April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

violence

Mourn for Justice

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khadr.jpgNot only has the Canadian government not petitioned for the release of Omar Khadr, they have helped the U.S. to try to retrieve information from this child. Yes at the time this all started he was a child. A youth of 15, a child soldier.

This is a government that is bringing forth a bill (the sneak anti abortion laws in the back door bill) that claims to recognize crimes against children yet unborn. Yet this same government cannot find any compassion for a child already born. Already dragged through war, already a witness to death and a victim of torture.

This was Canada’s response to Khadr;

He also claims that Canadian diplomats and intelligence officers who later questioned him at Guantanamo refused to help him.

Instead, he says in the affidavit, they questioned him about his late father, Ahmed Said Khadr, who’s been accused of being a founding member and financier of al-Qaeda.

Khadr says he was also interrogated about Maher Arar, the Canadian who was deported to a Syrian prison over alleged links to al-Qaeda. An inquiry later cleared Arar of any links to terrorist organizations.

Khadr says he was also shown photographs of about 20 people and asked to identify them.

He says he ripped off his shirt and showed the Canadians his injuries. He also says he told them he had lied to his American interrogators and told them whatever they wanted to hear because he was scared and wanted them to stop torturing him.

Khadr says they accused him of lying, and passed information from their interviews to U.S. officials.

The Supreme Court has reserved judgement on whether those documents must be released to Khadr’s defence attorneys. Having learned well from their Rovian masters the Canadian government defended against such an action by saying;

[…] Khadr’s demand for documents is a fishing expedition that could compromise sensitive intelligence information. Government lawyers also said a Canadian court is no place to pass judgment on U.S. detention and trial practices.

Take note of this governments behaviour and dismal of the notion of justice. It starts with the Khadr’s but soon catches up with the Joneses.

Source

Tasers: Not even fit for pigs

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While the suits for hire may have successfully defended their use in court, and *experts* may have testified to their being benign, a Chicago study has found that Tasers actually do (surprise) cause harm.

The team of doctors and scientists at the trauma centre in Chicago’s Cook County hospital stunned 11 pigs with Taser guns in 2006, hitting their chests with 40-second jolts of electricity, pausing for 10 to 15 seconds, then hitting them for 40 more seconds.

When the jolts ended, every animal was left with heart rhythm problems, the researchers said. Two of the animals died from cardiac arrest, one three minutes after receiving a shock.

Naturally Taser™ is putting their spin on things;

Rick Smith, the CEO of Taser International and company co-founder, doesn’t think much can be concluded from the Chicago study because it focused on pigs that weigh less than 100 pounds and have a very different physiology from humans.

interesting that they don’t accept a study done on pigs;

Even the Taser International website points to studies on pigs in which the outcomes suggest the stun guns aren’t a serious safety risk.

Story link

Gangs or… “Torture? What Torture?”

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This is the write up on gang signals from wiki. Bolded text and links are mine.

Gangs often establish distinctive, characteristic identifiers including graffiti tags[18] colors (red, white and blue), hand-signals, clothing, jewelry, hair styles, fingernails, slogans[911,support the troops,], signs such as the swastika, the noose, or the burning cross[20], flags for example the Confederate flag, secret greetings (or meetings), slurs(terrorists, liberals), or code words (freedom, WMD,intelligence) and other group-specific symbols associated with the gang’s common beliefs, rituals, and mythologies to define and differentiate themselves from rival groups and gangs.[]As an alternative language, signs, symbols, and slurs in speech, graffiti, print, music, or other mediums communicate specific informational cues used to threaten, disparage, taunt, harass, intimidate, alarm, influence[23], or exact specific responses including obedience, submission, fear, or terror. One study focused on terrorism and symbols states: “… Symbolism is important because it plays a part in impelling the terrorist to act and then in defining the targets of their actions.”[24] Displaying a gang sign, such as the noose, as a symbolic act can be construed as “… a threat to commit violence communicated with the intent to terrorize another, to cause evacuation of a building, or to cause serious public inconvenience, in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such terror or inconvenience…an offense against property or involving danger to another person that may include but is not limited to recklessly endangering another person, harassment, stalking, ethnic intimidation, and criminal mischief.”[25] [Read more…] about Gangs or… “Torture? What Torture?”

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

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An article in The Star today tells us to stop focusing on headlines (ironic no? ) and recognize that things make the headlines because they are less likely to happen on a regular basis;

A: I call that “headline bias” – when something makes the news, people think it happens a lot. But the reason something makes the headlines is because it doesn’t happen a lot.

To my mind, public reaction is not in co-ordination with the actual statistics.

Toronto is actually quite a safe city, better than most American and Canadian cities. And the level of violent crime has stayed pretty steady over the past few years.

Having moved from fairly small Lindsay to fairly big Hamilton, I can’t say I feel any less safe here. And so in the spirit of the article enjoy some Bobby Mcferrin;

Omar Khadr

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Two stories in The Star today about Omar Khadr.

One on a video tape that was released to the press, despite not having been allowed to be aired in court. Oops wonder how that happened?

The lawyer for detained Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr accused the U.S. government yesterday of abusing the legal process after CBS News broadcast for the first time a controversial video recording which allegedly shows his client manufacturing explosive devices.

“I think it’s outrageous that this tape has been released without the approval of the court,” lawyer Dennis Edney said in Edmonton.

Long seen as a key piece of evidence against Khadr in the eyes of the prosecution, Edney believes the U.S. government leaked the video after stalled proceedings prevented it from being shown in court.

The courtroom airing of the 12-minute tape, which allegedly shows a 15-year-old Khadr planting land mines and assembling bomb timers, was delayed during a hearing Nov. 8. The recording was broadcast Sunday on the CBS newsmagazine show 60 Minutes.

[Read more…] about Omar Khadr

Our Glorious Dead

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In times of war we are called upon to honour our glorious dead. Our Glorious Dead

Indeed the memory of the fallen is used to raise our collective patriotic ire at anyone who does not support any military action. This has become known colloquially as “not supporting the troops.”

It does not matter if the cause they were fighting is just. If the people they killed were innocent. If the war they fought a sham. Honour must be paid.

Compare this to the all too common occurrence of women being killed by partners or strangers. Too often in both courts of justice and courts of opinion these women’s memories are not honoured but desecrated.

Excuses are made, she provoked him, she was dressed or acted provocatively or was a sex worker, she was out alone at night, she was the violent one. [Read more…] about Our Glorious Dead