April 29, 2003

FALSE ALARM No dice, Steven

FALSE ALARM

No dice, Steven and Glenn. It wasn't anthrax.

Posted by BruceR at 09:47 PM

I'M SORRY, THAT'S JUST UNACCEPTABLE

I'M SORRY, THAT'S JUST UNACCEPTABLE

"The whole thing is incredible," [MP Marlene Catterall] said. "We were astounded that the U.S. deported him. But now that he's in Syria, there's not much we can do for him."
--The Globe and Mail, on the continued, and likely to be long and painful imprisonment of Canadian citizen Maher Arar in Syria.

This is bull. I'm sorry, but are we really that pasty-faced as a country? If freaking Syria is holding a Canadian citizen against his will, and our government truly believes him to be innocent and wrongly imprisoned, then our government should be doing everything in its freaking power to make Syrians as uncomfortable as we can until he's released. Trade embargos, travel bans, expelling diplomats, withdrawing foreign aid, the whole nine yards. Even our puny economic throwweight can hurt them more than they can possibly hurt us. Our citizenship should mean something, at least to our own government. Some days I think this country would be a great place if all its leaders were summarily drowned and we just started over with a new set with at least enough self-respect to snarl a little when laughed at by these autocratic jail-states. Ask Maher Arar, if he lives, how much he values being Canadian now. Ask Bill Sampson.

Posted by BruceR at 01:48 PM