International Law

This may take a while

Just because this is a story I know we all like to keep hearing about . . .

As reported by CBC news:

The 10 adults accused of plotting a militant attack in Toronto all appeared in a Brampton court on Tuesday as the judge began hearing defence motions claiming the way the case has proceeded violates the Constitution.

And here’s the kicker:

The motions are expected to take the court the rest of the year to hear.

Rest of the year? That’s another four months of motions! And the ten men in question have already been in custody for over two years!

Oh well, at least it will give me something to blog about. And some of the Constitutional questions may be interesting.

As I’ve said before, I really hope at the end of the day we learn that all this was worth it. But I have my doubts. These were recently bolstered by reading Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side, a new book about America’s adoption of torture as a tool in the War on Terror. The interesting thing I found was how much of the torture policy was driven by hysteria. Prisoners (many of them innocent of any terrorist connections anyway) were interrogated largely as part of a fishing expedition for “actionable intelligence” on pending threats. Which was rarely (if ever) forthcoming despite hundreds, if not thousands, of prisoners being tortured.

Terrorism may be a real threat. But it is not a threat to our way of life or to western civilization. The War on Terror, however, may be. I hope that’s something our courts keep in mind.

Full post as published by Criminal Review on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).