Proudly oblivious

For the most part, David Wilkins has done a better job sounding reasonable than most Canadians expected from a Bush appointee. But when asked about the Maher Arar inquiry, Wilkins showed one major blind spot within his home state:

Mr. Wilkins, who took up his post in Ottawa about two months ago, seemed puzzled when asked whether he or his government had any regrets about the affair.

“You talking about regrets by the United States?” he said...

The ambassador, a former speaker of the South Carolina legislature and a close political ally of President George W. Bush, was also at a loss to explain why American authorities refused to participate in a public inquiry in Canada into the Mr. Arar affair.

“I honestly don't know the answer to that,” said Mr. Wilkins. “Were they asked? I don't know.”

Based on Wilkins' other answers, the central problem seems to be an outright absence of consideration of the people who, through no fault of their own, get caught up in terrorism-related speculation. But it appears that not only is Bushco unwilling to try to defend its position on torture, but it's also unwilling to even acknowledge the debate, to the point of refusing to give its own members information needed to perform their jobs.

After all, Wilkins is the representatives abroad charged with maintaining U.S./Canada relations - and he was apparently unaware of one of the more toxic issues between the two states. Surely he should have been well-informed as to the background on Arar, even if only in order to allow him to best defend the U.S.' actions publicly when asked inevitable questions about the inquiry.

Wilkins must bear at least some responsibility as well, since his study of Canada apparently hasn't extended to taking notice of an inquiry that's made ample news over the last year. We'll learn a lot about Wilkins based on whether he follows up on the question as a critical Canadian issue, or seeks to bury it as would be the case at home.

But the bigger issue is the culture of ignorance among the handlers who apparently decided that the torture of Canadian citizens based on faulty U.S. information wouldn't be an international issue. Unfortunately, we know too much about the rest of the Bush administration to think that they'll start paying attention now.