PRISM Magazine

There's a highly respected literary magazine published out of University of British Columbia. It's been publishing for fifty years. Makes for good reading. Creative writing, poetry, literary criticism. A perfect venue for aspiring and arrived, accomplished Canadian writers. It has earned its place on the Canadian literary scene, as a premier publication of its time and genre. Its name is Prism International. Read it if you get a chance.

Must be something about the word prism:

Main Entry: prism

Pronunciation: \ˈpri-zəm\

Function: noun

Etymology: Late Latin prismat-, prisma, from Greek, literally, anything sawn, from priein to saw

Date: 1570

1 : a polyhedron with two polygonal faces lying in parallel planes and with the other faces parallelograms
2 a : a transparent body that is bounded in part by two nonparallel plane faces and is used to refract or disperse a beam of light b : a prism-shaped decorative glass luster
3 : a crystal form whose faces are parallel to one axis; especially : one whose faces are parallel to the vertical axis
4 : a medium that distorts, slants, or colors whatever is viewed through it

There, then, we are advised of what it means, what constitutes the properties of a prism. It can also be taken to be a kind of visual jewel. Certainly, the Aga Khan Development Network's new building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa is a jewel of architecture, with its sparkling prism of a glass dome, catching the light from the sky and its surroundings.

Now another kind of prism has entered the lexicon of our vocabulary, an on-line magazine dedicated to "in-depth coverage of national security issues", titled PRISM Magazine. Its publisher latterly completed a PhD in wireless communications at University of Ottawa, felt it would be timely to produce a magazine dedicated to "security practises" monitoring.

This not-for-profit online journal appears set to take a deep, dark look at government agencies tasked with monitoring the security of the country and its citizens.

"I've been thinking about starting a magazine for a year or two. ... I think (national security issues need a little more in-depth coverage and analyses ... how it affects our rights and civil liberties", explained its publisher, none other than !surprise! Maher Arar. He chose this very particular nomenclature because it "is something that takes one type of light and defuses into many lights, emphasizing the analyses. Prism means transparency, too. That's the kind of impression we want to portray."

Doubtless. Mr. Arar's misfortune in being erroneously ear-marked as a possible terror suspect led to his incarceration and torture in the land of his birth, Syria. He travelled on a Canadian/Syrian passport. And he had been airlifted directly to Syria by United States intelligence agents when he had stopped over in New York on his way home to Canada from visiting with his wife's family in Tunisia.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, along with former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli both apologized to Mr. Arar for Canada's unfortunate part in his dreadful ordeal. And handed over to him a federal legal settlement for wrongful compromise of the integrity of his freedom in the sum of $10.5-million, representing the largest compensation package in Canadian history, to an individual.

This country has gone out of its way to apologize and to attempt to remedy an unfortunate situation - understandable completely in its execution given the historical context of the times. That Mr. Arar, grateful for his Canadian citizenship, happy enough to be shed of his birth country's brutish regime, harbours his own very special (and understandable) grievances resulting in this recent initiative does not auger well for his relationship with the country.

He is free to do as he wishes, in this liberal, democratic country whose laws have, in the final analysis seen justice done. He is battling his inner demons, doubtless, taking up a special cudgel in the belief that, though exonerated, Canada's security agencies owe him much, much more. In the process he may do harm to this country's capabilities to defend itself.

Not recommended.