Gar Pardy wrote an op-ed in the Ottawa Citizen today about former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci and the enduring so-called “Afghan Detainee Affair” that has captivated the Ottawa press corp like a cheerleader in a tight sweater vest. Mr.Pardy indicates that after failing to kill the issue by discrediting Richard Colvin and proroguing Parliament, the government hired Justice Iacobucci in another attempt to hide the evidence.
After a lengthy preamble, Mr.Pardy gets down to the meat and potatoes:
Over the past several months, the executive arm of government has demonstrated that it is determined to prevent Canadians from having detailed information on whether or not Canada is in default of fundamental international obligations as detailed in the Geneva Conventions on War and the Convention Against Torture. As these conventions find full reflection in the Canadian Criminal Code, the matter strikes at the enforcement of Canadian law as well.
Well, you can bang your head against the wall all day if you like, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the “detailed information” being sought on the treatment of Afghan detainees mainly pertain to events which occurred before 2007. Mr.Pardy says that we need to confirm that Canada has been able to prevent, with 100% accuracy, any torture of detainees who may have passed through the hands of Canadian soldiers.
How selective the moral outrage of this former diplomat. To decide to be concerned about the mistreatment of suspected insurgents in a country where human mistreatment is the status quo, is called cherrypicking. The argument that a battle against an immoral enemy like the Taliban is invalidated by the complicity of Canada in turning over insurgents who may have been tortured, is impervious to logic. The only comparison I can come up with is to imagine Canada deciding to opt out of rescuing Jews from Nazi gas chambers in World War Two, because captured German soldiers were roughed up in custody.
Let’s face it. Most of the criticism of the government on this file is politically motivated. Mr.Pardy served as head of the Canadian Consular Service from 1992 to 2003, all but one of those years falling under a Liberal government. His radio silence on Afghanistan is notable until about 2009, when he helped secure the signatures of more than 100 former Canadian diplomats condemning the way the government has treated diplomat Richard Colvin. This sounds a lot like a former diplomat protecting “his own”.
Old School LPC types and the old hands of the legacy Canadian MSM desperately want to reverse the election without having to go through the Canadian people. The longer the puck is ragged, the more this becomes inside baseball about what branch of government has what power to compel another branch of government..zzzz. The Canadian people have moved on: the mission is coming to an end, there probably is a “good people can agree to disagree” debate about continuing/not continuing the Afghan mission that we WON’T have because that makes it harder to blame one side or the other.
Like all diplomats Mr. Pardy detests straight talk or action. Much better yo talk, consult, debate, and talk some more. They hate the idea that the Conservatives won’t straddle the fence on Israel, China, and any number of international issues. If you never make a decision you can never be wrong and you can sit in the bush and throw stones at someone who has the guts to say black is black and white is white.
The most telling bit of Mr Pardy’s piece is his writing this: “…when countries descend into the madness of war…” In other words, a purely peacenik position. As a friend of mine puts it, the fellow “has gone over to the dark side.”
Mark
Ottawa