President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper give a joint news conference at 1445 Tuesday. It will be held in Parliament's Centre Block. Though there are roughly 300 or so members of Canada's Parliamentary Press Gallery, just 40 will be allowed inside the press conference room. And even though (or so we are told) there are 70 members of the White House Press Corps travelling with Obama tomorrow, they too, will only get 40 seats.
I can tell you that dozens upon dozens of Canadian journalists from outside Ottawa asked for accreditation for this event, most of which will be disappointed.
Blame the PMO or the White House if you will. The PMO is supposed to be calling the shots here but we suspect the White House is pulling many of the strings.
In any event, the 80 journalists in the room will get precisely four questions before the leaders leave. Two questions will be asked by the American journalists and two questions will be asked by the Canadians. Of course, as we are a bilingual country, that means one question goes to English language journalists and one to the other solitude.
So here's the quandary: What question do you think Global National, National Post, the Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, CTV, CBC, the Canadian Press and others can all agree on? Something about the economy? Cross-border trade? Afghanistan? Omar Khadr?
I won't be in that room (I'm tasked with some other Obama-related work tomorrow) and won't have any input on that discussion but, if I if I did get a chance to ask the new Prez a question, I would argue that we should ask Obama about Maher Arar.
Our government, after all, paid Arar $10 million after a judicial inquiry established he did nothing wrong and suffered grievously because of the mistakes of our security services and those of the United States. Prime Minister Harper apologized to Arar. Today, the New York Times says Obama ought to do the same. So why not invite President Obama to do just that during his visit to the Centre Block of Canada's House of Commons. That’s not just a “Canada” question. The Times also reports today that though Obama’s administration may close Gitmo, it looks to continue the ethically dodgy practice of rendering — the very practice that led to Arar’s torture. Asking about Arar, then, would give some insight as to just how far this new president is prepared to distance himself from the often controversial anti-terror policies of his predecessor. And that's something the whole world would like to know about.
Technorati Tags: barack obama, maher arar, United States – Foreign Policy
Has anyone asked Obama if he considers Omar Khadr to be a child soldier or not yet?
David,
While I do not suspect it is your attention, it feels as though it is going to put him on the spot. He is President, so it is his job to answer hard questions….but…asking for an apology feels more gotcha than substantive.
I agree completely with a question on rendition though after reading the times question (thanks for the link) and it could bridge in Arar.
BUt I am also partial to a Khadr question. PMSH seems to want to have this go gently in the night and it shouldn't be allowed to. Succesive Canadian governments have ignored the issue and tomorrow both of the key decision makers on the issue are in the room and this Khadr's well-being (see Private Brandon Neely's deposition) may be hanging in the balance.
I think ti quite likely the rendition question will be asked, if not tomorrow, then at the next possible chance (given NYT coverage). The same cannot be said for Khadr.
President Obama, after you nullify nafta, ban tar sands oil from the United States, send most of the Guantanamo detainees to live in Canada and persuade the Canadian Government to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely what other measures might you take that would affect Canada?
(in the hope that he will affirm or deny the first four questions and then offer up a freebie?)
President Obama, what are your thoughts regarding how much you can trust the PM whose office was responsible for attempting to interfere with the recent presidential election by revealing an apparent contradiction in your position on NAFTA?
With the economy in dissarray currently and the car market suffering has the thought of recycling and renewables come to mind to jumpstart the economy. For example take the gas guzzlers off of the road and start producing hydrogen or solar powered cars? The technology is within our grasp and while the service industry is going strong say how about a repair or recycle market for electronics we can jumpstart the economy on intellegent means but it takes a whole lot of teamwork to make it happen. So why are we whining lets start inventing ! Now is the time for new innovations and ideas?