By John McNamer

From MWC News | Original Article

One day soon it appears there will be some fairly honest (redacted) revelations from the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee about the "brutal, and far worse than previously communicated" torture programs put into place by the Central Intelligence Agency at numerous "black sites" worldwide, facilitated by a vast extra-legal extraordinary rendition program.

The CIA also, according to leaked information from the report, provided factually inaccurate information to Bush administration lawyers, who relied on it to concoct the legal theories that underpinned an apparatus of tortuous interrogations and detentions that quickly spread to U.S. military facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Afghanistan and Iraq.

While this seems to be news to those now in power in the United States, the rest of the world has known these crimes have been happening for years, starting with the 2005 Report of the Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, M. Cherif Bassiouni: 

"Coalition forces are engaged in the use of torture, in violation of the Convention Against Torture  and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Torture Convention)... The Independent Expert also expresses serious concerns “about the alleged transfer of some prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan as well as the process of informal rendition, whereby detainees are transferred to third-party countries where they are subjected to abuse and torture in clear violation of  international human rights and humanitarian law."

Officials of the Government of Canada who have been responsible to ensure the legalities of policies which transferred Afghan detainees over to the danger of torture by U.S. personnel (and the Afghan NDS security forces) have been fully aware of this damning information -- and much more -- for most of the past decade. Canadian officials have been provided with substantial documented evidence of wrongdoing and requested to act to remedy the situation. These responsible officials include the Attorney General/Justice Minister; Minister of Defense; Minister of Foreign Affairs; Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Governor General/Commander-in-Chief; Privy Council; Military Police Complaints Commission; Provost Marshall; Canadian Forces National Investigation Service; Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, and opposition party leaders.

All have remained silent, in effect refusing to exercise their various unique responsibilities. In large part due to this dark blanket of repressed silence which somehow covers Ottawa -- and by extension the rest of Canada -- Canadians may not hear much about the upcoming CIA torture report, even though it is bound to be a blockbuster worldwide news story with plenty of implications for many governments and individuals.

Torture has been a dead issue in Canada since the government's successful derailment, with heavy-handed intimidation tactics, of any and all legitimate attempts to investigate. This included threatened prosecution for the release of torture evidence such as the detailed information Canada`s top diplomat in Afghanistan Richard Colvin attempted to bring forward in 2009, and the unilateral axing of a parliamentary inquiry when the Harper government was able to achieve a majority at election.

Colvin had said in remarks to a parliamentary committee that all detainees Canadian soldiers transferred for years to local authorities likely ended up being tortured – even though many were possibly innocent. Colvin also described a startling pattern of indifference and obstruction to his attempts to warn higher ups of what was happening in 2006 and 2007. He went on to say Canada`s "complicity in torture" ultimately thwarted its military aims in the Afghan province of Kandahar. Ambassador Colvin was then prepared to hand over documents in support of his statements, on instructions from the Parliament, but was stopped by threats of prosecution from officials of the Harper government.

That appeared to be the end of the story, but now, as the release of the Senate report on CIA torture looms large in the U.S., Canada`s official hostility and indifference to investigations of possible complicity in war crimes may resurface in a way that is just as large, if not larger.

What's interesting here is that unlike the U.S., Canada is a full signatory to the Rome Statute, which specifies jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and specifically outlaws torture and complicity in torture. But it remains to be seen whether any responsible Canadian government or legal official will have enough legal and moral integrity to look into this immoral and reprehensible business -- and shine a light on Canada's well-hidden "dark side". Or, perhaps, whether the ICC will move to launch a formal investigation -- as has been hinted at by prosecutors in recent years -- should Canada adamantly continue to refuse to act.

As an independent investigative journalist and decorated military veteran who has followed this issue closely since 2005 and unsuccessfully asked government and legal officials many times for accountability, I feel it now must be said right out loud that there has been a breakdown of the legal system in Canada in regards to these very serious matters; a betrayal of trust which allows cover-up and impunity for criminal actions related to torture because no responsible official has been willing to properly investigate, or for the most part even acknowledge, credible information presented detailing such complicity.

Even so, and in spite of Canada's best efforts, the world has taken notice and there have been in recent years very substantial documentations of Canada’s illegal behavior over the past decade. Most notable is the UN Committee Against Torture’s 2012 condemnation of Canada’s “complicity in torture” and flawed detainee handover policies. (My report to UNCAT on Canada's failures to abide by international law was prominent among those considered by the committee in reaching its conclusions.)

Also notable are the naming of Canada as a collaborator in the CIA extraordinary rendition program by the UN Special Rapporteur in 2009; a 2012 UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan report documenting ongoing widespread harsh torture of detainees by Afghan NDS security forces, and The Rendition Project study in 2013, which said Canada was second only to the U.S. in countries visited by aircraft associated with the rendition program.

I have recently submitted these documentations and many others to the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, asking for a formal investigation of Canada’s complicity in torture. An article containing the full request and an index of all 274 accompanying documentations can be found here.