by Roch Tassé
Source: Email Fwd
URL: N/A
Date: October 28, 2008


Dear friends,

I am writing to encourage you to pick up a copy of Kerry Pither's Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror. It is a compelling and important account of what happened to the men whose stories were the subject of the Iacobucci Inquiry: Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki, Maher Arar and Muayyed Nureddin.

Unlike the Iacobucci Inquiry's report, Dark Days tracks the investigations through the eyes of the men who were targeted, and, unlike the Inquiry's report, weaves the stories together in a timeline that exposes the full extent of Canadian complicity in torture, and how the public was misled around these cases.

Every copy sold is a little bit of justice done for the men, and a little bit of accountability for the Canadian agencies, officials and political leaders to blame for their ordeals. All of us who have been pushing for answers in these cases would like to see this book make the bestseller's list. To do that, we need to see a concentrated bump in sales. So please consider helping out by purchasing a copy this week.

It can be purchased on line at [link] , [link] , or [link]

Please also check with your local library to ensure they have it, and if they don't, encourage them to order it.The book has received good reviews in the Globe, Toronto Star and Canwest, and here's what Cameron Ward wrote about it for the Georgian Straight: "Writing in a compelling, fast-paced dramatic style, Pither exposes the ineptitude, if not the outright malevolence, of other Canadian officials who not only turned a blind eye to the plight of the four Canadians as they rotted in jail, but actually relayed interrogation questions to their Syrian torturers. The Syrians apparently felt they were doing Canada's bidding and the Canadian consular officials who were in a position to disabuse them of that notion, and return the four men to their Canadian homes, utterly neglected to help. Pither names names, and her portrayal of Franco Pillarella, former Canadian ambassador to Syria, and his subordinate Leo Martel, is less than flattering. The reader cannot help but be angered by the obtuse ignorance of these men and their complete failure to discharge their primary duty, which was to safeguard the interests of Canadian citizens abroad." Kerry has a blog where you can read more about the book and link to bookstores, at [link]