I feel often that we’re losing the fight against injustice and that the force of oppression and the deadweight of apathy bury our meagre resistance. I’m tempted to quit the struggle. Why bother, I ask myself. I admit that this view reveals my egotism and the tunnel vision which accompanies it. Recently two events challenged my view.
On a cold, windy morning near the end of October I stood outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa. A group of us were concluding the three day campaign “Stop Canada’s Involvement in Torture”. I was handing out leaflets. Others, wearing hoods and orange jumpsuits, knelt on the pavement, held banners, or read testimonies over a loudspeaker regarding how the Prime Minister had failed to hold the RCMP, CSIS, the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs accountable for their roles in rendering Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Almalti, and Muayyed Nureddin, Canadians of Muslim faith, to torture in Syria and Egypt for up to two years. Further, the Prime Minister has defied the recommendation of the House of Commons (December 3, 2009) that the government apologize to the men and pay compensation.
A man dressed in a business suit and carrying an attaché case hurried toward me. When I stepped forward to offer him a pamphlet he waved me off peremptorily. He continued up the steps of the PMO and stopped by a key pad. My colleague Kirsten approached him with a pamphlet. I could see him dismissing her. Anger roared up in me like a geyser.
“Don’t bother, Kirsten!” I bellowed. “He doesn’t want to know! He wants to remain ignorant of our involvement in torture!” Wondering how the guard of six RCMP and Ottawa police officers might respond to my outburst I glanced over at them. They were grinning at each other: nothing like a little action to pass the time.
An hour or so later we packed up our protest. A female officer of the Ottawa police approached me. “Can’t I have one?” she said with a smile indicating my handful of pamphlets. I was taken aback and stood there dumbly. “Why does she want one?” I asked myself suspiciously. Then I thought with amazement “Well maybe she really wants to know about this” and I handed her one. By one quiet act this she removed all my anger and feeling of discouragement and left me with a challenge.
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