Today: AM Showers THE TUFTS High 71 Low 45 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper Showers Since 1980 High 57 Low 35 VOLUME LII, NUMBER 24 DAILY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006 Cotler: Holocaust ‘began in words’ Cotler ‘troubled’ by detainee bill Before his talk yesterday, Irwin rights record was tainted no more Veteran human rights advocate speaks out on ‘crimes of indifference’ Cotler sat down with the Daily than ten days before the detainee for a brief chat about legisla- bill was passed, when a Canadian BY HAYDEN REICH tion passed in September that government commission cen- Contributing Writer changed the rules regarding who sured the U.S. for its extradition can be held in suspicion of terror- of a Canadian citizen to Syria, The Honorable Irwin Cotler, ism and how they can be treat- where he was tortured for crimes former Minister of Justice for ed. that the commission found he Canada, spoke Wednesday eve- The Daily reported yesterday didn’t commit. ning to a crowd of about 90 in an that, excepting one abstain- Maher Arar was detained in event sponsored by the Institute ing Massachusetts legislator, all the United States for eight days for Global Leadership (IGL). of the state’s representatives to on terrorism charges on his way Cotler addressed “the pur- Congress voted against the so- back to Canada from Tunisia and suit of justice,” and the related called detainee bill, with Senator was not informed of his consular “struggle against hatred” and Barney Frank (D-Mass.) calling it rights by U.S. authorities, accord- “struggle against genocide.” “bad public policy.” ing to Cotler. The United States, He discussed these themes Cotler acknowledged that furthermore, did not fully inform in the context of current affairs among politicians there has Canadian officials of their plans in the Middle East and Africa, been a “dispute to the fact that for Arar before extraditing him to as well as human rights inves- [this bill] does what people say Syria, where he was imprisoned tigations in the Western hemi- it does;” that is, restricting civil for four years. sphere, his specialty for much of liberties in the interest of national Cotler, who represented Arar his professional life. security. while he was still the Minister of He began by speaking briefly Nevertheless, he said that he Justice in Canada, said that Arar about what has “guided” him is “concerned” about the bill is “not just an innocent person in his career as a politician and because of its compromising but an innocent victim of three activist, saying that “you cannot stance toward basic legal “rules” governments, and those are the pursue justice unless you feel like habeas corpus, prohibition U.S., the Syrian government, and the injustice around you.” of certain practices in detainee the Canadian government.” Cotler organized his speech treatment, and the applicability The States “play[ed] a principle into “lessons” on human rights, in court of evidence obtained by role in this narrative,” he said, addressing current phenomena coercion. noting the apparent hypocrisy of in human rights and how justice “The struggle against terrorism sending an alleged criminal to a can be pursued in each situa- must be carried out in a principled country that the United States tion. way,” he said. That principle is consistently decries as a propo- The first of his “lessons” “the protection of human secu- nent of terrorism and a violator of pertained to what he termed rity.” human rights. “the danger of a state-sanc- Human rights and the fight “What this shows is that we tioned culture of hate,” using against terrorism are “mutually have to be very careful in a post- Iranian President Mahmoud JAMES FOLTA/TUFTS DAILY complimentary and reinforcing,” 9/11 universe about the way we Ahmadinejad and the charged The Institute for Global Leadership hosted the Honorable Irwin Cotler, Cotler said. conduct anti-terrorism efforts,” political atmosphere in Iran as who was Minister of Justice and Attorney General for Canada from 2003- “I see terrorism as an assault he said. the prime modern example. 2006 and currently serves in the Canadian House of Commons for the on the security of democracy and In this vein, the detainee Cotler pointed to constituency of Mount Royal. on collective rights like life, liberty, bill “undermines fundamen- Ahmadinejad’s comments on and security,” he said. Preventing tal American due process safe- Israel as a “direct and public sive evidentiary base” for intent “The Holocaust did not begin terrorism therefore represents guards,” he said. incitement to genocide,” under- to commit genocide in human in the gas chambers; it began in “promotion and protection of “In the end, you have either scoring the international com- history. words,” he said. human rights.” both security and rights or you munity’s “responsibility to pre- Using the example of the mas- His second lesson warned This advantage, however, is have neither,” he said. “[Any anti- vent genocide.” sive genocide of the Holocaust, against “crimes of indifference,” jeopardized when individuals and terrorism action] must be done According to Cotler, this state- Cotler said that “words can groups are “singled out” for dis- in a way that comports with the ment is “the most comprehen- hurt.” see COTLER, page 2 criminatory treatment, he said. rules.” The United States’ human —Zofia Sztykowski Tufts alumna organizes Republican support for November Cannon’s gay BY KRISTEN CASAZZA Daily Staff Writer Hoff said she spends a lot of time answering e-mails and creating spreadsheets, but talked about the pride defaced As most of her peers in her gradu- greater scheme of her work. It is her BY JAMES BOLOGNA ating class dreaded the potential re- responsibility to develop and imple- Daily Editorial Board election of President George W. Bush, ment the Young Republicans’ nation- alumna Rachel Hoff (LA ‘04) prepared wide strategy for supporting midterm for a career in which she would mobi- election candidates. The Tufts University Police lize support for his party. “My first priority is to deploy volun- Department reported today that Tufts’ “When Nicole Ambrose, the National teers into targeted states for intense cannon, painted in rainbow colors to Chairman of Young Republicans, weekends of campaigning,” she said. celebrate National Coming Out Day, was asked me to organize the national She also plans to send legal teams to vandalized yesterday morning. effort to mobilize Young Republican oversee voting locations and ensure They found the word “smut” painted voters, I jumped at the opportunity,” all election laws are followed. on the cannon. It was also found paint- Hoff said. Targeted states this year include ed over a chalking of the word “rainbow” Hoff was appointed the National Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, Tennessee, on the pathway in front of the cannon. Field Director of the Young Republicans and Montana. “Even though we were one of the top (YR) in August of this year, and now “This kind of coordinated grassroots 20 gay-friendly schools, we had an inci- plays a key role in grassroots GOP re- political effort, the Rove/Melman dent this morning that shows us that election efforts across the country. strategy, has become the hallmark of our community is not perfect,” Dona The Young Republicans is a tax- the Republican Party,” she said. “It’s Yarbrough, Director of the Tufts Lesbian, exempt group that supports GOP can- why we win elections and why we Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) didates in political elections. “Many have dominated the house, senate and Center, said at the Coming Out Day members are former campaign man- presidency.” event at the Campus Center yesterday. agers,” Hoff said. Hoff has already visited Ohio and Sophomore Sofia Nelson, who was “We’re really the young profession- Indiana. there when the police arrived and aided als of the Republican Party,” she said. “We chose to kick off our cam- in repainting the cannon, said many “Most active members are between 25 paign efforts in Ohio because it has students were upset by what they saw. and 35 years old and we represent the COURTESY RACHEL HOFF skilled labor of the campaign efforts.” see REPUBLICANS, page 2 Rachel Hoff see CANNON, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections CAMPUS HEATH CONCERT PREVIEW News | Features 1 International 13 Jumbo-size-me? The Daily The Daily disects TV on the investigates obesity on Radio in preparation for Arts | Living 5Comics 16 campus. Saturday’s show Editorial | Letters 8 Classifieds 17 Viewpoints 9Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see WEEKENDER, page 5 National 11 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Thursday, October 12, 2006 POLICE BRIEFS Hoff’s idealism motivates her work for the Republicans OFFICERS WALK IN ON BEIRUT GAME REPUBLICANS vs. 37 percent). Available data shows [Democrat] Chabot but said DeWine was continued from page 1 Steve Chabot statistically tied with too liberal for their vote,” said Tamara Tufts University Police proven to be such a key state in deter- Democratic challenger John Cranley. Woods, YR chair for the Midwest region. Department (TUPD) officers mining the direction of politics nation- DeWine’s seat is particularly impor- Hoff, Woods and other volunteers responded to a call about a noise ally and we believe that’s especially true tant. “Senator DeWine is defending per- spent the weekend distributing litera- violation in Latin Way on Saturday, this November,” Hoff said. YR teams haps the most contested Senate seat in ture door-to-door and making phone Oct. 7, at 3:31 a.m. When the officers hit districts in Cleveland, Dayton, and the country,” Hoff said, of an election calls. “We’ve made over 5,000 voter arrived, they could see three or four Cincinnati, Ohio, and southeastern year in which a loss of only six Senate contacts this weekend.