Arar case may be repeated: Cellucci ..reserve the right to act unilateraly

[ConcernedCanuk]

. . oh yah - Paul Celluci - still "winning the hearts and minds of Canadians"

. .

Arar case may be repeated: Cellucci

'We will reserve the right to act unilaterally,' U.S. ambassador says

OTTAWA (CP) - The United States can't guarantee there won't be a repeat of the Maher Arar deportation case, the American ambassador said today.
Paul Cellucci, commenting after speaking to a conference on Canada-U.S relations, said that the United States respects the Canadian passport, but reserves the right to act unilaterally when it sees a need to protect its security.

His remarks came a week after Paul Martin, the incoming prime minister, spoke strongly about the need to respect Canadian passports to prevent a recurrence of the incident in which Arar was arrested in New York and deported to his Syrian birthplace, rather than to Canada.

Arar, a Canadian citizen, spent a year in a Syrian jail, where he says he was tortured. He was released without charges in October.

/snip/

reserve the right to act unilaterally - ??

doesn't that just mean they will do whatever the feck they feel like ?

not very "neighborly" for a neighbor !!

don't think us Canuks don't notice

[Spazito]

1. I wish Paul Martin would insist that Cellucci be replaced with someone

who actually knew anything about the role of ambassador. Once Martin is in as Prime Minister, on the 12th, I will be listening and watching very carefully how he deals with this issue.

[pinto]

2. this American agrees

What kind of ambassador says if you don't like it "so be it"?
That's diplomacy?

On the big scale, though, thank your lucky stars you're not our Mexican friends to the south....we've built a wall, snubbed their elected representative and have "returned" those crossing the border illegally to Mexican towns hundreds of miles from their homes, where they sleep in parks....we have one of those "Operation ****" names for it.....and we do it every day.

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. "I will be listening and watching very carefully how he deals with this

. . I will be listening and watching very carefully how he deals with this issue.

. . oh yah

me too

Paul Cellucci is no diplomat

just another BFEE puppet as far as I'm concerned

[MrPrax]

4. Don't hold your breathe dude...

Martin has already been quietly talking about the 'vital' importance of re-building relations with our Good Friends...

He's as corporate as Mulroney...already in the doghouse over trips with his other good friends...
or his Kyoto backtrack...

"My view is when you sign an international agreement, clearly your intention should be to implement it. But the only way you can implement it is if in fact you have a plan," Martin told reporters Tuesday.

Liberal polling sound bites about the 'gay marriage' thing being a 'bad issue' for Martin--see him dump that as well and the decriminalization (pfft...the liberals have been talking this one since the LeDain Commission)

This clown has been the architect of some of the most draconian monetarist policies anywhere in the G8...

He'll rollover and perhaps even sign on to the next invasion...guaranteed

[CHIMO]

5. Don't Like the Smell

Sounds to me that the US of A is getting involved in Canadian politics.
Paul C has been pulling strings since he came here. A week after Paul M dared to stand up, Paul C countered, he comes out swinging. That put Paul M in his place.
I know where I am not going or going to pass through, because I am not of the US of A. I have no rights in an airport there or anywhere there for that matter.
Wonder how long it will take the snowbirds to find another place?

PS. Scientists are still wlcomed here. May not be as lucrative, but it is still a relatively open community.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[iverglas]

7. what Martin said (in case any non-Canadians care)

TorontoStar:

At a fundraising reception in Vancouver last night, Prime Minister-designate Paul Martin repeated his comment that "what happened in the case of Mr. Arar is unacceptable.

"A Canadian passport must be respected," he told reporters before addressing 1,500 people.

Earlier, Liberal MP John Godfrey reacted indignantly to Cellucci's remarks.

"The United States is behaving as it always does, in which it essentially asserts that U.S. interests and the U.S. constitution takes precedence over anything else," said Godfrey (Don Valley West). He said he doubts the United States would accept it if Martin, who will become prime minister a week from today, said Canada could not guarantee that U.S. citizens here would not be treated the same as Arar was treated in American hands.

"The real issue is: Are all countries sovereign in the same way? That's what we've got to sort out."

Yup, that's the real issue. Will the US abide by international law -- and respect the sovereignty of its allies, even if not of its chosen enemies.

It would be nice if some USAmericans, perhaps some on this board, noticed what was going on.

A Canadian citizen removed to Syria from a US airport, where he was transitting back to Canada, and held in prison in Syria for a year without trial and tortured.

A Canadian citizen removed from Guantanamo, where he had been held without any basis in the first place, to Afghanistan, without identity papers, after the US told him Canada "did not want him back" and without the US informing Canada of what it was doing.

(Of course, there's always that Canadian citizen that Gov. Bush of Texas executed a couple of years back, after a trial held in violation of the international law requiring that he be allowed to contact his Canadian consular authorities.)

The US is still holding citizens of other countries in Guantanamo -- including a Canadian who was 15 when captured in Afghanistan, in whose case the US has never provided a straight answer as to why he is being held -- in conditions for which the US refuses to be accountable to anyone.

It's unfortunate that USAmericans seem to be willing to tolerate what their government is doing to them -- but it is unacceptable for USAmericans to tolerate what their government is doing to citizens of other countries.

Meanwhile, back to Paul Martin:

Martin played down suggestions that Cellucci's comments will harm the relationship with Washington that he vows to improve, suggesting the ambassador was "unequivocal" in stating the Canadian passports would be respected by the U.S.

"He understood and agreed with our position," Martin said.

Them's some pretty rose-coloured glasses he's wearing, it seems. Maybe he's just banking on Canadians not caring much more what happens to people with funny accents than Celucci's bosses and their supporters do.

.