Bob Zimmer, I have yet to receive your reply to my letter of 25 May this year. Perhaps my
letter or your reply has been lost in Canada's deteriorating postal system.
You should have seen a copy of my letter published in the Prince George Citizen
just below your diatribe accusing Omar Khadr of confessing to murder. (You may not
have read that letter before forwarding it to our newspaper from the Prime Minister's
press office.) Even so, I must correct you on a critical point. Omar Khadr did not
confess to murder. He pled guilty before an American military kangaroo court. The
option offered him for this plea was indefinite incarceration in the illegal torture camp in
Guantanamo.
I am familiar with the American military's "justice system" which convicted
Omar as I spent a spell of my enlistment as a guard at a U.S. Army stockade. Men were
incarcerated there for as much as six months on accusations of petty offences. They had
been subjected to "Article 15" proceedings in which a single officer adjudicated the guilt
or innocence of the accused. These proceedings were predetermined and arbitrary. The
U.S. "Uniform Code of Military Justice" that convicted Omar had little relation to civilian
"justice" which is also often arbitrary and often unjust.
I have experience working within British Columbia "Corrections" also. In our
system an indigent accused is often offered a choice. He or she may face a trial,
defended by an underpaid, overworked public attorney, at which the most likely outcome
will be a conviction and a lengthy prison sentence. Or the accused may "plead guilty" for
a shorter sentence to begin immediately. If the accused chooses to "roll the dice" and go
to trial, he or she can expect a lengthy time in a remand unit prior to trial to be spent in
maximum security with no programs.
Before you accuse someone of "confessing" to a crime, I suggest that you learn
the difference between confessing and pleading guilty.
I eagerly await your early reply to my letters.
James Loughery
Prince George
