Canada doesn’t owe Khadr anything

Editor: While I do feel some sympathy for the child terrorist Omar Khadr, it is only because of his poor upbringing and that he was misguided by his parents at an early formative age.

They were the ones who sent him to Afghanistan to fight against our allies. Canada had no role in that, so I fail to see how in any way this became the responsibility of the Canadian government and no payment or apology should be given.

Khadr was convicted and incarcerated by the United States for his crimes. If he endured torture, it was not by the Canadian government, unless it happened in our prison system during the last years of his incarceration, which I highly doubt.

It is his family that he should be suing and not the country that allowed him to serve the last years of his sentence at Canadian taxpayer expense. He should just be thankful for that.

It’s good to hear that he is now reformed and rejects terrorism and wants to become a nurse. He should do that and move on, but not with a bank account full of Canadian taxpayer dollars.

Our globe-trotting, curly haired prime minister should be working to have this court decision appealed and not sitting on the fence simply commenting that the judicial process is nearing completion.

This is happening under his watch and in his typical fashion, he is not taking any stance either way. I hope voters remember this in a few years.

Our Canadian troops are also sent into harm’s way in the fight against terrorism and now our government is about to turn a convicted terrorist into a multi-millionaire.

To think that some of my tax dollars are going toward this settlement is beyond upsetting.

The thought that Canada is paying a convicted terrorist should be insulting and an embarrassment to all Canadians. What is our country coming to. We are about to go down in history as the first and hopefully the last nation to reward a terrorist for their actions.

We can only hope that if this settlement is actually paid that the families of the killed and injured U.S. soldiers are able to successfully sue Khadr for the damages that were awarded them by the American courts.

Guy Bissonnette, Lake Country