Canadian Hypocrisy on Khadr Case

The Canadian government continues to show an appalling lack of responsibility when it comes to the case of Omar Khadr, the Canadian captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15.

In a gutless and incomprehensible article in the Toronto Star today, Rosie Dimanno suggests the fate of Khadr "should not be Canada's crusade" after, for some reason, going to great lengths to establish that, at 15, Khadr meets every international standard of a child soldier. She is apparently completely satisfied with Harper's claim that Khadr cannot be classified as a "child soldier" due to the fact that he "belonged to no recognizable army", whatever that means. One wonders whether the milita under mercenary Pachan Khan Zadran -- then a US ally but now considered a "renegade" -- who stormed the house where Khadr was captured would fall under the same considerations. How easily these pitiful little militant groups can gain and lose credibility as "recognizable armies" depending on whose side they're on.

After all, it seemed that Canada had enough of a role when they sent CSIS agents to Guatanamo Bay to offer up their own form of interrogation -- no they didn't use the same methods of torture that US soldiers favour, though they were complicit in the sleep deprivation and other forms of "preparation" Khadr received in lieu of the Canadian visit. Besides, what physical torture could be worse than the CSIS agent patronizing Khadr by suggesting he was being "well looked after", not to mention the crushing despair that he must have felt when he found out the Canadians weren't there to bring him back home, or even report on his condition, but actually freely contribute more "intelligence" for Khadr's trial?

The government says Khadr's case is "judicial" not "political", in which case perhaps they could have picked up on the fact that the "case" against him is a joke. From his initial interrogation at the hands of Joshua Claus -- yup, the same guy who pled guilty to allegations of abuse that led to the death of the innocent Dilawar (see Alex Gibney's excellent documentary Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)) -- to the first tribunal which saw three Chief Prosectuors come and go, and the second tribunal where evidence was deliberately obfuscated that established that 1) Nobody actually saw Khadr throw a gernade at Sgt. Christopher Speer 2) Nobody saw Khadr with any kind of weapon, and 3) The gernade could have been thrown by another man in the house or the American soldiers themselves. Not to mention that "OC-1"'s testimony admitted to shooting Khadr in the back twice while he was huddled on the floor. "Murder in Violation of the Law of War" indeed. Oh yeah, the kangaroo court also stimulated the torture of another Canadian, Maher Arar, whose innocence is now without question.

The Canadian government wasn't always this irresponsible when it came to Khadr. When he was originally arrested in 2002, Jean Chretien ensured that he would receive "due process and proper access to Canadian officials". Perhaps the kind of "due process" that Brenda Martin, convicted of fraud in Mexico, received when the government shelled out over $80,000 to transfer her back home. Harper, who now faces an American government actually ready to shut down the embarassment that is Guantanamo Bay (an opportunity Chretien never had), is going to miss an opportunity to aid the reversal of this vast internationl injustice. Calls from UNICEF, Amnesty International and the Canadian Bar Association appear to have done nothing. It's said that the act of repatriating him would be largely symbolic, but the same can be said of the reasons for the government's refusal to act; the Khadr family's notoriety precedes him.

Most importantly, if Khadr does indeed fall under the international classification of a "child soldier" then it's up to the international community, especially Canada, to intervene. As if, at 15 years old, he could tell the difference between a "legitimate" army and a "terrorist" organization, even if such strict lines did exist. I can't imagine a soldier of any age understanding America's ever-changing, arbitrarily dictated "rules of war", let alone a teenager.