Maybe Canada just wants the U.S. to know how it feels to be on one of the less desirable lists.
But is the implication in the statement in the title – that the US may torture or abuse prisoners – true or false? And if it’s true…
That’s what I started to think about after I read this New York Times’ article, “Canadian Manual has U.S. on Torture List.”
A training manual for Canadian diplomats lists the United States among countries that potentially torture or abuse prisoners.
The manual is an internal document of the Department of Foreign Affairs. A spokesman for the foreign minister confirmed the contents of the manual after news reports about it circulated on Thursday.
[snip]
The manual, in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, is used for training diplomats in how to protect Canadians detained by foreign governments from torture and how to handle suspicions that inmates are abused.
Any guesses on how long it will be before the PowerPoint slides make it onto the Internet?
According to the Times, other countries on the list include Israel, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran and China. Strange bedfellows.
So – should we or shouldn’t we be on such a list? Well, according to this BBC report, the document includes, “forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation and the blindfolding of prisoners under the ‘definition of torture.'”
While I can chide and say that, as an overachieving multi-tasker, I don’t see isolation as torture for me, in the context of how one country treats its POWs? I’m sure we’re not talking the same kind of isolation offered or achieved.
Where do we draw the line? Are we allowed to be hypocrites in the name of security?
Here’s more context as to why the Canadian Foreign Ministry felt compelled to produce the manual and training in the first place.