Nice to see the Harper government is “reassessing” its deplorable stand to let the Omar Khadr, the Canadian child soldier who has been tortured and rotting in the Bush/Cheney Guantanamo disgrace.
President Obama promised to undo Guantanamo human rights disgrace perpetrated by the Bush White House that not only suspended the Rule of Law in the United States, it breeched it constantly.
Khadr is charged and being tried in a U.S. military “court” process that is seriously deficient as a fair and impartial judicial process. Obama knows this, has said so repeatedly and now is acting on it, in the first day of his Presidency by staying all prosecutions and saying Guantanamo must be closed within a year. It is nice to have a lawyer in the White House that didn’t graduate in the bottom of his class for a change.
The Harper government has been intellectually and morally bankrupt on the Khadr case. The previous Liberal government was not much better but they didn’t know all the facts Harper has come to know. Khadr is the only western national still in Guantanamo that has not been repatriated to his homeland. Perhaps President Obama will bring Omar home with him on Air Force One when he visits Canada in the next few weeks. That would be sweet.
That moral and legal deficit is entirely on the shoulders of Stephen Harper how has failed, refused and neglected to act because pleasing George Bush was more important to him than protecting a Canadian citizen .
The recent “evidence” in an FBI agent’s “testimony” in Gitmo alleging Khadr saw Maher Arar in an Afghan “safe house” has been discredited under cross-examination. Arar is the other Canadian who has been victimized by the morally lax and intellectually lazy leadership of Stephen Harper. Hopefully this is the last of this kind of abuse of authority and legal processes by governments and their agents - like the FBI.
The world has been delivered from the vile and viciousness of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld regime. Our very own Prime Minister Harper was all ready and prepared to be their political instrument on too many of their reprehensible policy positions from social to environmental to economic abuses and disasters.
It is time to bring Omar home and face a real court in a real judicial proceeding in Canada for any charges that are serious and of substance; not merely politically motivated. Too many men and women have died over the centuries to enable, preserve and protect those freedoms for the rest of us.
Harper has dishonoured those sacrifices and we as citizens have been way too complacent and indifferent to such abuses of rights of fairness and freedom. It is time for Harper to go and with Rick Hillier showing some interest in replacing him, the time is ripening.
Very well said. I think you expressed the sentiments of most Canadians with respect to this travesty that we have allowed Harper to perpetrate upon all of us. The 'shame' should be on him and his ideologues alone, but instead it sticks to us all. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!
ReplyDeleteI don't want Harper to make me feel shameful. I want my leader to make good decisions and make me feel proud, as Obama is doing in the States right now, with his closing of the base at Guantanamo. Harper has shown he is not a leader, as he seems to miss the boat on most issues, and then follows up by making poor if not bad decisions. In addition, he drags his butt and won't admit mistakes (sounds like his idol Bush, eh?)... like his handling of Omar.
The bottom line is Harper cannot make good decisions, and his handling of the Omar’s case is a prime example of that fact. He definitely is not the man for these trying times that are only going to get worse before they start getting better. Therefore he has to go! We don't need another Bushite bringing continual shame, embarrassment and disgrace to our country and its people, like Bush has done to Americans in the States.
Bring Omar home!!! This is what you need to do Harper! Make a good decision for a change and bring home our own.
NOT A CHANCE Khadr should be brought home. Let him stand trial and until then he should sit where he is along with the rest of the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteKhadr does not deserve any special treatment simply because he is a Canadian. Shame on you.
Omar was a child and a victim in so many ways. Nothing has been proven that he is a terrorist. He has been held for years without charges, limited assces to legal counsel and tortured. This is the "special treatment" he has already suffered and he is entitled to protections of his rights as a Canadian.
ReplyDeleteShame on you for jumping to conclusions without a shred of evidence. Next time comment on this blog do so with your real identity and stand by your opinions in public and don't hide behind a curtain.
What we need to do is the right thing and bring this young man home to Canada..NOW. As a young man born to the hands of a lunatic that trained his family to hate and kill, Omar did not choose this for his life, it was chosen for him and as a young man he did what most kids would do if guided by their father..he was a victim! It is sad how Canadian officials have forgotten or cannot imagine what is was like to be a young boy, immature and innocent and still playing with toys at the age of 15 years old. At that age,Omar had been placed by his father in harms way, shot in the back and tortured. Harsh but mostly very sad and tragic ..Lets get him home quickly!
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