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May 11, 2006
Do the right thing
Negotiating with the Americans to allow Omar Khadr to serve his sentence (assuming he receives one) in Canada is exactly the sort of thing that separates Stephen Harper and his government from the image their opponents try to paint of them. There is no political gain to be had from helping a Khadr, at least not once you balance it against the potential loss from people who want terrorists tortured, no matter what their age.
The irony is that it was precisely the sort of "anti-terrorist" backlash the Conservatives are risking by going to bat for Khadr that kept the Liberals from doing it. Paul Martin only cared about the least risky option, and obviously concluded very early on in his term that that option was to do nothing about anything. Based on the Khadr situation, I am willing and somewhat excited to believe that the Conservatives are actually interested in doing what they and most other reasonable people believe is right.
That said, repatriating Omar Khadr to serve what might very well be a life sentence is only "right" in comparison to the current, wildly wrong state of affairs. I don't lose too much sleep over Guantanamo as a general concept, but the idea of a 15-year-old imprisoned for nearly four years without trial, and but for Canada's intervention facing the death penalty, is just sick.
The United States evidently though so too when it signed off on the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which came into force on February 12, 2002 — about five months before Khadr allegedly lobbed his grenade at Sgt First Class Christopher Speer. Among other things, America agreed to the following (the first item of Article 7):
States Parties shall cooperate in the implementation of the present Protocol, including in the prevention of any activity contrary thereto and in the rehabilitation and social reintegration of persons who are victims of acts contrary thereto, including through technical cooperation and financial assistance. Such assistance and cooperation will be undertaken in consultation with the States Parties concerned and the relevant international organizations.
It's not as if Khadr falls outside the Protocol's conception simply because he killed someone. Killing people is what soldiers do, children or not. Once the US agreed that there is a distinction between a 17-year-old soldier (victim) and an 18-year-old soldier (willing participant), it's nonsensical for it to argue that a 15-year-old Al Qaeda "soldier" should be treated exactly like a 25-year-old one. Khadr didn't even have a chance to be "recruited", which is what much of the Protocol is designed to prevent. He was on the fast track to Al Qaeda from the moment he burst forth from his mother's poison womb. If he poses a danger, the world needs to be protected from him. That doesn't in any way reduce the United States' moral and legal obligation to show him mercy.
Posted by Chris Selley at May 11, 2006 10:47 PM
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Comments
Poison womb? C'mon, you gotta blame this one on the sperm.
Posted by: Firehead at May 11, 2006 11:32 PM
Harper's actions are empty gestures. Khadr should not be charged with murder at all because of the fact that the Americans took the fight to him, not the other way around. That's what our government should be talking to the Americans about.
Posted by: Robert McClelland at May 12, 2006 02:37 PM
I'm not sure the U.S. soldier's death is the issue. The Criminal Code provides as follows:
46. (1) Every one commits high treason who, in Canada,
(c) assists an enemy at war with Canada, or any armed forces against whom Canadian Forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between Canada and the country whose forces they are.
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (1) or (2), a Canadian citizen or a person who owes allegiance to Her Majesty in right of Canada,
(a) commits high treason if, while in or out of Canada, he does anything mentioned in subsection (1);
47. (1) Every one who commits high treason is guilty of an indictable offence and shall be sentenced to imprisonment for life.
Posted by: Gigantic Hound at May 12, 2006 05:41 PM