Let us now praise heroes like Richard Colvin. At considerable risk to his diplomatic career, he spoke out against Canadian government complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees.

And let us have enough of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's and Defence Minister Peter MacKay's fawning emulation of former U.S. president George W. Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney. Their denials of torture all turned out to be lies.

Harper has the audacity to fault the Opposition's compassion for Canadian soldiers while showing compassion for "Taliban prisoners." In the "fog of war" all detainees are not Taliban, no more than all arrestees are guilty. If we were so sure, we could dispense with the courts, due process, the whole justice system.

Paul Glassen

Nanaimo