Law legalizing rape in marriage prompts outcry

Canada expresses outrage, Western diplomats hold emergency meeting in Kabul, but Karzai's move foreshadows painful tradeoffs

AMPBELL CLARK

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

April 2, 2009 at 4:11 AM EDT

OTTAWA — It used to be a mission to give a future to little girls. Now the government is scrambling to explain why Canadian troops are fighting for an Afghanistan that legalizes rape within marriage.

The new Afghan law, apparently approved by President Hamid Karzai, led Western diplomats in Kabul to call an emergency meeting and hammer out a concerted response, pressuring the Karzai administration to back down.

Canadian officials insisted that Mr. Karzai still has some "wiggle room" before the law is implemented, and waited impatiently for the President's first public comments on the law.

The Conservative government expressed outrage, and opposition politicians said Canadian soldiers did not fight and die for an Afghanistan that would pass such a law.

But the thorny question of whether Canada might withdraw support - cut some of its aid, for instance - left cabinet ministers at a loss.

"We haven't had a chance yet to talk with the other ministers, so we haven't made any decisions or had any discussions on next steps," International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda said. "It's very problematic. It's a great concern and it is going to be a difficulty for Canada."

As the United States, Canada and allies moved to lower expectations about whether they will leave Afghanistan a democracy that respects human rights - and as they increasingly back reconciliation with elements of the Taliban insurgency - the outcry over the new law may foreshadow painful tradeoffs to come.

For the Conservative government, which has emphasized advances for women and the ability of girls to go to school in Afghanistan, the law presents an immediate political quandary. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the government must make it clear to Mr. Karzai that the law is unacceptable, while the NDP said Afghanistan should not expect Canadian troops and aid if it passes such laws.

"How can the government say our soldiers have died to protect the rights of women when Hamid Karzai passes this law?" NDP Leader Jack Layton asked in the Commons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in an interview with the CBC from the G20 summit in London, called the move "antithetical" to Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

"The concept that women are full human beings with human rights is very, very central to the reason the international community is engaged in this country..." he said. "It's a significant change we want to see from the bad, old days of the Taliban."

Canadian government officials said yesterday they still aren't certain if the law had been fully passed or signed by Mr. Karzai. But Alexandra Gilbert, a women's-rights project co-ordinator for the Canadian agency Rights and Democracy, said from Kabul she understands through women MPs that the law has been passed and signed.

It is a new family-law code for Afghanistan's Shia minority, and while it does not apply to all, women's groups in Afghanistan fear the precedent, Ms. Gilbert said.

"Women don't have access to public life. To education, to health care, they can't leave the house without the approval of their husband ... and [wives] cannot refuse sexual relations," she said.

Many believe Mr. Karzai is backing the law to build support for the presidential election he faces in August. University of Toronto foreign-policy expert Janice Stein said she's hoping it will win votes from Shiites and also resonates with Pashtun Afghan elders in the south.

She and other analysts believe that Western allies are still caught between competing visions of the Afghan mission, even though U.S. President Barack Obama has moved the goals from democratic nation-building to preventing the re-establishment of a staging ground for terrorists.

University of Ottawa professor Roland Paris said the new law is so egregious that Western nations had an easy choice to oppose it, but as they scale back emphasis on democracy and support reconciliation with Taliban elements, other hard choices will come.

Source

 

 

Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Home of the Corrupt Judge Allan Sheffield, Canada) wrote: Canada has a "War" at home, against men, that defies all principles and notions of equity and justice. Its now politically correct as was burning witches at the stake with "show trials" several hundreds years ago.

Now, men get thrown in jail, indefinitely, repeatedly WITH OUT A TRIAL.

Latest Ottawa Court News
QUOTE
"FEBRUARY TRIAL SITTINGS"
There were 67 cases on the list. Seven cases were adjourned, three cases proceeded as uncontested trials, three cases proceeded by way of motion for SUMMARY JUDGMENT, one case was withdrawn and four cases proceeded to trial.

That is, 60 out of 67 parties did not get a trial or Chose NOT to have a trial, and the reason, the Judges War on Men is so well defined that the men chose NOT to take their chances with Ottawa's well known CORRUPT Family Court Judges.

Notice that only 4 made it to trial and 3 were "solved" with "SUMMARY JUDGMENT", that is when
a Corrupt Judge agrees by private arrangement to hold a hearing that says "There is NO GENUINE ISSUE FOR TRIAL" but that decision is made with out a trial, issues of credibility can not be determined,
generally its ONE WOMAN'S "She Said" that makes sure "he said" is never heard.

It generally results in a Father never seeing his kids again and also results in his indefinite repeated incarceration IF he remains in Ontario, that is these orders are Virtual Deportation Orders that hark back to the days of British desire to rid the streets of the poor by transportation to the colonies.

These orders for Summary Judgment are supposed to be used rarely but, the government simply fails to appoint sufficient judges who simply "get rid of cases" by intimidation or the politically correct incredibly unjust method of Permanently Depriving a parent of the right of having ANY access to the courts for any reason especially regarding the right of their child to have a relationship with their father.

www.OttawaMensCentre.com

 

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Home of the Corrupt Judge Allan Sheffield, Canada) wrote: Canadian girls need daddies, and thanks to our very Corrupt Family Court Judiciary who have a pathological hatred towards men, hundreds of thousands of little Canadian Girls never get to have a relationship with their father.
Ottawa is quite prepared to spend billions protecting women's rights in Afghanistan to satisfy Canadian Feminists while also pandering to Canadian Feminists who think that women have a natural right to being a single mother that also entitles them to decided to terminate their little girls' relationship with her father.

Many of these little girls grow up knowing two crazy mother's who both have a pathological hatred of men due to their own childhood sexual abuse and or mental health and or severe personality disorders.

Canada needs to invest in "Judicial Screening"
At present we have judges like the dishonourable Denis Power who suffers from 'Court Rage' and the dishonourable corrupt Allan Sheffield who both are willing to do the dirty enforcer work of the judiciary that the judicial alternative to the hit men of a criminal organization who wipe out those who give them sufficient reason.
See the research by Peter Roscoe at the Ottawa Mens Centre
wwwOttawaMensCentre.com



 

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Home of the Corrupt Judge Allan Sheffield, Canada wrote: Canada needs to invest in a real Judicial Authority that has REAL power to investigate REAL COMPLAINTS. Right now, the judicial council cannot investigate virtually any complaint against a judge.

This results in habitual ongoing flagrant abuses of judicial power for personal and political reasons that have nothing to do with equity and justice.

There are several infamous judges of the Ontario Superior Court known for outragious abuses of power that destroy lives and prevent specifically fathers from even asking for a court order for access to be enforced or going to court to ask for a variation of child support ordered for no other reason than judicial revenge.

Mr. Harper needs to order an investigation into the chronic and flagrant abuses by the very well known Corrupt Ontario Judges.

www.OttawaMensCentre.com /roscoe

 

 

Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Home of the Corrupt Judge Allan Sheffield, Canada) wrote: Afghan Women and Girls deserve better. The Taliban would probably not be able to comprehend that the Canadian troops that they are so intent on killing have legal rights at home akin to to Afgan females.

Spare a thought for our Canadian Soldiers who get served with a Notice of Motion for a change in custody days before or during deployment.

www.OttawaMensCentre.com