Canada will remove Israel and US from torture state list

By MARK WEISS
Canada plans to remove both Israel and the US from a list drawn up by the foreign ministry in Ottawa of countries where prisoners risk torture and abuse. On Saturday Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier issued a statement apologizing for the fact that the two Canadian allies were included in a training manual list on torture awareness distributed to Canadian diplomats and other organizations including Amnesty International. "I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the department's torture awareness training," the foreign minister said. "It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten. The manual is neither a policy document nor a statement of policy. As such, it does not convey the Government's views or positions."