Kerry Pither

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

One of my favourite independent bookstores in Ottawa, Octopus Books, is marking its 40th anniversary on Saturday, January 31 at the Library and Archives Canada with an event called “The age of persecution: Perspectives on an atrocity of our time.” The event is being hosted by CBC radio’s Adrian Harewood, and I’ll be speaking along with authors Monia Mazigh and Alan Cumyn. It starts at 7:00 p.m. and admission is free.