee experiment for all you bust-his-ass-hang-him-high types.
measure out 0.6 grams of ANYTHING.
now, this man destroyed TONNES of the stuff.
methinks perhaps he desrves intervention by canukistan gubbamint at the highest level?
jeezuz MURPHY people do you honestly believe he would try to get such a whiff, a spec, a trace of the stuff out on his own person?
you can all go fukyerself for that kind of hardassed view.
This guy did not ‘personnally’ ‘destroy TONNES of the stuff.’
Just because the RCMP arrest TONNES of people does not mean they get a pass because they commit a crime.
Wow, for a few minutes there I thought I was on Rabble.ca. Lighten up people.
The poppy heads were drained and dried. Apparently the half gram of hash was in the seam of his pants (cuff??). He was in transit home to Canada from a war zone where he provided intelligence to Canadian troops.
In my books that makes him one of our guys and the folks at External should get onto this post haste.
PERHAPS THESE STATEMENTS ARE WHY HE WAS ARRESTED AND CONVICTED!
“This assisted us in several areas, including where operations were being conducted so as not to interfere with our security, development or governance activities.”
Brig.-Gen. Grant says Mr. Tatham, an expert in satellite-imagery interpretation, even “detailed cartographical products,” which Canadian Forces used in Afghanistan and Canada.
“0.6 grams is a really, insanely small amount of drugs. The size of pocket lint in the corner of the pocket of your jeans.”
In the 1970’s, a gram of hash was enough to last a committed daily hash smoker a week. Ten people can get very stoned on .5 of a gram.
“measure out 0.6 grams of ANYTHING.
now, this man destroyed TONNES of the stuff.”
All well and good to want him to be saved by the Canadian government, yet its always good to make sure you get your facts straight before making an appeal. He destroyed opium for a living, not hash. Apart from opium in his rug, he got caught with hash and I understand he failed a urine test for the same substance. He burned opium for the US government. He must have burned hash for himself unless Ben Johnson put it in his urine.
“I do love the people that are wanting to hang out one of our own out to dry, while supporting murderers and traitors”
Sigh.
“The flower heads were dried and have no drug content or value”
Use google or read comments in the thread above and you will find out you are dead wrong.
It’s the same as if an adviser on eradication of illegal gun manufacture was found with a dummy round in the corner of his duffel bag and was jailed for that. With the conservatives like geothermal we don’t need communists.