Canuck

  Wednesday, 26 November 2003

Martin reminds Washington to respect Canadians' rights... < 3:36:27 PM>.

Martin reminds Washington to respect Canadians' rights [GAM-National] 'Mr. Arar was ordered deported from the United States in the middle of the night and flown to the Middle East. The 33-year-old Ottawa man says the Syrians tortured him and held him in a dark, small, rat-infested prison cell for more than 10 months.

Mr. Arar, who was born in Syria, was passing through the United States when he was arrested last year at Kennedy airport in New York, travelling on his Canadian passport.

"It was expected that he would be returned to Canada," Mr. Martin said. "I believe that what happened was simply unacceptable, and if, in fact, we are going to have the kinds of exchanges of information that are so important in terms of the security of North America, there is going to have to be an understanding that in fact the Canadian passport will be respected and fundamental rights will be respected."'

Thank God.We've all been a bit ansty about Martin who seemed a bit too eager to patch up relations with the US. This news is a relief to me, a good first step.

< 3:27:52 PM>.

Found this while searching for entirely unrelated stuff. The U.S. Library of Congress has a Quicktime copy of Thomas Edison's 1901 Montreal Fire Department on Runners film to download. There's also his 1901 film about the visit of the Duke of York but it [montreal city weblog]