Reboot Alberta

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Happy Birthday Omar Khadr

Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, child soldier, and only westerner still left in Guantanamo prison “celebrated” his 22nd birthday yesterday.

He has spent a third of his life in a foreign (meaning American) prison because our government, both Liberal and Conservative, have found the protection of his citizenship rights “inconvenient.”

Khadr has been denied the protection of the Geneva Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. He is entitled to the protection of both Conventions but he is disposable for political reasons.

Every other western country has repatriated their Gitmo prisoners and then tried them domestically – with the cooperation of the US government. Why is Canada so far out of step with the rest of the world?

This just one more example why we need to be careful who we elect so we s individual citizens do not have to fear our government.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:26 am

    What was he doing in Iraq? Why should Canada intervene because he was merely a Canadian citizen of convenience?

    The Canadian Bar Association is spending large sums of money in an attempt to persuade the government to bring him back. Good on the government for denying their foolish request.

    You do not have to fear our government if you don't spend time in Iraq blowing up innocent people. Sorry, at that time, you lose some of your rights.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anon - don't be an idiot. He was 15 and with his father forced to be a child soldier.

    He has not yet been convicted - in fact not even yet tried on the charge after 7 years in prison.

    How can a child be a citizen of convenience? What does that mean anyway except to be essentially racist?

    Who made you judge and jury to reach such conclusions without access to the evidence which has not been tested yet in a real court of law...not the Bush/Cheney military kangaroo court that the US Supreme court said was illegal to boot.

    Get real Anon! It is comments and anti-democratic convictions of folks like you that make me afraid of a Harper NEO-Republican government in Canada.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here! Here! Well said, Ken.

    Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
    - Martin Luther King Jr.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:17 pm

    Aside from the Khadr thing (which you have nailed in a few sentences), the thing that I find most disturbing is that "Anon" and that ilk, who blindly support the Harper, can't seem to see that the Harper thinks they are disposable, He has no use for any other than the rich; he is not the friend of the worker, or the small businessperson, or indeed anyone who isn't very wealthy. And he is a good friend to them - anything and everything that makes their lives even more comfortable is what the Harper will strive to accomplish.

    No, I'm not a Dipper (though I have been in my youth), but I'm not a Neo-Con either. If you haven't got it yet, take a look at what's happened in the US in the last 2 weeks - the patent flaws in the Neo-Con ideology have come home to roost - big time!

    Are we nation of sheep? This election will tell.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments are discouraged. If you have something to say, the rest of us have to know who you are