On July 27, 2002, Omar Khadr was captured in Eastern Afghanistan by American soldiers. He was a 15 year old Canadian citizen. He was accused of throwing a grenade that killed Sgt Christopher Speer. For the last six years Khadr has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. He has been subjected to many of the abuses that other Guantanamo prisoners have reported, including stress positions, long periods of solitary confinement or sensory deprivation, beatings, and being denied medical treatment. He was incarcerated with the adult detainees, despite the fact that it was initially assured that he would be kept separate and given daily schooling in various subjects. In February 2008, a report was accidentally released from the Pentagon that calls into question the evidence that Khadr was responsible for the grenade that killed Speer. One other person was alive to have thrown the grenade, contrary to the reports provided to the public, and the grenade was initially attributed to this person in the initial report written after the firefight. This report also revealed that Khadr was shot twice in the back while crouching and facing away from the action, his eyes having been injured by shrapnel in the attack. Most recently, a U.S. military judge has ruled that it does not matter that Omar Khadr was fifteen at the time of the incident, effectively making him a child soldier used illegally in combat, meaning that combatants of any age can still be brought before the war crimes commission.
While I do find many of the actions of the American government to be morally reprehensible, it is no more than what I have come to expect from the country the once championed itself as a bastion of freedom. I want to make it clear that the focus of this post is not the actions of the American armed forces and government. Instead I would like to focus on the actions if the Canadian government with regards to the protection afforded to a Canadian citizen.
In 2003, CSIS sent Jim Gould to interrogate Khadr under the guise of ascertaining Khadr’s well-being. The information acquired in this interview was shared freely with the American captors without receiving any assurances that Khadr would benefit from this cooperation (such as pulling the death penalty). Other than that, Khadr has been mostly ignored by the Canadian government. Khadr is the only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo, likely due to the fact that the Canadian government has refused to seek extradition or repatriations despite the urgings of several national and international groups like Amnesty International. I would just like to also point out that this is not a partisan issue as both the Liberal and Conservative governments sat on their hands.
I am very, very disappointed in the actions of the Canadian government. This not something I am used to feeling. Sure, there have been decisions made where I have been disappointed in the outcome, but nothing like this. It is highly unlikely that Khadr will receive a fair hearing from the U.S. military tribunal. His lawyer is convinced that he will be found guilty of murder despite the fact that there is no evidence he threw the grenade, and I tend to agree. The reluctance of the Canadian government to come to the assistance of one if its own citizens is quite chilling, and begs the question as to whether Khadr is being punished because his family is unpopular in Canada. In any case, trying a child soldier is not right, and the Canadian government should have the cojones to stand up and say so, especially if the child involved is one of its own citizens.
