Khadr misconceptions

I’d like to take an opportunity to address some of the misconceptions and misinformation surrounding the case of Omar Khadr.

The first, and most important thing, to understand is that Kadhr is/was a two things: 1) Canadian, and 2) A Child-Soldier, indoctrinated from a very, very young age. The vast majority of Canadians have had the privilege of being raised by nurturing parents who provided an adequate moral compass, unlike Khadr… who was raised a by a sociopath who was part of a terrorist organization. There’s no saying what any of us could be capable of had we been raised in such a hostile environment.

Sane people understand that child-soldiers can hardly be held responsible for their actions. In fact, this is the first case of a child-soldier being prosecuted in recorded history. It’s especially concerning, because there is actually no proof that Khadr’s grenade killed anybody, other than a confession that was made by Khadr under complete duress, in hopes of being returned to Canada.

Killer or not, all Canadians have rights under our constitution… the moment we start picking a choosing which Canadians the constitution applies to, is the moment we stop being Canadian at all. Trudeau can’t be blamed for putting an end to the issues caused by previous governments.

The ironic part about this whole fiasco, is that Khadr never would have been put in a position to seek damages, had the previous Conservative and Liberal governments granted repatriation to begin with. Most of the fault lies with the Conservative government, who spent tens of millions of dollars on – not one, not two – but three Supreme Court appeals from 2006-2010. The 2010 final decision, that the treatment of Khadr “offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects”, is the reason Khadr had any legal grounds to stand on in seeking damages.

Personally, I feel that Trudeau’s decision to finish this lawsuit and settle at $10.5M, opposed to spending millions more on legal fees and having to pay the full $20M in damages, is a fiscally smart move. More importantly, it’s the moral thing to do. I don’t agree with everything that Trudeau (or any other leader, for that matter) does, but I have respect for any leader who is willing to stand up and do the smart/right thing… especially when they know they will be persecuted by hordes of headline-skimming keyboard warriors.

Ally Turner