There has been an uproar amongst some in Canada, instigated and fuelled by the Globe and Mail, about abuse and torture of detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by the Candian Forces. Our putative complicity in the commission of war crimes has effectively been raised by opposition politicians, more here.
But the Afghans are poor and not a rising global power. Now Indian police and security forces are commonly known to abuse, torture and even murder prisoners. See the second paragraph of the 2009 human rights report on India by the US State Department (and remember this, of which much has been made, for, er, context: ‘”Canadian officials in the field were not alone in warning Ottawa of the substantial risk of torture in Afghan prisons,” Colvin added, citing reports by the U.S. State Department…’).
Canadian immigration officials stationed in India have taken such reports into account in preventing certain Indian officials from coming to Canada. So what does our government do? It repudiates its own officials and apologizes to the Indians–with the self-righteous Globeites cheering on. Including Graeme Smith, co-author of the story below and erstwhile scourge of horrors in Afghanistan. Go flipping figure the paper’s hypocrisy. The story:
Indian visa uproar prompts Canada to launch immigration-policy review
Kenney apologizes, saying Canadian officials should never have disparaged India’s institutions
Update thought: When is Mr Smith going to interview some Indians about how they were treated as prisoners (see second link at start of post)?
