It has been a harrowing time. My pride in being Canadian has been shattered.
A friend just told me he’s taking the flags off his backpacks.
Still, although the truth about Stephen Harper is in, the jury is still out.
Who are we really?
Women and men of principle are few and far between in this world, but at least we know now that in that group – there is a Canadian.
And it isn’t Mr. Harper.
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Richard Colvin does us proud. 
He acted on principle…not because he is a so-called “whistle-blower” – he’s not. We’re proud because he did his duty as a loyal public servant.
He puts me in mind of the American Colonel, who worked as the senior prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay.
A principled Gentleman.
Morris Davis, a retired Air Force colonel who was chief military prosecutor at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, showed courage and respect for democratic principles when he resigned rather than follow orders to use evidence obtained through torture.
Our Canadian Diplomat Richard Colvin is such a man.
It has become apparent that the government of Canada, in its reaction to Colvin’s testimony - has failed us.
Some have suggested that public concern about the possibility of our government being complicit in torture is a waste of time. It has also been suggested that it’s difficult to prevent torture, especially if the perpetrators are determined to carry it out.
That may be true…the Kandahar provincial governor…Assadullah Khalid maintained a secret torture chamber on his own property, near the Canadian military base. (The governor was kept in power by our government, even after it became known that he engaged in torturing his own people – some of whom had been handed over by us.).
Mr. Colvin had warned his superiors about this. He warned Ottawa that we were handing over prisoners – some of whom were completely innocent – to jailers who would subject them to brutal treatment or cause them to simply disappear.
Our government failed to act promptly and as a result we as a nation may very well have become complicit in acts of torture.
When a government and its representatives know about torture or even suspect the possibility of it and do not at least make an effort to prevent it, then they are complicit. That is a fundamental tenet of both international and domestic Canadian law.
It’s called being an accessory to a crime, whether it’s before or after, makes little difference.
In wartime, when government officials turn a blind eye to warnings that torture may be happening to persons you have arrested and handed over to a third party, it’s a war crime.
To then lie about it and deny it, is an affront to the people ruled by that government. It’s an affront to each and every one of us.
Richard Colvin has been called a “Whistle-blower”.
That’s a misnomer. It’s important to remember that he did not seek nor did he want the spotlight foisted on him after news of his detainee torture concerns seeped out.
He was subpoenaed by Canada’s Military Police Complaints Commission – a judicial body, which was probing the allegations. After the Harper government shut down the Commission and fired its head, Colvin reluctantly responded to a summons by a parliamentary committee studying the issue.
In any case, it’s now clear, thanks to Colvin, that our government – or certain individuals within it – may well come under the heading of criminal. I say “may”.
We don’t know that for sure, however, because other servants of the government have censored all documents and reports concerning torture and in doing so have rendered them worthless.
That could well be called tampering with evidence.
The government itself says that the censorship was imposed to avoid a threat to national security and/or to protect our soldiers in the field.
That – according to some insiders – is patent nonsense.
So – what to do?
One course of action now would be to turn all uncensored materials 
over to a select group of Supreme Court Justices and have them rule on the admissibility of the materials.
The question arises however…does this government trust our Supreme Court Justices to be alert to any harm that might result from publication. (This is after all, a political exercise by Mr. Harper and really has nothing to do with national security).
The behaviour of our government over this issue – so far at least – has been obstructionist and arrogant; it has been a profound insult to the Canadian people and its parliamentary institutions, which in fact do represent a majority of the country’s voting population.
Not only did Mr. Harper shut down the Military Police Inquiry, he also shut down the Parliamentary Inquiry by ordering his people not to show up. It’s apparent that we and our elected representatives have permitted Mr. Harper to exercise a form of dictatorial rule. That must stop.
But who knows…there’s an outside chance that Mr. Harper does have a compassionate heart after all.
Can Stephen Harper Become One Of Us?
Perhaps in the new year, Mr. Harper himself will recognize that his obstructionist approach has been wrong and will move to correct it. He could, for example, appoint that blue ribbon panel of those Supreme Court Justices to review the question of document censorship.
If he were to do that, he would instantly become more like the rest of us: fair-minded and decent…maybe even a little humble.
His only problem then – would be – how to deal with those officials who may be found to have lied to Canadians.
But I fear he’ll take the political low road once again.
To save face, he may very well do to Parliament what he did to the Military Police Complaints Commission and to the Parliamentary Committee - - Try to shut it down and call an election.
Mr. Harper could do that but I’m confident he would not win a majority; but one thing is certain – this story is not going away.
As a famous American baseball player once said - “It aint over till it’s over.”
postscript: and just for fun, take a gander at this
