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Ccvt-First-Light-2007-Winter.Pdf A Biannual Publication of the Canadian Centre for VictimsVictims of Torture (CCVT) Winter 2007 Accredited member of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) First Light First Light, which is published semi-annually, Mandate is intended to inform the interested reader about torture, its effects and what we can do in The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture aids survivors in aiding survivors to overcome their experience overcoming the lasting effects of torture and war. In partner- of torture and war. CCVT views itself as part of ship with the community, the Centre supports survivors in the a larger global community and is committed to process of successful integration into Canadian society, works the struggle for human rights, justice and the for their protection and integrity, and raises awareness of the end of the practice of torture. continuing effects of torture and war on survivors and their families. We chose to call this publication First Light because as the first light before true dawn, it The CCVT gives hope after the horror. symbolizes the first ray of hope for survivors of torture. Issue Editor In This Issue... Ezat Mossallanejad CCVT Clients: Saintly Victims or Complex Layout Design Layout Design Individuals? Chizuru Nobe Torture, Its Effect Public Education Committee Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Refugees in Limbo: Manuals for Best Prac- Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator tices Susan McGrath, Committee Chair Ezat Mossallanejad, Policy Analyst Reflection on the Death of Tyrant Editorial Committee Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Mulugeta Abai, Executive Director Torture Teresa Dremetsikas, Program Coordinator Susan McGrath, Committee Chair Canadian Security Certificate Ezat Mossallanejad, Policy Analyst Chizuru Nobe, Volunteer Coordinator Photo Gallery Special thanks to: Hari Lalla, Prof. Fred An Interview with Thilaga Jeganathan Case, Claudia Ramirez, Christopher Oates, Mellissa Jones- Prus, Nazanin Rassouli, Ed Hosam Tarter, Thomas Foster, Mansoor Shams, and Reza Sepahdari CCVT Intake Statistics Published by Saddam’s Hanging: Metamorphosis of The Canadian Centre for Justice and a Mockery of Human Rights Victims of Torture 194 Jarvis St. 2nd Floor Thank you CCVT Toronto, ON M5B 2B7 Canada The War Prayer Tel: 416-363-1066 The U. S. Military: Commissions Act of 2006 Fax: 416-363-2122 Email: [email protected] Website: www.ccvt.org Regional Report Editor’s Note: The information provided in this Darfur: Seeing Past the Smoke publication is not controlled by the CCVT and therefore may not reflect the Centre's views. Afghanistan: An ongoing struggle for sur- vival © Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture.. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced in Book Reviews any form without permission from the publisher. 25 Years Rebuilding Lives: United Nations Subscriptions Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture 2 issues per year Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar Canada: Individuals 1 year (plus GST or HST) — CAD $15 - Factual Background United States and International: Individuals 1 year — CAD $25 Torture in the Age of Fear Payment may be made by VISA, MasterCard, certified cheque or money Reflections from a friend order 2 First Light First Light CCVT Clients: Saintly Victims or Complex Individuals? By Catherine Raine One misconception that I’ve overcome is the ex- Watch a person’s face when you tell them you pectation that survivors of torture will always say nice things. I believed that intense suffering had teach English at the Canadian Centre for Victims of somehow made them more than human, magically Torture. Eyebrows raise with surprise and the eyes transforming them into pious models of compas- crinkle in concern. Often the head moves forward, sion and political correctness. That’s why I was as if the name of my workplace is a magnet that shocked when a student once joked about Christo- draws them closer to me, so close that I can see pher Reeve’s paralysis: “Superman used to fly but their curiosity, embarrassment, pity, and fear. With now he’s stuck in a wheelchair.” A few of the the exception of one person who laughed when I learners laughed at the unfeeling comment, but the said the T-word, most become very quiet, perhaps rest of us just gaped in horror. The same student burdened by questions they’d like to ask, their who lacked empathy for Reeve also got irritated imaginations aroused by the taboo images of with me during a class discussion of Princess “torture” and “victim”. However, I don’t want to Diana’s biography. When I said it was sad that she judge my auditors too harshly for their reaction to died so young, the student replied matter-of- an ordinary inquiry about my job. Before I started factly: “That’s life, teacher. Children die all the teaching at CCVT in the fall of 2004, I tried to time and who is feeling sad for them?” Maybe the imagine the particularities of suffering just barely learner didn’t like precious sympathy being conveyed by the phrase “victims of torture.” I may wasted on rich women who romp on yachts with never be able to understand the depth and scope of playboys. More disturbingly, another client started the pain my students have experienced, but I’d like laughing when she suddenly related an anecdote to reflect on what I’ve learned about their coping about two men in her building beating each other methods. Whether they have responded with emo- up in a lover’s quarrel. A classmate said, tional numbness or extreme sensitivity to others’ “Teacher, she’s laughing about somebody getting suffering, I believe they both inhabit and transcend hurt?” I agreed that it wasn’t at all funny, just as it the limiting label of ‘victims’. Two-dimensional wasn’t funny when a different student expressed saints they are not, but the courage of CCVT cli- anger at Inuit seal-hunts with the words “Let them ents shines in their willingness to start again in eat snow! Why can’t they find a job in the city Canada and find a new voice in a new language. like everybody else?” Winter 2007 3 First Light Was torture responsible for these lapses in compas- On another occasion, I asked a student what her sion? If so, I think the most tragic effect of brutali- favourite colour was. I thought it was a fairly zation is a lost capacity to feel for other victims, es- neutral topic, but her answer was heart-rending. pecially when they seem different in regards to dis- She said, “I used to really love red. It was my ability, wealth, sexual orientation, or culture. If favourite until the day I saw a wounded cow in trauma has cost some students their willingness to my village. Something had cut its thigh and there acknowledge others’ tragedies and hurts, then that’s was so much blood. The smell of it made me the biggest loss of all; here, the inhumanity of tor- sick. But what I couldn’t stand was that the cow ture has turned victims into the executioners of their was crying because it was in so much pain. I own humanity so that they no longer know what is think a farmer had done this cruel thing because funny and what is sad. From this perspective, I can the cow had wandered into his garden and was see how empathy could become a luxury and hurtful eating his vegetables. But I felt so awful about laughter a way to mask overwhelming sadness and the poor cow, and even now I can’t stand to wear fear. It’s emotionally costly to invest in the suffering red-coloured clothes because they remind me of that’s available for our consumption every night on the blood from the cow’s thigh.” Hearing about TV. Insensitivity, distance, and emotional numbness the wounded cow made me want to cry, too, for I is safer than facing the pain lurking in the body’s could picture its agony from the vividness of her memory, locked into every thought. I can under- description. At risk of reading too much into the stand why it might be difficult for some of my stu- story, I think the cow’s suffering spoke to the dents to “waste” emotion on Christopher Reeve, depths of the storyteller’s own innocence and Princess Diana, a gay neighbour, or the Inuit, but I outrageous pain. This same student cried when feel part of the rehabilitative work that happens at we read a Metro news article about an American CCVT is encouraging the clients to see that they’re woman whose son died in Iraq and who protested not beyond the circle of human compassion, even if for peace in Washington on Mother’s Day. I have it must have felt that way when no Superman res- learned to limit our newspaper readings because cued them at their darkest hour, no Princess came to the articles most clients choose to discuss are hold their hand and tell them everything would be about topics such as the trial of Cecilia Zhang’s OK. killer, a boy who murdered his brother, and the kidnapping and murder of three Canadian broth- At the opposite extreme of emotional withdrawal ers in Venezuela. from pain is over-identification with accounts of suffering. One morning in class, I read aloud a few Between the extremes of avoidance and overex- paragraphs about Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope as posure to the morbid lies the more ordinary sub- part of a grammar exercise. To my surprise, one of jects we cover, for our class is about much more the students started sobbing loudly when I reached than coping with tragic stories.
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