TheStar.com - Sometimes `quiet diplomacy' just isn't effective: "But even democratic governments that claim to honour the rule of law and international conventions on prisoners' rights can ignore them when it serves their purposes. The Bush administration demonstrated that following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, blatantly violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war by holding prisoners in total isolation under primitive conditions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite an international outcry.
Among those imprisoned was 16-year-old Canadian-born Omar Khadr. Despite a longstanding consular agreement between the U.S. and Canada guaranteeing access to detained Canadian citizens, the Bush administration flatly refused to grant Canadian representatives access to the young prisoner. "