PETER WORTHINGTON WRITES IN THE TORONTO SUN:

Bill Sampson, recently released from a Saudi Arabian prison, has been telling his story in the National Post and on Global television, and as horrific as his ordeal was, even more appalling is the Canadian government’s behaviour throughout. The Canadian government, first through John Manley as foreign minister and then his successor Bill Graham, was not only reluctant to believe allegations of torture but sided with the Saudis. After Sampson’s release, the most conceded by Mr. Graham has been that there was “mistreatment.”

Mistreatment! Good Lord!

Sampson’s accounts are graphic: Strung upside down and beaten, the soles of his feet whipped, being forced to squat, arms tied around his legs and a bar pushed under his knees and then hung between chairs and spun and beaten, his genitals hit, testicles stamped on, and more.

“No evidence of torture,” insisted the Canadian government for 31 months of his imprisonment on trumped up charges.

Funny how so many people who criticize the U.S. criminal justice system take a “what can you expect from the wogs?” approach to this sort of thing. The Saudis, of course, deny everything. But then, they also claim to be our allies in the war on terror. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Brian Dunn emails:

Yet the Canadian government is filled with people who still think Guantanamo Bay is a torture center. I bet Mr. Sampson wishes he faced our tender mercies rather than the Saudis’.

And then the Canadian government would have complained loudly!