Real Afghanistan

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/lohdi.php?articleid=12074

I'm bad. Re: The strange disappearance of the Manley inquiry...

I posted this on November 20, and I really coudn't find the public website, but it existed and was apparently well used.

http://www.independent-panel-independant.ca/submissions-eng.html

I really couldn't find it, though I did search diligently, but other people found it so my apologies for saying the website had disappeared without trace.

I sent my contribution by alternative means.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kitson.php?articleid=12034

Nov 20, 2007

About a month ago, the Prime Minister appointed John Manley to head an inquiry into policy alternatives in Afghanistan.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0719-e.pdf

There was considerable publicity given to the setting up of a website for public submissions....

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/10/27/afghanistan-manley.html

...and then...nothing. Off the map, under the radar.

Happy Birthday ATI A 2006-01106

The outlook isn't good, but one way or another, I'm counting on the Federal Court.

Waiting for Marleau......

Thursday December 6

Spoke to the lovely Vivian several days ago. The "process" is unfolding, but she can't be more specific than that. I should be grateful that there is a process I know, I'm just glad I'm not relying on it to get out of a cage in Syria.

Monday, November 19

It's 11 months from my original Access to Information Act request. Vivian, in the Office of the Information Commissioner, has met DND person, and seen the information that was denied on September 17, 2007, and as I understand her, is also mystified as to why the DND would send me 73 pages of nothing.

Meanwhile, we learn from the Globe and Mail on Friday November 16 that a list of prisoners taken by Canadians was provided to the Afghan National Police and/or Army on transfer, so we have some evidence that DND records actually exist.

Further, the Globe published a request for special boots for Canadian prison inspectors to use in tours of Afghan prisons, because of the risk of walking through blood and fecal material. This is almost difficult to believe.


Thursday, November 8

Spoke to Vivian (it might be Vivien) Lanthier, my investigator at the Office of the Information Commissioner, who sounds fabulously efficient. Meeting arranged at DND to review my file November 14. We're getting traction.


Friday, November 2

Yay! I have an investigator for my appeal, Vivian Lanthier. Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail has published an editorial concerning the restriction of access to information, via the Access to Information Act, much championed by Stephen Harper when he was in Opposition. Apparently the Office of the Privy Council (housing the Prime Minister's Gophers) has become involved in "vetting" ATI requests. This may explain 10 months delay for 73 pages of nothing.

Grinchmas 2007

On December 14, this Access to Information request will be one year old. We plan to celebrate.

2007 FC 1147 -- good news for the rule of law

On November 5, 2007 (with admirable timing, preceding November 11), The Honourable Madam Justice Mactavish ruled in favour of Amnesty International and the Britsh Columbia Civil Liberties Association ("Applicants") and against the Canadian government, in the forms of the Chief of the Defence Staff, the Minister of National Defence, and the Attorney General of Canada ('Respondents"). The government had sought to strike an application for judicial review with respect to "actions or potential actions " of the Canadian Forces deployed in the Islamic Republic of Aghanistan, particularly with regard to prisoners taken by Canadian amed forces.

The details are here.

The government's arguments seemed frivolous. I don't understand why the case is proceeding on the basis of the Canadian Charter, rather than International Humanitarian Law, but the good news is that the review is in fact proceeding.

November 11, 2007

My grandfather, Arthur Earl Kitson, survived about 3 years in the trenches in World War I, serving with the Canadian Signal Corps. When the Armistice was declared, he spend a further 24 hours in a shell hole, refusing to come out, on the grounds that he had survived the war up until then, and he didn't want to get killed by some lunatic when the war was over. My grandfather was a sane man. I'm quite sure he would have regarded Canada's Afghan involvement as lunacy.

It's time to ask the hard and obvious questions.

1. What, exactly, is Canada doing in Afghanistan?

2. What is the legal justification for NATO's presence in Afghanistan?

3. What, exactly, is NATO's plan?

4. Who is paying for NATO's plan?