The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Prime Minister Stephen HarperÕs government is spending $30 million or more in Afghanistan to Òprotect and promoteÓ human rights and to Òstrengthen the rule of lawÓ by training judges, prosecutors and public defenders. It is part of our $1.3 billion Afghan aid program. But CanadaÕs effort to help modernize the legal system has been cast in doubt by the disturbing case of Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, a 23-year-old journalism student who was condemned to death earlier this year by a court in Mazar-e-Sharif after a five-minute trial. He had been accused of blasphemy against Islam for raising questions in a university class about Islamic attitudes toward womenÕs rights, and for distributing an Internet article that asks why Islam isnÕt modernized to ensure equality of the sexes. In Afghanistan, blasphemy is punishable by death. Last week an appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years. KambakhshÕs family contends local warlords instigated the charges against him because his brother, also a journalist, had angered them with critical articles. However this murky travesty of justice plays out, the Harper government ought to issue a strong protest. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who can pardon criminals, should be told that Canadian taxpayers cannot be expected to fund a ÒjusticeÓ system that can condemn someone to death after a quickie trial, with inadequate defence, for raising basic questions about human rights in a university classroom. This looks more like the Taliban than any court Canadians would recognize as such. CanadaÕs troops are not fighting and dying in Afghanistan to make the place safe for religious zealots who hold human life in low regard.
