The rage expressed by some over the payment to Omar Khadr is understandable.
Those who view Khadr as a terrorist generally fail to understand why the payment was made or compare it to the treatment of our veterans who also fought and died so far away.
It must firstly be pointed out that there is no proof that 15-year old Khadr actually threw the grenade that killed the American soldier. The soldier killed was not in American uniform; he was dressed as an Afghani when he entered the house in which Khadr had taken shelter from an earlier bombing by U.S. aircraft, the others in that building being either dead or wounded.
Khadr's "confession" came only after he had endured seven years of imprisonment at Guantanamo and a pseudo-trial by a military tribunal. His choice, having spent seven years in prison, was to either plead guilty or spend more years incarcerated for alleged acts he may have committed as a child in a brutal war while knowing that those whose duty it was to protect him were participating in his confinement and torture.
His father had taken 15-year old Khadr from Canada to war-torn Afghanistan. If blame lies anywhere, it lies with the fanatical father for exposing his son to such danger. Some wish to hold a child accountable under those circumstances?
Not once but twice our Supreme Court ruled that Khadr's rights as a Canadian citizen had been violated by our own government acting not as a defender of any Canadian's rights but as a willing accomplice to American mistreatment of a child. We expect that our government will speak up and defend our rights; instead Canadian officials sanctioned the torture and even participated in Khadr's interrogation.
It seems that many have been caught up in the fever of anti-Muslim thought too common in today's Canada. They see pictures of Khadr as he is now - a young man - and fail to see the 15-year old he was at the time of the incident.
The issue in not that Canadians did fight and die in Afghanistan for a paltry reward on their return. Those deserve our thanks and care for as adults they volunteered to risk their lives in a far-away land. Such is a red herring set loose to fan outrage by ignoring the reasons for this payment. Our government has a duty to protect Canadians abroad, regardless of their ethnic origin or religion. This it failed to do and under Harper's aegis it actually participated in in the torture and imprisonment not of an Islamic extremist but of a Canadian.
Willow Arune, Prince George
