Mr. Speaker, I stand today to present a petition calling on Canada to cease sending its officers to be trained at the U.S. army's WHINSEC, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. WHINSEC has been alleged to teach counter-insurgency techniques, including torture and other egregious human rights violations. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals that advocated the torture of civilians as permissible, manuals that have been used at the school for years.
The petitioners call on Canada to take a stand with 203 U.S. members of Congress who voted to cut WHINSEC's funding, the countries of Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Costa Rica, which have announced the withdrawal of all personnel, and the thousands of Canadians who urge Parliament to cease sending Canadian soldiers to be trained at this academy.