Kerry Pither

At long last, we’ll be delivering the 308 copies of my book donated by readers and organizations to parliamentarians tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2. The books were donated by readers and organizations from across the country who believe it should be required reading for all MPs.

The reception is being held on Parliament Hill and will be hosted by Deputy Speaker Denise Savoie and Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Alex Neve. NDP leader Jack Layton, Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe and Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae will attend to accept the books on behalf of their caucuses. It is not yet confirmed who will attend to receive the books on behalf of the Conservative caucus.

Three of the men whose stories are told in the book — Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki, and Muayyed Nureddin — will be on hand to meet with the party leaders and parliamentarians, as will some of the readers and organizations who donated the books.

Human rights and civil liberties groups continue to urge the Canadian government to implement the Arar Inquiry’s recommendation — made more than two and a half years ago — for an effective, independent review mechanism for national security agencies, to fully implement the rest of the Arar Inquiry’s recommendations and to provide redress for
El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin through compensation and a public apology for Canada’s complicity in their torture.

The reception will start at noon and end at 12:45 p.m., and is being held in the Speakers Dining Room in room 216-N Centre Block. If you’d like to attend, please RSVP.

Thanks to contributions from a number of organizations and from concerned readers across the country (and some from other countries too!) we have now reached our goal and will soon be able to put a copy of Dark Days in the hands of every one of Canada’s 308 Members of Parliament.

This idea was proposed by some Dark Days readers who want to help build awareness among politicians about Canadian complicity in torture and the need for action. Now the leaders of each political party will be invited to accept them on behalf of their caucuses at a reception on Parliament Hill. I’ll be there, along with two or three of the men at the heart of this story, and representatives of the human rights and civil liberties organizations which have been pushing for answers, accountability and redress for the men.

As the book is only available in English, we are inserting a translated excerpt into the books for Francophone MPs.

We’ll be presenting the books soon. This month Members of Parliament will be discussing the findings of the Iacobucci Inquiry in Parliament, and human rights and civil liberties groups will be lobbying hard for three things:

• Redress for Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin. The government needs to do for these men what it did for Maher Arar — they need a public apology for Canada’s complicity in their torture, and must be compensated.
• Accountability: To date, not a single official has been held accountable for what happened to any of these men. The Iacobucci Inquiry has confirmed that Canadian agencies and officials were complicit in their torture and they must be held accountable.
• Oversight: The government must stop ignoring the Arar Inquiry’s recommendations for effective oversight of the agencies that conduct national security investigations.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this important project. When I have more information available about when and where we will present the books, I will post it here.

Kerry