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GenX
10-09-2007, 06:10 PM
"In recent years, Amnesty International has received numerous allegations that Belgian police officers have subjected people - a high proportion of them foreigners and non-Caucasian Belgian nationals - to physical and psychological ill-treatment, including racist abuse. Reported incidents have taken place in police cells, on the streets or during deportation of unauthorized immigrants and rejected asylum-seekers.

A number of fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment in police custody are absent in Belgium. People deprived of their liberty have no right of access to a lawyer upon arrest and during questioning, no right to have relatives or a third party notified of the fact and place of their detention, and no explicit rights of access to a doctor and to be informed of their rights."

LINK (http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engeur140022003)

GenX
10-09-2007, 06:28 PM
Hans??????

Wanna' discuss the Patriot Act or something???

Hans
10-09-2007, 06:36 PM
Your obsession with Belgium is taking on some serious proportions. Maybe you should consider immigrating to Belgium, to feed your obsession better.

1337
10-09-2007, 06:52 PM
The streets are safer in Belgium compared to the states. So where is your argument?

The prisons in Belgium have a smaller population than the states per capita, so where is your argument?

Hans
10-09-2007, 07:33 PM
He knows nothing about Belgium. It's funny to watch him post all this. If only he knew how dumb he looks.

Hans
10-09-2007, 07:37 PM
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511352007?open&of=ENG-USA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Law and executive disorder
President gives green light to secret detention program

Our critics sometimes paint the United States as a country willing to duck or shrug off international obligations when they prove constraining or inconvenient. That picture is wrong. The United States does believe that international law matters. We help develop it, rely on it, abide by it…
John Bellinger, Legal Adviser, US State Department, 6 June 2007
Summary

Among other things, the executive order:

o Authorizes and endorses secret incommunicado detention, a practice that violates international law, and itself amounts to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (ill-treatment). Such detention can amount to enforced disappearance, a crime under international law. Most of those who have already been held in the CIA program have become the victims of enforced disappearance;
o Exploits the USA’s pick and choose approach to international law, including the reservations attached to its ratification of international human rights treaties limiting the protections against torture and other ill-treatment;
o Attaches to its interpretation of common Article 3 a form of the US constitutional law "shocks the conscience" test. This opens the door to a sliding scale of legality in relation to acts that may amount to torture or other ill-treatment against detainees viewed by the CIA as potential sources of "high-value" intelligence and who may be exposed to "enhanced interrogation techniques";
o Contains additional loopholes that may allow further ill-treatment of detainees held in the CIA program, including in relation to humiliating and degrading treatment;
o Fails to repudiate specific interrogation techniques which have allegedly been used in the CIA secret program and which clearly violate the international prohibition on torture and other ill-treatment. One such technique is "waterboarding", in effect mock execution by drowning;
o Facilitates and entrenches impunity, including for officials and agents who have authorized, condoned or carried out enforced disappearances, abductions, secret detentions, and torture or other ill-treatment;
o Discriminates on the basis of national origin, reserving internationally unlawful measures for use against foreign nationals and denies them access to remedies, in violation of international human rights law;
o Casts a potentially wide net that could lead, for example, to family members of terrorist suspects sought by the USA being subjected to the secret detention program;
o Forms part of the US government’s global "war" paradigm, under which parts of international humanitarian law, selectively interpreted, are deemed to apply, and international human rights law is generally disregarded. In this context, this law of war framework is applied regardless of where and in what circumstances the detainee subject to the secret program was taken into custody.

1337
10-09-2007, 08:12 PM
What was that with that Guantanmo Bay, the secretary of defense OKAY'd any means necessary, even if it was torture?

But he has the odacity to post about stray Belgians who took the law into their own hands? THey critizing how much time they received?

When LAPD,NYPD, beat people who break the law?

RODNEY KING BRUTHA!

Striker
10-09-2007, 09:10 PM
Allegation...need more be said?

GenX
10-11-2007, 05:29 PM
"Air pollution has cut the average life expectancy of Europeans by nearly a year and contributes to the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of people annually, the European Environment Agency said on Wednesday.

More than 100 million people in the region encompassing 53 countries also lack access to safe drinking water, a problem most acute in rural areas, the group which compiles data for the European Union said in a report.

Levels of air pollution reduce life expectancy by as much as two years in the most affected areas of Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Italy and parts of Poland and Hungary, the report said."

LINK (http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1021191920071011)

GenX
10-11-2007, 05:31 PM
"Border officials are summarily sending refugee claimants back to the U.S. in breach of Canada's duty to let them seek asylum, says the United Nations - and refugee advocates say the practice must stop.

The latest incident involves four refugees from Haiti and one from El Salvador who were sent back Monday to the U.S. from the Lacolle, Que., border point near Montreal.

"It is completely unacceptable for the Canadian government, based on its convenience, to turn away refugee claimants who are seeking our protection," said Amy Casipullai of the Canadian Council for Refugees."

LINK (http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jyQ-HLeDHe12TGJ1oDAUSUWYQGcA)

GenX
10-11-2007, 05:32 PM
"International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda says it's imperative that United Nations food deliveries make it to hungry Afghan villages, but she won't commit Canada to doing more than paying for the parcels."

LINK (http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h0vgH9ifx_m5e4c_K7p4_U-Rjakw)

GenX
10-11-2007, 05:33 PM
"Politicians keep promising us they'll fix it, but Canada's nagging doctor shortage is going to get worse before it gets better.

We simply don't produce enough doctors, and too many of those we do train flee to better opportunities in the United States.

A recent Canadian Medical Association survey shows many Canadian born and trained doctors would be happy to return, but simply can't afford it. Meanwhile, thousands of others who practise here are expected to retire over the next decade.

It all paints a gloomy picture for a population that is both increasing and aging.

Canada needs another 26,000 doctors in addition to the existing 80,000 or 90,000 working here at present, according to the CMA.

Only then will it approach the international target set by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has a target of one doctor for every 1,000 people.

But we're unlikely to get anywhere near that anytime soon. Statistics Canada says more than one million Canadians were without a doctor in 2003. "

LINK (http://winnipegsun.com/Comment/Editorial/2007/10/11/4566630.html)

Hans
10-11-2007, 05:59 PM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Speedy the Arrogant Parrot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"Border officials are summarily sending refugee claimants back to the U.S. in breach of Canada's duty to let them seek asylum, says the United Nations - and refugee advocates say the practice must stop.

The latest incident involves four refugees from Haiti and one from El Salvador who were sent back Monday to the U.S. from the Lacolle, Que., border point near Montreal.

"It is completely unacceptable for the Canadian government, based on its convenience, to turn away refugee claimants who are seeking our protection," said Amy Casipullai of the Canadian Council for Refugees."

LINK (http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jyQ-HLeDHe12TGJ1oDAUSUWYQGcA) </div></div>

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Lacolle, Que., border point near Montreal is a border between the US and Canada.

We have 4 refugees from Haiti and 1 from El Salvador, who entered the USA with the intention to cross the US-Canadian border and seek asylum in canada.

Correct me again if I am wrong. Is it not so that when you enter the US as a non resident, to travel thru US territory in order to reach another country with the intention to seek asylum in such country, you have to state that intention and state how long you plan on residing on US soil?

Correct me if I am wrong again, but if such people get denied asylum by Canada and refused entry into Canada, the US is then responsible for the care of these people in question?

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:04 PM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> Correct me if I am wrong, but the Lacolle, Que., border point near Montreal is a border between the US and Canada.</div></div>

Move over Albert Einstein, Hans is in the building!! /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/beerchug.gif

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:06 PM
So, how about the rest of my posting? Or are you only capable of understanding single sentences?

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:08 PM
That first one was so in-depth, such an intellectual tour de force, that I haven't regained my faculties.

Your intelligence does that to me on occasion. /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:13 PM
Take your time. I just realized the exposure to intelligent conversation might prove to much for your brain cell.

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:17 PM
It's just...it's just...just that I feel I'm in the company of one of western civilizations' greatest thinkers whenever I'm around you.

You'll have to excuse the 'star struck'-ness of it all.

I'm in awe, I admit it.

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:18 PM
It's ok. I am used to stardom and realize it might be to much for you. Like I said, just take your time.

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:22 PM
Is it wrong that I have feelings for you that creep very close to the border of sexual, though they certainly do not cross the line?

I'm going through an existential crisis right now. Your intelligence is so overwhelming it flirts with the sexual.

I'm confused...

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:26 PM
I realize you might be confused, but I can promise you it will all be clear in an hour or so.

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:26 PM
How's the lil' one doing?

(your newborn, I mean)

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:27 PM
Very good, thanks.

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:27 PM
Does he pee and poop a lot?

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:37 PM
It's a she.

GenX
10-11-2007, 06:39 PM
He's a she?

Hans
10-11-2007, 06:40 PM
Yup.

Return of Too Many Daves
10-12-2007, 11:40 AM
What is the point of this thread? What is the point of it all?

Hans
10-12-2007, 01:16 PM
We will have to wait on Speedy for that one, as he started this thread.

GenX
10-13-2007, 11:54 AM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Return of Too Many Daves</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What is the point of this thread? What is the point of it all? </div></div>

If you were Christian you wouldn't ask that. /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

GenX
10-13-2007, 11:57 AM
"A Canadian soldier will stand trial in military court for the shooting death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan, the military said on Friday.

Master Cpl. Robbie Fraser is facing manslaughter and negligence charges in connection with the August 2006 death of Master Cpl. Jeffrey Walsh, who died of a gunshot wound while both men were on routine patrol near Kandahar."

"Peaceful" Canada (http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1227927020071012)

GenX
10-13-2007, 12:00 PM
Canada talks a good line about being a "learning society" but it falls short when it comes to adult education, says Statistics Canada.

The federal agency, in a study released Friday morning, concluded the workforce is headed for trouble if more adults do not seek education or job retraining.

"As fewer young, highly skilled people enter the labour market, productivity gains become increasingly dependent on the continuous retraining of the existing workforce," said the study.


Statistics Canada warns that "dramatic demographic change," such as the rapid aging of Canada's population, is underlining the urgency of addressing the issue of adult learning.

LINK (http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=82b4c15b-738e-4721-a526-97430ec91b5b&k=33208)

I'm learning from my Canadian friends. I am learning how to focus only on the negatives of another country. /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif