Canadian officials describe Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr as an intelligent, humorous 21-year-old who is liked by his American captors and remains “salvageable” if not allowed to languish in the U.S. offshore prison.

http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/379611

And yes, I am happy to get some real passionate comments on these posts!

I think you are ignoring my central argument when you write that Khadr, “might be a taaaad right-wing” for me. I don’t have to agree with another Canadian, or even like him for me to be outraged by another citizen being stripped of his charter rights. It makes being Canadian mean less for all of us.

Your bank robber response, although admittedly hilarious, (man my Dad and I would make bad bank robbers) does not hold up if you follow it to its logical conclusion. If all that you wrote DID happen when I was 15 at the time I would MAYBE be charged under the Young Offenders Act, but most likely as a minor whom the state recognizes can not fully be held responsible for his actions, I would likely be put into foster care with a focus on rehabilitation.

That this is a U.S. case is B.S. and everyone knows it . Khadr is the last remaining prisoner at Guantanamo with citizenship in a Western country precisely because our government hasn’t demanded his return. Even Britain which obviously is struggling with how to balance individual rights with national security in the wake of the 2005 London bombings has demanded their citizens be returned from the torture cells there and got them back. When Ignatieff and Rae got their 5 minutes with Obama in his visit to Ottawa, they used it to bring up this very same point. And I don’t even like those guys.

Finally, if security here at home really is your concern, you will likely be interested in this report by our own Foreign Affairs Department that concludes Khadr is “a good kid”, but “that extended detention in Guantanamo would however run the risk of turning him into a radical.” Better get him back BEFORE he turns into a problem.

As of January 2009, 64% of Canadians supported repatriating Khadr to Canada, up from 41% in June 2007.

Feel free to have the last word. I’m going to stop here. Thanks for engaging in the debate. Hopefully it made up for the one you weren’t impressed by yesterday.

Sincerely,

Michael

Michael, I don’t expect you to be an expert on international law but the way it works is in a conventional war where both sides have a right to engage in combat with one another, if a soldier kills a soldier on the other side, it’s not murder unless it is done somehow contrary to the laws of war or in a treacherous manner, or killing someone when they have already surrendered.

I’m not making this up, these are the rules and you need to understand them before you can refute them or attempt to draw a groundless parallel between WWII and al-Qaeda.

In the case of members of al-Qaeda (Khadr) and the Taliban, while they may have thought (and you may have thought) they were defending themselves, they had no legal right under the laws of war to be engaging in combat. Period. Full stop.

“Are we going to futher erode our justice system to make people responsible for the actions of our relatives? Can I be thrown in jail if my Dad robs a bank?”
I never said that. I’m simply stating the facts about the Khadr family and how they destroyed their own son(s) and their goodwill with the Canadian public, at large. Can you be thrown in jail if your father robs a bank? Of course not, silly head, but if your father signed you and your siblings up for bank-robbing classes and your entire family had a history or robbing banks, people might reasonably wonder what those charming Wheelers are doing on a day-to-day. In fact, after the Wheelers have robbed bank after bank and killed police officers along the way, some people might wonder why the Wheelers haven’t served lengthy prison terms or (at the very least) been asked to leave the country.

What else do I want to see done to Khadr? THAT’S PRECISELY THE POINT, it isn’t my call or your call – the Yanks have him for the killing of THEIR soldier. They may very well let him go and he’ll be free as a bird and you can have him over for tea. Just a warning, he might be a taaaad right-wing for you.

“Whether or not we would be “better off without the Khadr’s” is not a question I feel should even be addressed.”
Of course you don’t, because that’s a rabbit hole not even the most left-leaning Canuck can climb out of. When you start looking at their past, their connections to terrorism and their potential as al-Qaeda organizers right in our hometown, it gets more than a bit scary. I’m sure you know all about it, and it feels like you’re willing to turn a blind eye to it and I can’t figure out why.

The Charter is paramount, but I hope you understand that terrorists don’t honour it, they don’t care about it and people that apologize for them are their best friends in the world.
You’d do better to focus your attention on Abousfian Abdelrazik, now THAT’S a Government fuck-up.

Incidentally, there has been significant evidence that the grenade that killed Speer wasn’t even thrown by 15-year-old Khadr, but as the only one not killed by the Americans in the firefight they pinned it on him. As for the rest of his family – Are we going to futher erode our justice system to make people responsible for the actions of our relatives? Can I be thrown in jail if my Dad robs a bank?

The double standard you are proposing does not stand up to logic. When allied forces kill people it’s a victory over terrorists and when terrorists kill someone in a firefight (we’re not talking about suicide bombers here) its a war crime. As for “letting Omar Khadr walk”, the guy has spent his entire adult life (8 years) in an internationally condemned facility designed to torture inmates. What the hell else do you want to do to the guy?

Whether or not we would be “better off without the Khadr’s” is not a question I feel should even be addressed. If you are a Canadian citizen you should be protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The whole point of constitutional rights is they are there to protect the rights of everyone, even the ones that many of us despise.

He’s always been a real charmer and a class act, let’s (don’t do it, Jeff!) give him a hand! He’s an unlawful combatant, no “soldier” would ever do this.

– Wife Maha Elsamnah took her then-14-year-old son Omar from Canada to Pakistan in 2001 and enrolled him in Al-Qaeda training.

– Daughter Zaynab, 23, was engaged to one terrorist and married, with Osama bin Laden himself present at the nuptials, al Qaeda member in 1999. Zaynab endorses the 9/11 atrocities and hopes her infant daughter will die fighting Americans.

– Son Abdullah, 22, is an Al Qaeda fugitive constantly on the move to elude capture. Canadian intelligence states he ran al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan during the Taliban period, something Abdullah denies.

– Son Abdurahman, 21, reluctantly trained with Al-Qaeda, was captured by coalition forces in November 2001 and agreed to work for the Central Intelligence Agency in Kabul, Guantanamo, and Bosnia. He returned to Canada in October 2003, where he denounced both extremism (“I want to be a good, strong, civilized, peaceful Muslim”) and his family’s terrorist ways.

– Son Omar, 17, stands accused of hurling a grenade in July 2002, killing a U.S. medic in Afghanistan. Omar lost sight in one eye in the fighting and is now a U.S. detainee in Guantanamo.

– Son Abdul Karim, 14, half-paralyzed by wounds sustained in the October 2003 shoot-out that left his father dead, is presently a prisoner in a Pakistani hospital.

We’d all be better off without the Khadrs in Canada. But until they get themselves into enough trouble (I give it a year or two) we’ll have to make do with making sure that Omar is tried for his five war crimes, including murder for the death of U.S. Delta Force medic Christopher Speer.
Or would you rather he just walked?

I hope you, like me, have a scotch in your hand at this hour for this debate. First up Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured by US forces heavily bleeding out of one eye after a firefight with US forces in Afghanistan in which the Americans killed everyone else he was fighting with. In my books that makes him A) A child soldier and B) A prisoner of war. I haven’t looked into UNITED NATIONS regulations but I do believe THE GENEVA CONVENTION agrees with me on that one.

Meeting either of criteria would make a trial out of the question. That’s why he won’t get a trial in Canada. Because if he ever does get back, there is nothing to try him for. Treason? Are you kidding me? I would charge top members of of our government first for destroying the fundamental checks and balances between the judiciary and the legislative branches by ignoring a ruling by the top court in the land simply because they disagree with it.

Bring him home, if you must, but put his ass on trial for treason, war crimes etc…

I’m no fan of Guantanamo but I’m a bit of a stickler for justice. You should allow your audience the freedom of thought to make that distinction.