Canada's War Crimes Section Reviews Lawyers’ Call to Prosecute Cheney for Torture While Activists Protest When Cheney Speaks @ Toronto Global Forum on Halloween

(Toronto) Torture and war crimes suspect Dick Cheney is scheduled as a keynote speaker at the October 31st luncheon of the Toronto Global Forum, hosted by the International Forum of the Americas. Civil society groups will protest beginning at 11:00 am on Halloween, Oct. 31 outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

The Facebook page for the protest can be viewed here. The demonstration is sponsored and/or endorsed by the following organizations: Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, Canadian Peace Alliance, War Resisters Support Campaign, Lawyers Against the War, War CriminalsWatch / World Can't Wait and CODEPINK.

"Former Vice President Cheney led the Bush administration into a war based on lies which destroyed Iraq, directing a far-flung regime of torture, rendition and detention he referred to as 'the dark side.' He should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of the conventions against torture," stated Debra Sweet, director of World Can’t Wait.

David Swanson, author of War is a Lie and adviser to War Criminals Watch noted that, “When Cheney announced an event here in Charlottesville VA we asked the local police to arrest him, and he immediately canceled the event. But he hasn't been arrested, despite war, torture, threats of war, fraud, and retribution against whistleblowers, among other egregious offenses.”

Meanwhile, attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild (U.S.), International Association of Democratic Lawyers, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (Germany), Brussells Tribunal (Belgium), International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq (Iraq, Egypt, Spain), Lawyers Against the War (Canada) and Rights International Spain (Spain) continue to urge Canada to either bar Dick Cheney from Canada – as a person credibly accused of torture – or to arrest and prosecute him on arrival, as required by the Convention against Torture. Canada’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Section is reviewing the request – the reply from this division of the Department of Justice can be read here.