Canada no place for neocons

Re Khadr’s release challenges the fearmongers, May 16 Canada ignored Omar Khadr’s plea for almost 13 years while he suffered under the most brutal and punitive conditions. The actions taken against this one child changed Canada from a nation that did not torture children to one that does so as a collaborator, from a nation that upheld international law to one that does not.

What kind of Canada do we want to live in? One in which we wage war against our own citizens, stripping fellow citizens of protection under the law or abandoning them to extra-legal proceedings like those carried out by the U.S. military commissions, which invented their own rules and laws, to suit the war on terror.

All fair-minded Canadians feel a lot better now because of Omar’s lawyers, Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling, and Omar’s own extraordinary resilience. Our Supreme Court must be commended for its historic verdict. Just on all counts. The Star and Michelle Shephard deserve kudos for their contributions.

Stephen Harper continues to vilify Omar Khadr as a threat to national security despite the fact that the courts found otherwise. It speaks of this government’s creation of a nexus of paranoia and the deforming pressures of militarism. Harper is dragging us to the neoconservative U.S. camp, which has no place in Canada. Javed Akbar, Ajax

The relatives of a U.S. soldier killed in battle, allegedly by Omar Khadr, have filed suit against him for $134 million. What an interesting precedent to set. If a soldier who is killed (or wounded) in battle can sue his enemy, what is the logical extension?

Does this open the floodgates to the family of anyone killed or injured by the U.S. military to sue the government that employs them? Or does it just apply when the target is on the verge of a very lucrative book and movie deal? Edward A. Collis, Burlington