Richard Colvin - Living Hero #8

I have always believed the parliamentary system to be the most democratic system of government available. Unfortunately the way the system is exploited by politicians to serve their own personal needs as opposed to the will the people, it can border on a totalitarian dictatorship. Canadians tend to reinforce the self serving agendas of our politicians by accepting their behavior without demanding representation or accountability.

Richard Colvin is a Canadian diplomat who has sacrificed his future career in the foreign service by testifying before the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan that detainees turned over to local authorities by Canadian soldiers were subsequently tortured. While being attacked personally and threatened by his own government, Colvin has not wavered in his commitment to doing the right thing by bringing the truth to the Canadian people and taking a stand for Canada.

The Conservative government denies they were ever aware of the issue and have since implemented illegal and dirty tactics to suppress evidence to the contrary. Despite great personal sacrifice and hardship, Richard Colvin remains committed to his belief that the war in Afghanistan has gone badly wrong because of poor political leadership, which has endangered Canadian and Afghan lives. He also feels the same view is widely shared among his colleagues who have been silenced by their superiors.

I can only wonder what changes would be possible if everyone was willing to take a stand like Richard Colvin has. I would think that at a minimum we would have a system where our representatives in the House of Commons actually cast their votes for the will of their constituents as opposed to the whim of their party leader.

“Counter-insurgency is an argument to win the support of the locals. Every action, reaction or failure to act become part of the debate. In Kandahar, Canada needs to convince local people that we are better than the Taliban, that our values were superior, that we would look after their interests and protect them. In my judgment, some of our actions in Kandahar, including complicity in torture, turned local people against us. Instead of winning hearts and minds, we caused Kandaharis to fear the foreigners. Canada’s detainee practices alienated us from the population and strengthened the insurgency.” - Richard Colvin (b. 1969)