Mr. Speaker, this week the minister announced that Canada is finally going to ratify the United Nations' Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. That is good news.
However, we need to take real action. Too often Canada's policy has allowed and still allows torture and mistreatment. Who can forget how Maher Arar was tortured because of false information provided by Canadian officials? Think about Omar Khadr, who was a prisoner in Guantanamo, where Canadian officials participated in his interrogation, knowing that he was sleep deprived, without giving him access to a lawyer.
The Supreme Court itself said that these measures offended “the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects” and that they constituted “a clear violation of Canada's international human rights obligations—”