Ambassador says no-fly list won't hurt Canada-U.S. relations

[CHIMO]

Source: The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada need not fear a diplomatic cold shoulder from its southern neighbour should it repatriate a Canadian once labelled an al-Qaeda operative whose name appears on the U.S. no-fly list, suggests U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, the ambassador suggested that the U.S. would not view as an affront Canada bringing home anyone red-flagged by the Americans.

“Canada and the U.S. enjoy a very good, respectful relationship, two sovereign nations that have to respect each others' rules and processes,” Mr. Wilkins said.

“Sometimes they differ, but always we are respectful of each other.



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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And we are increasing our Afghanastian forces you know.

And thank you again Mr. Ambassidor.

Thank You...

But it is only a suggestion.

My gosh...

[CHIMO]

1. Foreign Affairs cool to Canadian's torture claims

A senior Foreign Affairs official played down Abousfian Abdelrazik's harrowing accounts of beatings, torture and abuse in a Sudanese prison, saying the Canadian citizen “would not have been targeted for mistreatment any more than other fellow detainees.”

“Understandably, conditions in Sudanese prisons are very difficult but this does not amount to torture or mistreatment,” wrote Odette Gaudet-Fee, Foreign Affairs consular case manager for Africa. “It is the reality in Sudan,” she added, in documents now in possession of The Globe and Mail.

But Foreign Affairs' own internal annual dossier paints a grim picture of the reality in Sudan, including widespread human-rights abuses, horrific prison conditions, police brutality and torture, even far from the wretched Darfur war zone.

“Outside of Darfur, government security forces beat, harassed, arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado opponents or suspected opponents of the Government, and there are also reports of torture,” according to Foreign Affairs' 2006 report on Sudan, the most recent available and one covering the last year of Mr. Abdelrazik's incarceration. “Non-conflict torture (e.g. flogging in prisons) has decreased, although its eradication would require a change in culture in the police force,” says the report, much of which is blacked out. Previous Canadian government practice has been to redact the most incriminating aspects of country reports. For instance, all reference to torture and extra-judicial killings were redacted from the Foreign Affairs report on Afghanistan.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080729.wsudan30/BNStory/International/home

But of course if one meets the governments requirements, a way can be found.

Agency ordered to restore benefits to Celil's wife

OTTAWA — A federal minister moved quickly on the weekend to reverse the Canada Revenue Agency decision that cut off benefits to the wife of a Canadian jailed in China.

Monte Solberg, the federal minister for human resources and social development, learned on Friday evening that Kamila Telendibaeva, wife of Huseyin Celil, had her child-tax benefits cut off because she cannot provide documents signed by her husband. Mr. Solberg called department officials and told them to remedy the situation, his communications director told The Globe and Mail.

Ms. Telendibaeva's husband is unable to sign documents because he is serving a life sentence in northwest China on what his supporters say are trumped up terrorism charges. She told reporters the Canadian Revenue Agency has billed her for almost $10,000 for failing to file income tax for her husband.

Ms. Telendibaeva said she used to receive a monthly benefit of just under $1,000.
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