Canada gives 'mea culpa' to torture victim

Canada's Bush-lite prime minister did something that the U.S. president would never consider: apologize for a mistake that caused great pain to another human being.

From MSNBC:

TORONTO - Canada's prime minister apologized to Maher Arar on Friday and announced the government would compensate him $8.9 million for its role in his deportation by U.S. authorities to Syria, where he was tortured while held in prison for nearly a year.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper again called on the U.S. government to remove the Ottawa engineer from any of its no-fly or terrorist watchlists and reiterated that Ottawa would keep pressing Washington to clear Arar's name.

"We think the evidence is absolutely clear and that the United States should in good faith remove Mr. Arar from the list," Harper told a news conference in Ottawa. "We don't intend to either change or drop our position."

Don't be looking for anything like that from Bushco. To admit mistakes is to show weakness, and once the American administration starts down that road, it can only lead to prison for all of them.