|
Following the law of conscience
http://www.catholicregister.org/features/following-the-law-of-conscience
Written by Administrator Friday, 04 June 2010
 University
of Ottawa law professor Errol Mendes has been
accused of playing partisan politics, siding with
the Taliban against Canadian soldiers and aiding
terrorists. He gets vicious hate mail, and at first
thought it might not be a good idea to have his
picture taken.
The reason? A constitutional law expert, Mendes has
argued that Parliament has a right and a duty to
examine uncensored documents that might reveal
whether Afghans captured by Canadian troops were
later tortured in Afghan prisons.
On the technical side of the law, he is arguing for
the supremacy of Parliament. In his conscience, he’s
arguing for Christ.
“Before He died, He was tortured in the most
horrible way imaginable,” said Mendes. “That
(torture) is something which I think Christians
should not accept under any conditions.”
Mendes doesn’t claim he knows Canada is complicit in
Afghan torture. Rather, he’s urging Parliament and
Canadians to look closely and unflinchingly at the
possibility.
“We will lose our better angels if we let this be
buried,” he said.
Mendes’ parents hail from Goa and he was raised
partly in Kenya as part of a devout Catholic family.
“My parents were both very, very religious
Catholics, as is my whole family,” he said. “I guess
we were always brought up to believe there is
something bigger than ourselves, and certainly our
religion is part of that.”
University of Windsor lecturer Duane Falconer finds
Mendes’ courage to stand up for his conscience
inspiring.
“I applaud Mendes, who has taken Lumen Gentium to
heart,” said Falconer in an e-mail to The Catholic
Register. “He knows that every lay Catholic has a
mission in this life, to speak and live the Gospel,
especially as Jesus did - on behalf of those who are
marginalized and without a voice.”
Falconer teaches a philosophy course called Law,
Morality and Punishment. Mendes’ willingness to let
his conscience guide how he practises law shows a
different side of lawyers, he said.
“We need more lawyers such as Mendes, who press
political leaders and governments to value human
persons, even political prisoners,” said Falconer.
“He knows the mystery of each and every human
person, even one in chains.”
Michael Osborne, president of the St. Thomas More
Lawyers’ Guild of Toronto, thinks of Mendes’
constitutional arguments on the prisoner abuse file
as part of a long tradition of public service by
lawyers.
“The fact that it’s informed by his Catholic faith
is just further proof that there’s no conflict. You
can be a good lawyer and you can be a good
Catholic,” Osborne said. “In fact, being a good
Catholic may make you a better lawyer in some
sense.”
There should be nothing unusual about calling the
government to be accountable to Canada’s Crimes
Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, said Osborne.
The Canadian law is part of Canada’s commitment to
the international law that supports the
International Criminal Court in The Hague.
“When you get to things like torture, that’s a clear
moral issue. The fact that there’s international law
around this shows the existence of a strong
international consensus,” Osborne said.
In appealing to international norms and standards,
Mendes is making legal arguments that in some sense
mirror arguments St. Thomas More made in his own
defence against the charge of treason in 1533. St.
Thomas argued that King Henry could not assume the
title of head of the church in England because this
would be contrary to international norms, said
Osborne. For St. Thomas, as for Mendes,
international law was not a mere nuisance. It was
how his nation lived up to the obligations of
civilization.
The more fundamental parallel with St. Thomas is
Mendes’ willingness to stand up for his conscience
on a public issue. St. Thomas had no fear of being
unpopular as he wrote dozens of pamphlets attacking
Protestant reformers.
Osborne thinks the people excoriating Mendes in
online comments and letters to the editor need to
step back and think.
“The whole you’re-attacking-our-soldiers thing is
quite over the top. I would be shocked if our
soldiers supported the idea of torture,” he said.
“Regardless of what the rights and wrongs of
particular cases are, it’s a worthy thing to bring
it to people’s attention so that the truth can be
known.”
“When you engage in torture, you’re not only
torturing the man or the woman in front of you,
you’re torturing the God you believe in,” said
Mendes.
Mendes believes the government will likely continue
to stall any meaningful enquiry into the issue. He
predicts the government’s next tactic will be to
flood the Parliamentary committee looking at the
Afghan detainee issue with 120,000 documents —
ensuring it will take years to sort the wheat from
the chaff.
At the same time he takes heart from the messages of
support he receives.
“Usually from very elderly people, which is kind of
interesting,” he said. “They’ve usually either been
in wars and the horrors of war, or understand that
there’s limits to what human beings can do.”
Mendes is counting on the courage of Canadians, the
courage to confront our lesser angels.
“It’s bigger than any of us, bigger than any
government of the day. It’s bigger than any poll. It
goes to the root of why we exist.” |
