Open Letter to Canadian Media: Canada, the Cuban 5 and the US Supreme Court

MONTREAL, QUEBEC, Mar 30 (MARKET WIRE) --
Canada presented its candidacy to the new United Nations Human Rights
Council (HRC) through an April 10, 2006 official declaration. This
statement indicated that the Canadian Government "...is committed to
making a positive contribution to ensuring that the Human Rights Council
(HRC) becomes an effective body for the promotion and protection of human
rights." During the May 9, 2006 UN General Assembly, Canada and forty-six
other countries were elected to the HRC. The Canadian representative was
also elected as one of the three Vice-Presidents of this important body
situated in Geneva. The US did not seek election to be one of the
forty-seven country-members. Washington disagreed with the set-up of the
new HRC which it could no longer manipulate in the name of its
self-serving double standard human rights politics as it did in the
former UN Commission.

On March 4, 2009, H.E. Miguel D'Escota Bockmann, President of the United
Nations General Assembly addressed one of the HRC sessions. Among other
points, he declared that "...I want to call your attention to the plight
of the five Cuban heroes who are still being held in preposterous
conditions and serving unheard jail sentences for having denounced and
provided pertinent information concerning terrorist activities being
planned in the U.S. by Cuban expatriates against their former Motherland
with the support of U.S. authorities. We are very hopeful about
meaningful and credible change being brought by the new US
administration. The immediate ex-incarceration of the five Cuban heroes
would strengthen our confidence that the promised change is for real."

Canada attended this HRC session, not only as a member, but with the
added responsibility of its representative sitting as one of the
Vice-Presidents. Has Canada done anything to indicate to the new US
Administration that it should act on the above statement by the UN
authority?

According to one of the US Cuban Five lawyers Thomas C. Goldstein (who
teaches at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools), since March 6, 2009 a
record number of 12 amicus curiae briefs have been filed with the US
Supreme Court. These documents are in support of the Cuban Five legal
team's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for a review to be heard on April
6, 2009. Amicus curiae is a legal Latin phrase, literally translated as
"friend of the court", that refers to someone, not a party to a case, who
volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of
the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it. The
information may be a legal opinion in the form of a brief, a testimony
that has not been solicited by any of the parties, or a learned treatise
on a matter that bears on the case. The decision whether to admit the
information lies with the discretion of the court. This information
regarding the Cuban Five Amicus curia is available on www.scotusblog.com,
one of whose co-founders is attorney Goldstein.

Never before has the US Supreme Court received so many amicus curia for
the revision of a trial. The petitioners include an impressive list of
ten Nobel laureates, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, many
US and other bar associations and human rights organizations, hundreds of
parliamentarians, several ex-Presidents including two former Presidents
and three current Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament. However,
the US official media have virtually blacked-out this information
regarding the unprecedented outpouring of support for the appeal to the
US Supreme Court. In any "normal" circumstance, the record number of
amicus curia would have made headlines or at least treated with important
reporting in the mainstream media. On the contrary, virtually not a word
was uttered or printed. It is thus quite possible that the Canadian
mainstream media is not aware of this historical juridical event; the
media here is largely dependent on U.S. sources for the news taking place
in the US. The objective of my personal letter to Canadian media is to
provide an opportunity to rectify this black-out. I believe that the
Canadian media have to show its independence with regards to its U.S.
counter-parts. Nor can the Canadian government idly stand by as a
Vice-President of the UN HRC. I believe that Canada cannot blindly follow
the policies of the US on international issues. This is the reason for
sending a copy of this letter, in my own name as a citizen, to Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and to Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence
Cannon. I would like to take the opportunity to remind the Canadian
government and media that in 2008 fifty-six deputies in the Canadian
Parliament formally made a request to the US authorities to release the
Cuban Five, a demand of which the Canadian government was made aware.

- Arnold August, from Montreal, is an author specializing in Cuba, a
member of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five
and the Comite Fabio Di Celmo pour les 5 of the Table de Concertation de
Solidarite Quebec-Cuba.

Contacts:
Arnold August
Author
514-421-2400
514-894-8090
arnoldaugust@hotmail.com

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