Canada Protests Barbaric U.S. Treatment of Canadian Citizen -- Michael

Thank God we have Canada to help keep us from being entirely uncivilized.

16 minutes ago

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will formally protest to the United States over the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria by U.S. agents, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told President Bush on Friday.

Software engineer Maher Arar was arrested in New York in September 2002 and was sent to Syria, where he says he was repeatedly tortured. He was released a year later.

Sometimes I feel ashamed to be an American. That poor helpless man was tortured because of us.

I keep wondering, did the Syrians torture him because he was a suspected terrorist, or because he was a software engineer?

What's that you say?

An official inquiry into the affair put much of the blame on Canadian police, who wrongly told U.S. border agents that Arar was an Islamic extremist. But inquiry head Dennis O'Connor also urged Ottawa to formally protest to both Syria and the United States over the way they had treated Arar.

Wait a frickin' minute. Canada is protesting because they screwed up and . . . and . . . and . . .

What? We weren't nice enough to the guy they said was an extremist? We committed the unspeakable act of sending him home after Canada dumped him onto our lap?

Why isn't Canada apologizing to us? Huh? Why aren't they sending us a check for the airfare we wasted on that guy?

Hey Canada --- KISS MY ASS!

*Michael does deep breathing exercises*

Oh well. At least give them credit for acting on their noble humanitarian impulses. Canadians are principled, after all. They are not like Americans, who always have some crass political motive.

Say what?

Harper's right-wing Conservatives, who won the January 23 election, campaigned on a promise to repair relations with the United States. Relations had become strained under the previous Liberal government.

Bush is unpopular with many Canadians and the protest may help deflect opposition complaints that Harper is too close to the U.S. president.

Canadians to Protest Deportation

P.S. Ace has emailed to advise of last-minute (again) travel plans. He anticipates posting irregularly throughout the weekend, or until "the coast is clear."

posted by Ace at 02:51 PM

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