Listened to this guy talk about his experiences with CSIS, Sudanese prison/govt, Canadian embassy in Sudan, FBI, CIA, etc. Was basically held in Sudan without charges in and out of prison, tortured, and unable to get back to Canada for something like 6 years.
It's hard to make an assessment of this situation so I'm going to do some research. But at face value it's a glaring indictment of the inability of intelligence agencies, namely CSIS in this case, to do what they are supposed to do: gather intelligence. How can you excuse the torture and abuse of an innocent (as far as I know, and when you consider that he is now travelling around Ontario talking about how the gov't fucked him, most likely innocent... but who knows) civilian? Aren't there easier ways to find out if the guy is a terrorist? How about watching him without him knowing. Monitoring his online activities, reading his email. I realize that these are not likely constitutionally allowed, but what would you rather have? Why the fuck should I care if they want to read my email? If I have nothing to hide, it shouldn't bother me - I mean, I don't WANT people reading my email but if torture is the only alternative, I'll take it.
