Sunday, July 27, 2008

Gitmo north


The issue involved in Omar Khadr’s incarceration at US military prison Gitmo, isn’t whether he is guilty or not, the issue is whether he will be given a fair trial in accordance with Canadian standards of justice.

Without due process, justice is just another word in the English language.

One need only learn that the Gitmo military version of justice, involves the accused not having the opportunity to see, and therefore challenge, the evidence that is being used against him.

It’s no wonder that Stephen Harper is in favour of this form of justice, as he has used it to good effect in the matter involving income trusts.

Harper has accused income trusts as being responsible for causing tax leakage. Jim Flaherty even tries to cast the matter into military type terms by saying that income trusts represented “ a clear and present danger to fairness in the Canadian tax system.”

On this basis he claims: “I thought we had to act.”

So where’s the proof of tax leakage and the calamitous “clear and present dange”r that it represented? After all the allegation of alleged tax leakage is an infinitely provable construct or it is not.

Again Flaherty resorts to military type language to defend the release of 18 pages of blacked documents as his “proof” of tax leakage. He claims that it was a matter of national security to have disclosed this information.

Yeah, right.

So there you have it. Law abiding tax paying Canadians have experience a $35 billion loss in their lifetime savings based and the loss of an essential investment choice, on evidence they never get to see.

Welcome to Gitmo North.

Complacent Canadians, especially those in the press, should be very careful of what they have wished upon themselves in their blind acceptance of allegations by Stephen Harper as being anything remotely similar to the truth.

3 comments:

Dr Mike said...

Whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty.

In the case of Omar Khadar , he is assumed guilty until he proves his innocence & that is only if they will allow certain evidence to be heard--also , certain witnesses have changed their testimony to fit a guilty verdict.

Sounds eerily familiar to the income trust debacle.

In this case the gov`t has cast trusts & their investors in a poor light--the trusts as ponzi schemes & the investors as greedy old farts that needed a fleecing.

As with Khadar , no evidence has been presented for either assumption--it is up to the trusts to disprove the allegations of tax leakage--it is up to the investors to prove that they are just ordinary citizens trying to make a buck to get by the best way they can.

The whole thing is ridiculous.

The gov`t had proclaimed that trusts & the people that invested in them to be "numero uno" prior to the election--after the election we were both the scourge of the Canadian fabric.

Quite a fall from grace.

Convicted with no evidence ---probably in much the same way that Omar Khadar will see.

Gitmo North is not just a notion , it is a reality.

Dr Mike Popovich

Anonymous said...

Stephen Joseph Harper has a talent for aligning hate in support of his policies or decisions.

I have qualms about the Khadr family. Don't come to Canada, if you're not prepared to leave the old world fight behind. Come to Canada if you want peace, order and good government... Oops, make that "peace and order." Still Omar was 15 when "the crime happenned", and now he's 22, and 7 seven years to get to trial violates his right to a fair trial. His case would be thrown out in Canada for that reason only.

I expect that there will be sh*t to pay when the stink of the Harper Party has cleared the offices in Ottawa. There are so many things that cry out for investigation. Chretien wimped on going after Mulroney; hopefully Dion will be as merciless... Do unto others as they have done...

kenchapman said...

Gitmo North is an interesting framing of Harper's lack of concern for a Canadian citizen under the care of the American state.

The American Executive Branch is in a highly agitated and angst ridden state over terrorism. They have lied and broken their own laws - repeatedly.

This fear is not an excuse for Khadr's detention nor his treatment...nor for the same lack of respect for the rule of law in the Mahar Arar case for that matter.

Steve Harper lacks the personal character qualities to be the leader of a modern democracy like Canada. He has to go.

Here is one of my takes on the Khadr case. http://ken-chapman.blogspot.com/2008/07/dallier-takes-on-harper-over-khadrs.html