Bush Charged in Canada with Torture

On November 30th, in Vancouver, Canada charges of criminal torture were laid against U.S. President George W. Bush.

Vancouver lawyer, Gail Davidson, co-chair of the Canadian based group Lawyers Against the War (LAW) filed the charges with the British Columbia Provincial Court, under the Canadian Criminal Code.

Copies of the charges filed are available for download on the LAW website (page 1, page 2), and they include seven counts of counselling, aiding and abetting torture of prisoners by the U.S. military at both the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, and the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

LAW's argument for the charges stem from the well documented cases of abuse at both prisons, and they cite Canadian and American ratification of the U.N. Convention against Torture as the basis for their claim. In their press release LAW declared, "Canada has a duty under the Convention Against Torture to 'take effective measures to prevent torture'."

As of December 2nd, LAW applied to have the charges against Bush placed before a judge, who would determine if a warrant or summons should be issued against the U.S. President.

As Bush is not a Canadian citizen, the Canadian Attorney General, Irwin Cotler, is required, within eight days of the charges being filed, to provide consent for the proceedings to continue. Should the proceedings be allowed to continue the Canadian court will also have to resolve issues of Bush's diplomatic immunity.

This story has an interesting parallel to a complaint concurrently filed in Germany by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Those charges also involved the incidents of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. (click here for more on that story)

While it is unlikely that either Bush or Rumsfeld will actually have to face these charges in court, if the cases do proceed it will send a powerful message that even close U.S. allies are not looking kindly on what appears to be the Bush Administration's sanction of torture by the U.S. Military.