19 Nov CBC’s Kady O live blogs the Colvin reaction

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Kady O’Malley live blogs the NDP response to the Colvin torture testimony and the Conservative’s bucket defence. [Note to CBC: Horrible interface.] Moneyquote:

[NDP MP Paul] Dewar… is clearly genuinely angry, and getting more so as he describes the attempts to challenge Colvin, and previously, members of his party — and Harris quotes Former Colleague Wells’ explanation of the Bucket Defence,* which he seems to agree is operational here…

[CTV’s] Roger Smith wonders whether really, this isn’t Afghanistan’s problem — the torture, that is — and not really about Canada. Even if we did set up a better monitoring system, and were able to determine whether Canadian-transferred detainees were tortured, they’d still have been tortured. That’s a bit existential, no? Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Anyway, Dewar agrees that the wider question of Afghanistan is a valid one, but Canada’s credibility is at stake. Harris notes that Colvin’s testimony also offered a disturbing assessment of those initially detained — farmers, tailors, other locals — which makes it even more important to make sure that they weren’t being handed over to face all but certain torture. If Canadians are taking people randomly from a field, and sending them off to be tortured, how does that affect our standing with the Afghan people?

*As mentioned earlier , Freud had an even better explanation of the Bucket Defence.