Dallaire Takes on Harper Over Khadr's GITMO Detention

There is a need for serious political engagement on the Omar Khadr case by Canada with the Americans. There is also a serious political engagement emerging within Canada between Prime Minister Harper and Senator Romeo Dallaire.

Harper ‘s position is the Khadr case is an American justice issue and not a political concern about a Canadian citizen and child soldier. Given the political lens that Harper uses to see the world he comes off like an appeaser of the Bush White House. Our Prime Minister and the last two Liberal Prime Ministers all seem indifferent to the plight of tortured Canadian citizens like Arar and Khadr who are just so much collateral damage in keeping Bush and Cheney happy.

We are in a defining moment for Canada domestically and internationally because of how we engage politically protect and treat our citizens who get caught up in the consequences of new terrorist threats. In a fight for the moral and political high ground between Stephen Harper and Romeo Dallaire on these issues, my money is on Dallier.

He has “Shaken Hands with the Devil” in the Rwanda genocide. Now he must feel he is shaking his fist at a new devil in the Bush/Cheney GITMO now too.