Canada's Ignatieff grilled over Iraq, torture use

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6592885&cKey=1143763732000

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian academic star Michael Ignatieff, about to launch a bid to lead the opposition Liberal Party, tried to set out his vision for the country on Thursday but instead ended up being grilled over his support for the Iraq war and allegations he backed the use of torture.

Ignatieff -- an author, former Harvard lecturer, and a former host on British television -- is supported by some major Liberal backroom players but the questions of Iraq and torture could hamper his bid to take over the centrist party. Most Canadians opposed the invasion of Iraq.

Ignatieff, making his first major policy speech, said he still thought the decision to depose former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was right. But he denied that an article he wrote in 2004 suggesting coercive interrogation of suspects meant he backed torture.

As he started speaking to a crowd of around 600 students at the University of Ottawa, a handful of protesters wearing orange jumpsuits stood up, shouted and waved signs condemning torture. Inmates in U.S. prison camps who are suspected of links to terror groups wear similar suits.

he's supposedly some kinda brilliant scholar or something, but he's stupid as a pig at a porkroast..