Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Supreme Court won't hear torture cases

The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of three men suing the federal government for complicity in their detention and torture in Syria and Egypt.

The high court dismissed the leave to appeal application of the men, who allege the government is hiding behind Section 38 of the Canada Evidence Act, which allows information to be withheld for national security reasons.

They were appealing a ruling last year by the Federal Court of Appeal that sided with the government over keeping information about their cases from being released.

A government inquiry under former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci concluded in 2008 that Canadian officials were likely partly to blame for the torture of the three men.

The trio, Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, deny they are terrorists.

As is usual, the high court gave no reasons for denying the leave to appeal application.
Original Article
Source: Globe 
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