So, Did the Liberals Want Maher Arar Tortured, Mr. Waffle?
You know, I’m beginning to wonder if the Waffle’s reputation as a good writer is somewhat overrated. True, there’s a difference in modes of thinking between sitting down to compose an essay and delivering an oral interview, but this latest gaffe (actually it’s an older one, and it’s a shame no one noticed it before now) recorded by the Toronto Star is going to have the Tory brain trust grinning in glee and a certain wanton kidney seller getting a brand-new headache from smacking his forehead yet again:
“Canada sent Maher Arar (a Canadian engineer) to Syria, and a court found that he had been subjected to extraordinary rendition, that his claims (of torture) were true and that he had delivered no intelligence to anybody. It was a disgrace. So, we don’t do it. Ever. Period. Off the table. We don’t get other people to do our dirty work for us, and we don’t do dirty work ever.”
Arar was sent to Syria by the United States in late 2002 [when the Liberals were in power -- ed.] after he was detained while in transit to Canada through JFK Airport in New York.
Contrary to what Ignatieff said, no court has made findings of fact in Arar’s case.
Is there an excuse for what the Waffle said? Yes: he’s gotten so used to the strategy of associating the Harper government with wrongdoing that he’s forgotten that the Conservatives inherited more than a few issues from the Chretien-Martin era. (I agree: it’s not a particularly good excuse.) So in an attempt to make the Tories look bad, he’s accidentally scored an own goal — one so embarrassing that it took the Toronto Star more than three weeks to point it out.
(Incidentally, Iggy-bashers, if you did point this out in any blog-posts written before the end of September (i.e. when the original interview came out in the Observer), I’ll be more than happy to display the links.)
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October 22nd, 2009 at 07:29
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October 22nd, 2009 at 09:22
Another thing this shows is that Iggy just does not know the federal files–certainly nowhere near the depth that Harper does. I’ve mentioned two other examples–Equalization payments and nuclear isotopes–where Iggy flat out admitted he knew next to nothing about these topics.
So what’s his problem ? For such a supposedly smart guy, and a quick study, he is disappointing (at least to Libs). My conclusion is that he is lazy, unfocused, unable to make priorities. In other words, he’s a dilettante–just dabbling in his latest interest, politics. All of these weaknesses will hurt him in an election campaign, when the media and voters are focused on every utterance.
October 22nd, 2009 at 09:39
Is Ignatieff for real, or is he a plant?
October 22nd, 2009 at 09:46
It’s a huge gaffe and it should be afforded full blown exposure, including in the HOC.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:16
The laundry list from the Liberals just goes on and on….
This example is similar to the Khadr case in its attempt to disparage Conservatives with issues that simply weren’t addressed by the Liberals who were in power. (i.e. 4 years of Liberal gov’t passed while 15 year old Khadr “languished” in Guantanamo –they weren’t advocating then).
Case 2. Over 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, the Maple factories have not produced a single isotope. Oops! How is this just the Conservatives fault that Liberals just swept this expensive fiasco under the rug for so long and only NOW figured out we are short of isotopes.
Case 3. The Liberals resort to their ’70′s attitude of accusing the Cons of being non-supportive of women, when employment figures in both the U.S. and Canada show an increase in female employment even during the recession. Perhaps they don’t find Canadian/U.S. news informative.
I had a couple more examples but don’t want to make the post too long. After all, I’m just a simple Canadian with a University degree and (according to Ignatieff) a limited attention span.
October 22nd, 2009 at 15:22
Omar Khadr is another ‘liberal matter which started in 2002 under the region of the LPOC yet six or seven years later, the LPOC and their media now accuse the Conservative PM Stephen Harper party for not doing anything at all for OMAR. The same for the Afghan detainees who were being abused since 2002 yet again-the LIBS and their media point their fingers at this government.
Man, the National Media are so mess up- they are a joke. They and the LPOC are one being: “YOU PROTECT US AND WE WILL PROTECT YOU GUYS IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA” sort of thing.
October 23rd, 2009 at 01:43
The fact that the national media are exposing Ignatieff’s ignorance on this matter, as opposed to helping cover it up, would seem to put the lie to that particular statement.
October 24th, 2009 at 14:03
Now we need another poll, what kind of a plant is iffy. My suggestion, he has been poison ivy for the liberals.