What Has Happened to Us?

Watching Abousfian Abdelrazik's press conference was at once startling and heartbreaking. His story is almost beyond belief, except sadly we now have far too many stories that make it completely believable.

What struck me first was what the man has endured and that was quickly mixed with how Canada, CSIS specifically, treated this man. It's the part of this story that I cannot understand and there is not enough information yet to really get it, but it's beyond disturbing.

What comes to me is that since 9/11, all bets have been off. Whatever we thought we stood for, whatever we believed our government agencies represented, whatever we understood our values to be...seem to have been thrown out the window in the name of national security.

We've seen rights ignored and rolled back, we've seen inane rules implemented at airports etc, we've even seen the language of our national conversation change and become toxic. (MP's calling other MP's terrorist supporters, etc.)

Elements in our society that have presumably always held views that either are racist or xenophobic, suddenly feel the freedom to give voice to those views. Government officials are using terms that belong in a 50's western, and the head of our armed forces uses the catchy phrase 'scum bags' in public. RCMP members are tasering people w/out legitimate cause and covering up their actions. There is more, but all of that to say, a climate seems to have been created that has enabled rogue elements of our society to ignore what were established principles in this country.

Sadly, these rogue elements are no longer a tiny little slice of our society that are easy to write off. They are showing up with alarming frequency and sadly, they seem to have a chorus of supporters cheering them on.

Witness the manner in which this person refers to Omar Khadr.

Now it's easy to keep calling these people wingnuts or whatever your preferred term is, but they get coverage. Their language is found on television, radio and in print, conveniently shouting 'free speech' as their umbrella under which to do so. (Somehow they only seem interested in the freedoms and rights that affect them though.)

I think we've been far too cavalier about all of this and that has contributed to the state we now find ourselves in.

Did we learn nothing from the Maher Arar case and subsequent report? It seems that those at CSIS, Foreign Affairs and diplomats have learned nothing.

This particular case did indeed start under the Liberal government of the day, but with all the knowledge we now have, it seems inconceivable that the current government would not only perpetuate the situation, but actually appear to compound it by joining in.

By that I mean that Abdelrazik revealed today that he was visited by MP Deepak Obhrai. He showed him his scars from the torture he'd endured. Obhrai apparently wasn't there to be compassionate, but rather to interrogate him.

Since when do MP's do that? Abdelrazik was asked his views on Bin Laden, Israel, terrorism and told that unless he answered, he'd receive no help. (Obhrai was apparently accompanied by an official from Bernier's dept, who held the position of Min of Foreign Affairs at the time.)

If you don't find that disturbing, you didn't grow up in the Canada that I know, or at least the country I thought I knew.

I'm not sure what has happened to us, but I can only hope that these awful revelations force us to right our course.

To hear Abdelrazik's presser, go here.

Final thought picked up on Twitter:

Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman. Marian Anderson (1902-1993)

Update - More with Ignatieff comments.