BCCLA Spearheads Prevention of Torture Act

After the Arar Inquiry's first report, the same questions were on everyone's minds: how could we let this happen? And how can we prevent it from happening again?

The vast majority of Canadians are steadfastly opposed to torture. What the Arar Inquiry revealed was that in order to bring the actions of our government officials into line with this widely-held belief, we need to renew and reinforce Canada's legal commitment to preventing torture. In response to this need, the BCCLA has drafted a Bill called the Prevention of Torture Act.

If passed tomorrow, the legislation would be the first of its kind in the world. If passed five years ago, the legislation could have prevented the torture of Mahar Arar and others. Here are some highlights of what this legislation would do if enacted:

1. make it a criminal offence to use information known to be derived from torture,
2. prohibit Canadian officials, including the Armed Forces, from handing over prisoners to be tortured at home or abroad,
3. create a government watch-list of countries which are known to engage in torture and providing for those countries to be treated accordingly when it comes to information sharing, deportation, and extradition from Canada,
4. make sure that information sharing with foreign governments includes clear communication of Canada's stance against the use of torture, and
5. establish diplomatic protocols to bring home any Canadian citizen at risk of torture abroad, without undermining our ability to investigate and prosecute those citizens at home under our laws, free of torture.

National and international non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, the Association for the Prevention of Torture and the Canadian Arab Federation, have already endorsed the Bill. In Ottawa, the BCCLA's lobbying efforts appear to have the support of the majority of members of the Public Safety Committee. This support may
result in the Bill being introduced into Parliament.

WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?

Send an email The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, at this address:     day.s@parl.gc.ca;

and to the Prime Minister's Office:     pm@pm.gc.ca;

urging them to support the BCCLA Prevention of Torture Act. Include these links to the draft and backgrounder:

www.bccla.org/tortureact.pdf and www.bccla.org/tortureactbackgrounder.pdf

Please cc your email to christina@bccla.org so we can send you our thanks. Finally, please consider forwarding this Civil Liberties Update to two other people who you feel might also be interested in the issue of torture prevention, and requesting that they match your efforts by sending an e-mail to the Minister Day or the Prime Minister as well.

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