WTF?

[ironphoenix]

It's only now making it into the mainstream media, but Canadian author Peter Watts reports that he was "punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, s***-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three ****ing hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation, ... [then] dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even ... ****ing paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and ... nefarious terrorist plots, ... [and] left without [his] jacket in the face of Ontario’s first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night."

Too many friends have responded to this for me to reply to you all individually, but we are all together in our outrage against this thuggery.

I believe I will be writing a letter to some MP's: my country has a responsibility to defend its citizen and to take measures to prevent the recurrence of this kind of intolerable bullying.

Comments

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Be certain to CC the following two ministers

Hon. Lawrence Cannon, Minister for Foreign Affairs
Hon. Peter Van Loan, Minister for Public Safety (and Canadian Border Services Agency)

[ilanikhan.livejournal.com]

For the best effect you should pick one of the two jagash mentioned - I'd say Peter, because of the border crossing aspect. CC Lawrence, your MP and Peter Watt's MP (if you know who he is) and the President of the CBSA, Stephen Rigby. Also, just to add insult to injury, CC the Liberal Shadow Ministers, Mark Holland (Public Safety) and Bob Rae (Foreign Affairs).

If you don't get an answer in ...one month, write again.

Too bad Question Peroid is off until Jan 25, 2010.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

I stated that if I did not receive a response, I would solicit the information via ATIP. Yes, I'm mean, but I would only target political staffers for the information.

[ilanikhan.livejournal.com]

You'll get an answer, the question is "when". Writing again in a month when no answer has been recieved will get MINO to pressure to get the response out. The last thing they want is a string of monthly letters saying "why haven't you replied yet?"

What information are you asking for?

[jagash.livejournal.com]

My thought was all technically recoverable electronic information with his name sent or received by the political staff, the minister and the legal opinions received by Justice Canada. The data requested would be all such data which does not fall under the exclusions of the Access to Information Act.

[ilanikhan.livejournal.com]

You asked for this in your letter?

(Legal opinions will be excluded, since they are client-solicitor privilage)

[jagash.livejournal.com]

No, I said that if I got no response I would follow up with an ATIP. Mostly as a pseudo-threat and extra pressure. Possibly "Discussions within the department concerning relevant legal opinions". If Bob and Mary send emails discussing the legal opinion, that itself should be outside that privilege I would think.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

See this morning's post... if I'm not happy with the coverage of my questions, there will be a follow-up letter, and if the three departments seem to be at cross-purposes or are letting things fall into the cracks, I'm sure the Liberal critics will be happy to point it out based on my follow-up.

I prefer not to "threaten" an ATIP inquiry, since I have insufficient experience to know how to follow through on that.