How's That "Judicial Process" Working For You, Steve?

"Everybody is concerned about that process," Harper said. "The biggest concern about Guantanamo Bay is that most of the people there weren't charged with anything and weren't facing any kind of legal process. That is not the case with Mr. Khadr and, obviously, we have to see what the U.S. is going to do in terms of moving forward on that."

Yeah. About that...

Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray
Situation Complicates Prison's Closure

President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials -- barred until the inauguration from examining classified material on the detainees -- discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them.

Instead, they found that information on individual prisoners is "scattered throughout the executive branch," a senior administration official said.

...

Several former Bush administration officials agreed that the files are incomplete and that no single government entity was charged with pulling together all the facts and the range of options for each prisoner. They said that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were reluctant to share information, and that the Bush administration's focus on detention and interrogation made preparation of viable prosecutions a far lower priority.

That's ok. I'm sure Khadr was being tried in that other kangaroo court.

Excuse Me?!?

Khadr was not a 'child soldier': Harper

Harper's assertion that the government's "legal position" is that Khadr was not a child soldier is bound to anger supporters of Guantanamo's youngest and only Western detainee.

"My understanding of international law is, to be a child soldier, you have to be in an army," he said in the pre-taped interview.

And in that, sir, you would be WRONG.

"A child soldier is any person under 18 years of age who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and anyone accompanying such groups, other than family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms."

- Cape Town Principles and Best Practices on the Recruitment of Children into the Armed Forces and on Demobilization and Social Reintegration of Child Soldiers in Africa (Cape Town, 27-30 April 1997).

You know, if he were actually as stupid as some former world leaders I could mention, I could cut him some slack for this kind of blatant error. But he's not stupid. Not at all.

President Barack Obama

Man, that has a nice ring. Almost as nice as "Former President Bush".

I can't put this all into a coherent post, so bear with me as I share a few random thoughts.

I was surprised that I got through the entire day without crying. I'm usually a regular blubberfest, but I think I expended most of my raw emotion through the campaign and his acceptance speech. Today, I mostly felt relief that it all actually happened. Although I did well up a bit when he passed the Canadian Embassy and all those Mounties were standing on the steps saluting him. Maybe it was just the thought that this was the first time in my lifetime (except for maybe a few months in '93) when Canada has had a Prime Minister who is demonstrably more conservative than his U.S. counterpart.

Somehow, this makes it real.

I tried very hard to keep an open mind about Rick Warren, but I'm sorry - he was horrible. So was the poet, Elizabeth Alexander. Not just an uninspiring poem, but a really bad reading as well. Seriously - they should have brought Maya Angelou back. She made me cry.

Joseph Lowrey, on the other hand, was awesome.

And just for the record, you moron - it was Chief Justice Justice Roberts who screwed up the Oath of Office.

The speech was great, but not quite as moving as some others, like his "A More Perfect Union" speech. I think it was because his most inspirational speeches have always been very personal, and he couldn't really do that today. Still, the emphasis on public service and the hard break with the divisive policies of the past really struck home. That, and the idea that America has "chosen hope over fear". The last election was most certainly born out of fear - fear of terrorists, fear of 'the other'. Today, Americans are equally afraid of violence and their uncertain economic future, and yet they really have chosen hope.

The best part of watching Obama step out of the armoured limo and walk proudly up Pennsylvania Avenue with his wife to the deafening cheers of the crowds, was the knowledge that both of Bush's inaugural parades were lined by protesters. Some with eggs.

The Obama daughters were unbelievable. Beautiful, happy, smiling, completely unselfconscious. Here's hoping they stay that way.

I must admit, the whole "historic moment / first black U.S. President" thing was beginning to wear on me a bit. I'm neither black nor American, so my attitude towards the whole racial aspect has largely been, "Yeah, well, it's about time". Until I read this article in the Toronto Sun of all places.

'I look at him and I see myself'
West Hill students on pilgrimage to U.S. capital

All their lives, people have been telling friends Damian Patterson and Brian Woon-A-Tai what they cannot do.

Barriers and obstacles constantly strewn in their path because they are young black males and they aren't supposed to scale the walls of their Scarborough projects.

They may have been knocked down and roughed up along the way, but the naysayers have no power over them anymore. They've stopped buying into it, these two handsome young men. Now more than ever, these West Hill high school students have a dream.

And that's why, on this Martin Luther King Day, they are in Washington, D.C., counting down the hours until they can personally witness the inauguration of their inspiration -- Barack Obama, America's first black president.

A man whose stirring motto of "Yes We Can" has become their own guiding mantra, as well.

"I look at him and I see myself," explained an excited Patterson, just hours before boarding the bus taking him and 44 other African-Canadians to the American capital. "I see someone with similar features who I can emulate. He's probably the most positive role model for someone like me."

Like Obama, Patterson is of mixed parentage: His mom is white while his father comes from Jamaica. And like the incoming president, he's being raised by his mother alone.

Woon-A-Tai can also relate to Obama's racial background and laughed when asked about his heritage. "My parents are Guyanese, my mom is Indian-native and my dad is Chinese-black. I'm a pretty big mix."

... "Obama is a clear representation of what tenacity can achieve," said Scarlett, a TV and film consultant. "That's an important lesson, particularly for young black males."

A lesson that both these grateful 18-year-olds are taking to heart.

"He accomplished the impossible," Woon-A-Tai said passionately. "He gives me the sense that everything is within our reach. I can accomplish anything if I put my mind to it."

He was once told black kids don't play hockey, but went on to become a winning goaltender for the West Hill Warriors. Now he's set his sights on going to Ryerson University next year for film studies, the first in his family to ever get beyond high school, and he's been working 40 hours a week outside of school to pay for his tuition.

Patterson has lost friends to gun violence -- "more than there should be," he said when asked how many -- and few of his pals will get their high school diplomas, but he's determined to graduate and go on to study business at Seneca College. "I want to run my own film/entertainment business with my friend over here," he said with a nod to Woon-A-Tai.

I don't know why, but for some reason hearing that sort of thing from a couple of Canadian kids really brought home to me just what "Yes We Can" really means.

Oh, Happy Day.

A Canadian In Gaza

(crossposted from Canada's World)

Eva Bartlett is a human rights activist with the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement. She is also a Canadian, the daughter of two classical musicians from Fergus, Ontario.

No shrinking violet, Bartlett has spent the past few years trying to help the people of Gaza and the West Bank by volunteering, bringing aid, protesting, and simply bearing witness. She even spent a couple of days in an Israeli jail for helping the residents of a small West Bank town dismantle a barricade that was cutting them off from supplies and medical services.

Today, Bartlett is travelling with ambulance crews in Gaza and reporting what she sees on her blog, titled simply "In Gaza". Nobody could be closer to the human tragedy that is unfolding there than those who courageously collect the wounded and the dead, and she frequently ends up describing the ground-level reality of events that western journalists can only watch from their distant hilltop on the border.

As we watch those odd-looking white plumes exploding over Gaza, Bartlett is reporting mysterious cases of caustic smoke inhalation being seen by Red Crescent ambulance drivers in Jabaliya. Days before we heard the story of emaciated children being found next to their dead parents after four days in a bombed-out house, Bartlett was hearing stories about the Israeli Army preventing ambulances from reaching survivors in a house where people had been told to stay (or, possibly, were locked in) and were subsequently bombed.

And all the while, medics she knows and has befriended are being shot at and killed.



I've become so caught up in all this that every time she goes for more than a day between posts I imagine the worst.

There is no shortage of personal accounts and horrific images coming out of Gaza. Sadly, all of these accounts are open to accusations of bias and even outright fabrication because professional journalists (who are assumed to be 'unbiased') have been prevented from entering the region. A few were inside the fence already and are doing what they can, but generally we are left to sort truth from propaganda from the confusing and conflicting stories coming from Israel and from those who are experiencing all this first hand.

Still, sometimes we have to accept the bias of the observer and just look at what they are observing. However they (or we) are interpreting it, it's vital that we have this raw data - both as evidence of what has happened, and as human reality check against the punditry and analysis and political spin.

There are no politics in the back of an ambulance.



UPDATE: Eva shows us some devastating and unusual looking burns inflicted on one family, and MSNBC has a photo of what is very likely white phosphorous as it rains down on yet another U.N. school.



Oh, and one of the few functioning hospitals in Gaza was shelled and burned. It's been a busy 24 hours.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Life is not a straight line. It's a circle.

That's the thought that stayed with me as I walked out of the theatre. The thought that our lives gradually fill with memories and experience and then slowly empty again, regardless of whether we are getting older or, as in this curious case, younger.

This rich, languid film seems to encourage such philosophical musings. Set largely in sleepy New Orleans, the plot walks rather than runs through the extraordinary life of its protagonist. From his birth and abandonment, his 'childhood' spent in an old age home, through his many relationships and adventures right to his poignant end, we remain transfixed. I was shocked when it was over to discover that I'd been sitting there for almost three hours.

Through it all is Daisy, the love of his life, who tells the story to her daughter from her deathbed. And it's through her eyes that we come to see this seemingly tragic life as beautiful. Five stars.

(Murray would have liked it more if he didn't have the attention span of a twelve year-old boy.)

And then there's the OTHER Iggy

This guy is going to drive me crazy. He pisses me off so bad, and then he turns around and gives this wonderful, inspirational speech to a bunch of young Liberals in a pub. Not even a speech, because it really seems like he's speaking from the heart.

[grumble]



BTW, is it just me or does he have this whole Martin Landau thing going on?



(h/t to BCer)

Dear Mr. Ignatieff

(I sent the following email to Michael Ignatieff on January 9th. To date, I have received no reply.)

Dear Mr. Ignatieff,

As a proud member and supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada, I would like to express my profound disappointment in the comments you made yesterday in Halifax regarding the situation in Gaza.

Your statements, whether you intend them to or not, are coming across as identical to the position of the Conservative government - and for that matter, that of the Bush administration. I don't know if those comments accurately or fully reflect your true opinions, or if you are simply trying to be cautious and inoffensive. But hearing you echo the simplistic notion that only Hamas is to blame for civilian casualties and anything Israel does in its own defense is justified, only seems to confirm everything your worst critics have said about you.

I agree with your condemnation of Hamas and appreciate your support of Israel's right to defend itself. But surely it is possible for a man of your intellect to express that support, and at the same time articulate something a little stronger than a vague "concern" over the growing humanitarian crisis and the appalling and disproportionate death toll among innocent Palestinians, particularly children.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have been taking to the streets to protest their government's actions. Prominent members of the Jewish community in Toronto and elsewhere have publicly called for an end to Israel's killing of innocent civilians in Gaza while condemning, equally, Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel. And yesterday, Jimmy Carter - who probably knows more about the Middle East than anyone in North America - wrote his own account of the events of the past year which manages to detail Israel's own culpability for the current situation without in any way excusing the actions of Hamas.

If all these people - none of whom could ever be described as 'anti-Israel' - can bring themselves to criticize Israel's blockade of Gaza, the killing of UN aid workers, the bombing of UN schools and other appalling incidents, while simultaneously condemning the attacks on Israel, then surely you can find a way to do the same.

Yours truly,


Jennifer Smith