Should Canada fight for Omar Khadr’s legal rights?
Omar Khadr already has more people defending his “legal rights” than Sgt. Christopher Speer and Sgt. 1st class Layne Morris ever had. Khadr stands accused of throwing the grenade that killed Speer, and also wounded Morris, causing him to lose his right eye. This took place during a firefight in Afghanistan, in July 2002, when American forces raided an Al Qaeda stronghold, and, when Khadr apparently made his loyalties clear. The Pentagon has already announced it won’t seek the death penalty for Khadr, already putting him well ahead of Speer in all of this. Unless they’re planning to pluck his right eye out, I’d say that not only are his legal rights being looked after, but the balance is more than in his favour.
Let’s not forget, so soon after Remembrance Day, who we are talking about. Though headlines since Khadr’s capture in July 2002, have referred to him as a “ Toronto teen,” he is not one of the Degrassi kids. Morris told The
PRO Canada should insist rule of law applies to teen, says Linda McQuaig
When top White House aide Scooter Libby was indicted for perjury, George W. Bush was quick to point out that “( i) n our system, each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial.”
It’s reassuring that the president is aware of perhaps the most basic principle in western law: the presumption of innocence and the right to due process. But it’s disturbing — to say the least — that he only applies it selectively.
In the name of fighting the “war on terror,” the White House has played fast and loose with the principles underpinning western democracy and the rule of law. Among other things, it has put terror suspects — including Toronto teen Omar Khadr — beyond the reach of international legal safeguards set out in the Geneva Conventions.
Khadr, charged with murder by the U.S. military in connection with a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, has been consistently denied legal protections while being held under horrific conditions for three years at the notorious U. S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Since Khadr was only 15 at the time of his arrest, he’s entitled to additional legal protections for children — set out in a U. N. protocol — but ignored by the United States. Canada has done almost nothing for Khadr, beyond asking Washington to avoid the death penalty. Canadian security agents even took advantage of Khadr’s captivity by questioning him in Guantanamo.
Ottawa has failed to protest the arbitrary military trial that Khadr faces — where the prosecutors are also the judges — even though this is clearly at odds with Canada’s support for the right to a fair trial. Ottawa’s inaction is no doubt linked to its reluctance to irritate the Bush administration, which clearly relishes a free hand in dealing with terror suspects.
U. S. Vice-President Dick Cheney is even championing the administration’s right to engage in the ultimate human rights violation: torture.
CON He might have been young, but this is no Degrassi kid, says Rondi Adamson
Boston Globe, “ That wasn’t a panicky teenager we encountered that day. That was a trained Al Qaeda ( fighter) who wanted to make his last act on Earth the killing of an American.” Nor is the United States responsible for having “ robbed Omar of his youth,” as his lawyer, Muneer Ahmad, claims.
If I am willing to hold anyone responsible for Khadr’s choice to allegedly lob a grenade at U. S. soldiers, other than Khadr himself, it is his family, and Al Qaeda, a group for whom several Khadrs appear to have a soft spot. His parents and older siblings have all admitted the family’s connection to Al Qaeda. Only brother Abdurahman has openly repudiated the fascist ideology of Al Qaeda and their ilk.
Sister Zaynab is quoted as saying Speer’s death was “ no big deal.” Father Ahmed Khadr had been imprisoned for bombing an embassy. Omar’s mother, Maha Elsamnah, referred enthusiastically, in the spring of 2004, to Omar’s stay at an Al Qaeda So it would take political courage for Ottawa to insist that the rule of law be applied to a Canadian detainee, who stands accused of killing an American soldier.
It’s been easy for Ottawa to avoid action, largely because of the unpopularity in Canada of the Khadr family, which reportedly has ties to Al Qaeda. But unpopular cases are exactly the ones which most cry out for the protection of the rule of law. The Canadian government could latch onto the coattails of the U. S. Supreme Court, which has held that even terror suspects are entitled to due process.
Last year, the court ruled that Guantanamo detainees can challenge their detentions in U. S. courts, and last week it announced it will consider the constitutionality of the military commissions, like the one the young Khadr must appear before.
If a body as conservative and pro- Bush as the American Supreme Court has insisted on legal rights for terror suspects, surely the Canadian government can summon up the courage to do the same — on behalf of a Canadian, indeed a Canadian child. Linda McQuaig is a Toronto-based author and commentator. lmcquaig@sympatico.ca. training camp ( encouraged by mom and Omar’s now deceased father), saying, memorably, “ Would you like me to raise my child in Canada to be, by the time he’s 12 or 13 years old, to be on drugs or having some homosexual relationship? Is it better?”
Well, actually, Mom Khadr, yes, it is better.
I’d be prouder of a gay, drugaddicted son than an Al Qaeda operative son, hands down, no competition. And I suspect most Canadians would second me on that and not waste a worry on Omar’s legal rights.
Thankfully, Ottawa is mostly leaving the Pentagon to handle Khadr’s case, as it should. Khadr was captured in a war. And he was fighting for a cause that respects no civilized rules of warfare, that routinely targets civilians and trains children to blow up people . Who knows what Khadr may have become with less radical parents? Tragically, though, he got what he got. But it is mostly tragic for the widow and two fatherless children of Speer. Rondi Adamson is a Toronto writer whose work has been published in the Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today.