Candor in Canada

Licia Corbella is one of the best columnists writing anywhere in North America. In her spare time, she is also the editor of the paper where her columns appear, the Calgary Sun, located in the capital of Canada’s oil industry, and perhaps not-so-incidentally, the most pro-American redoubt in Canuckistan.

Writing today, she outdoes herself, commenting not simply on the horror of the Daniel Berg slaughter tape, which she viewed on the web, like many of us who cannot bear to hide from the horror which wants to consume us all, but bringing it all home. Uncomfortably so, for her fellow Canadians.

Concisely, even elegantly, she ties together strands which link together the situation in the Middle East and in North America, on both sides of the border.

Grisly Truth

-snip-

But the virtual silence in the Arab world about the barbaric beheading of Berg indicates the vast difference between oppressive states and America.

Within days of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners being brought to the attention of U.S. superiors, army officials interviewed the abused Iraqi prisoners and wrote reports.

Within days of the photos running in the media, a Senate committee was established and is running. Charges have been laid, trials will be held, recommendations will be made and policies will be changed.

Arab and Muslim leaders, for the most part, just ignore or justify their atrocities, including the shameful way they treat their own citizens and their women.

More importantly, though, what does this tell us of Canada? Where do we fit in?

When our soldiers committed atrocities and took photos of them in Somalia, Jean Chretien shut down the inquiry and disbanded the implicated airborne regiment. Yesterday, the Liberals on the Commons public accounts committee used their majority to suspend public hearings into the sponsorship scandal.

Kind of makes you wonder if our democracy is closer to the Americans or the Arabs, doesn't it?

(Licia Corbella in the Calgary Sun, May 13, 2004)
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