KW Little Theatre, an amateur theatrical group, here in Kitchener are peforming "Twelve Angy Men" this week. If you don't remember the movie, it's a jury room drama, where the jury's decision plays out amongst the prejudices and personal animosities of the jury room. They were very good.
It's a timely production, with Canadians languishing in Guantanamo Bay, forced to take part in a US kangaroo court, without benefit of a jury trial, using evidence acquired under torture. Something the Canadian government participated in, and that's according to the Canadian Supreme Court.
As it was, I watched the show with some of my Chinese friends, and had to explain the jury system to them (naturally, China doesn't do jury trials). How kings, emperors and governments don't get to imprison or execute their citizens, they only get to put them on trial. How the jury room discussion is secret in order to protect the jurors from the government. How you must reach a guilty only if the case is beyond reasonable doubt. How the evidence presented to the jury must be legally obtained, and obtained without resort to torture, to protect citizens from the excesses of the government. And how any case that that can send you to jail or cause physical harm requires a jury trial.
The Canadians at Guantanamo Bay have received none of those safeguards. And in fact the last statement, saying that any case that can send you to jail requires a jury trial is no longer true in a British Court, with our own appalling government taking away that right from its citizens to "save money and time".
If the play was about twelve angry men, it's one angry man writing the blog today.
Update:
Bang on cue, the UK government has today referred the case of Binyam Mohamed, the last remaining British detainee at Guantanamo Bay to the Attorney General for investigation into claims of torture (source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7701773.stm ). Binyam Mohamed claims he was tortured by the CIA after extraordinary rendition to Morocco. The military tribunal (kangroo court) dropped their case against him, when their own prosecutor resigned in protest that evidence favourable to Binyam Mohamed was being suppressed. It is worth noting that UK's decision comes only after the High Court in London found against the government, and stated that there was an arguable case that Binyam Mohamed had been tortured.