CSIS and government officials deserve blame in Khadr case
The public reaction to and much of the media coverage of the Canadian government’s apology to Omar Khadr and settlement of the lawsuit seems quite unfair and misses the most important point: this was made necessary by the improper actions of members of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
However the decision was arrived at to question Khadr and to share this improperly obtained information with his American captors, it was wholly inappropriate and furthermore, CSIS would’ve known before it sent members to Guantanamo Bay.
As one who worked in that agency and is intimately familiar with the decision-making process, there is absolutely no doubt that Justice Department lawyers warned CSIS management that this plan would compromise the Canadian government and be grounds for a legal challenge.
While I understand the anger and disappointment some feel, we must remember Khadr was a child soldier but was not treated as such after his arrest. We must remember that previous Canadian governments failed to apply the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when it came to Khadr, a Canadian citizen. This failure is at the heart of this matter and the principal reason why an apology and settlement were necessary.
If people want to be angry and offended, they really should be angry and offended that CSIS, an agency with considerable prior experience in disregarding people’s rights and has been repeatedly reminded that it has an obligation to abide by the charter, does not seem to have learned its lesson.
And that lesson is that failure to respect the charter — which as the prime minister has stated, applies to everyone — inevitably leads to all Canadians having to suffer the consequences. François Lavigne, former counterintelligence and counter-terrorism officer, RCMP Security Service and CSIS (1983-1988) and former national security policy and operations adviser to the Solicitor General of Canada (1988-1994), Ottawa