It’s time for Canada to act…
There is something happening to Canada that makes me uncomfortable. Last week, our Prime Minister joined with President George W. Bush to defer action on climate change to United Nations talks planned 18 months from now in Copenhagen.

This week, the Prime Minister allowed Robin Long, a U.S. Army deserter who fled to Canada three years ago to be deported to the United States, marking the first time a resister to the U.S war effort in Iraq has been removed from this country by Canadian authorities. Long sought refuge on the grounds that the U.S. Army wanted him to participate in an 'illegal war of aggression” in Iraq.

Coincidentally, the Prime Minister abandoned Omar Khadr to the vagaries of the U.S. Military tribunal prosecuting him for alleged war crimes, including the grenade killing of a U.S. soldier. The Prime Minister’s failure to act on the above reflects poorly on the values of Canadians and plants Canada’s international reputation in an unfamiliar place.

Omar Khadr was born in Toronto. He is a Canadian citizen. He was captured in 2002, at the age of 15 by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He was a “child soldier”. He should have received the protection of international law. Instead of being tried in U.S. military courts, he should have been protected and offered rehabilitation. He has been held without trial in a U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba since 2002.

Although born in Toronto, Khadr spent much of his early life in Pakistan. In 1992, Khadr's father was severely injured and the Khadr family moved back to Toronto so he could recuperate. When the family returned to Pakistan, Khadr’s father was arrested following a 1995 bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan.

He was later released for lack of evidence and moved his family to Afghanistan where it’s alleged that he frequently visited the compound of Osama Bin Laden where Omar played with the bin Laden children. Put on a list of suspected terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Omar’s father was killed in a shootout with Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border.

Omar’s father was an Egyptian immigrant to Canada, a Canadian aid worker and patriarch of the Khadr family. He reportedly had close ties to a number of militant and Mujahideen leaders, including Osama bin Laden. The Canadian government once considered him the country's highest-ranking member of Al Qaeda and the United Kingdom added his name to a list of al-Qaeda members in 1999.

Omar Khadr’s time at Guantanamo is colored by charges of torture. He says that he was refused pain medication for his wounds (suffered in the firefight with U.S. military), that his hands were tied above a door frame for hours, that he had cold water thrown on him, that he had a bag placed over his head and was threatened with military dogs, that he was flatulated upon and forced to carry 5-gallon pails of water to aggravate his shoulder wound, that he was not allowed to use washrooms and was forced to urinate on himself.

In February 2003, six months after his capture, Khadr was interrogated at Guantanamo by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officials. The interrogation was taped.

In 2007, Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal ordered the Canadian government to turn over its records related to Khadr's time in captivity. The Government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2008, arguing that Khadr was just fishing for information and that disclosing their records could jeopardize our national security.

Critics alleged that the refusal to release classified documents was due to the potential "embarrassment" they might cause to the Government. On May 23, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Government of Canada had acted illegally, contravening the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and ordered the videotapes of the Khadr interrogation released.

It’s not clear to me that Omar Khadr is guilty or not guilty of the crimes charged. It’s not clear to me, based on his family’s history of association with terrorist figures that Omar is a salvageable person. What is very clear is that he is a Canadian citizen and that he deserves to have all of the resources of the Canadian Government brought to bear on his behalf to ensure that he finds a just and legal conclusion to his circumstance.

Omar Khadr is the only known citizen of a western country remaining in Guantanamo. The U.S. military tribunals have been censured by U.S. courts. Canada has refused to seek Khadr’s extradition or repatriation despite the urgings of Amnesty International, the Canadian Bar Association and other prominent organizations.

Like it or not, Khadr is a Canadian and it’s time for Canada to act.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com