’He missed the point’

Gar Pardy, formerly head of Canadian consular services, raises concerns about this country’s treatment of its citizens.

Commenting on Ms. Mohamud’s case, the Prime Minister recently – and correctly – observed the potential difficulty in dealing with such matters when foreign governments are not co-operative. But he missed the point, since so many of the recent cases have nothing to do with the actions of foreign governments.

Rather, it is the action and policy of the Canadian government that has created the problems. Canadians should be rightly concerned with these developments. If not, the ghosts of Arar, El Maati, Almalki and Nureddin will haunt us for years to come.