No hard evidence of competence

More insanity from the Arar inquiry. The diplomat who met with Maher Arar in Syria concluded that there was no "hard evidence of torture", even though he didn't actually have any training as to what hard evidence might be:

It was clear from Arar's body language that he didn't feel free to speak on certain subjects, said Martel.

It also appeared the Syrians had been holding Arar in jail for longer than they had previously admitted.

Martel insisted repeatedly that he saw no visible signs of torture. But he admitted he had no specialized training in how to detect warning signals of physical or psychological mistreatment.

The testimony raises a couple of issues. First, shouldn't diplomats who might be expected to have to deal with a situation such as Arar's receive training that would allow them to fully evaluate the behaviour of a detainee? Maybe it's only obvious in hindsight, but as far as I can tell an office charged with upholding the interests of Canadians abroad should be well aware of the risk posed by states with a history of violating human rights.

And second, the question underlying the entire inquiry: what exactly was Canada's standard for taking meaningful action? It appears that many officials at least had substantial concerns about Arar's treatment, and the main justification for doing nothing was a lack of information as to what as going on. Under those circumstances, why wouldn't Canada have demanded at least the opportunity to speak with Arar without supervision?

At the very least, thanks to the inquiry we should have some answers as to what went wrong. But these should be open questions for the future as well, lest more Canadians become collateral damage in the war on terror while their government sits idly by.

Edit: Note also this Globe and Mail piece, as Cotler tries to have it both ways on torture. Though I suppose if one squints hard enough, Cotler's may not be an entirely contradictory position: torture is indefensible, ergo Cotler will refuse to comment when it happens rather than trying to defend it.