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TechnoratiOttawa Told US Khadr Transfer 'Inappropriate'
Canada Asked Americans Not to Place Accused Teen Terrorist in Guantanamo Prison Because of his Age
WASHINGTON - Canada asked the United States not to send Omar Khadr to Guantanamo Bay in 2002 because he was only 15 years old and requested discussions with the Americans before they made any decisions.
In a diplomatic letter released Thursday, Canadian officials said there was "some ambiguity" about Khadr's role in a firefight that July, adding it would be "inappropriate" to transfer him from U.S. custody in Afghanistan to the prison camp in Cuba.
"Under various laws of Canada and the United States, such an age provides for special treatment of such persons with respect to legal or judicial processes," reads the letter from the Canadian Embassy in Washington, dated Sept. 13, 2002.
"As such, the government of Canada believes that it would be inappropriate for Mr. Omar Khadr to be transferred to the detention facilities at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay."
The letter also expressed concern the State Department wasn't officially confirming information about Khadr, said details were ambiguous and requested discussions "prior to any decisions being taken with respect to his future status and detention."
The letter was part of submission from Khadr's defence lawyers, who are asking for the public release of early communications with the Canadian government, saying they could help prove his innocence.
The Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa had no immediate comment late Thursday.
Khadr's lawyers, international human rights groups and Canadian opposition parties have pressured Canada to intervene to bring him home.
But Canadian officials, after an initial few months of concern centring on Khadr's age, have totally backed off on his case.
They say he's facing serious charges and it would be ``premature" to interfere until the military legal process is exhausted, despite the fact that he's the only western detainee left in the camp.
Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo in October 2002 just after he turned 16. He's facing life in prison for allegedly throwing the grenade that killed Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer in a firefight that July 27.
But the defence says witness accounts challenge the military's contention that Khadr is the only one who could have done it.
Amnesty International urged the Canadian government this week to immediately reconsider its position on Khadr.
"His rights have been systematically violated and U.S. assurances about its commitment to the rule of law have rung increasingly hollow," said the group.
"Far from being premature, vigorous action by Canada is long overdue," it said.
"Every step of the way, the United States' treatment of Omar Khadr has failed to comply with international law, including the special protections owed to children taken into custody."
The group noted that five months after it tool Khadr into custody, the U.S. government ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
The protocol prohibits the recruitment by non-state armed groups of children under age 18 and requires states to provide such children with "all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration.``
Khadr's next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for May 8.
The U.S. military says it plans to charge about 80 of the roughly 275 detainees at Guantanamo, but so far no case has gone to trial.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
6 Comments so far
Show AllCedross, for better or worse, Justin is not his father. Any way, Iggy's got it when Dion steps down - and he's apt to move the Liberals even more to the right.
Every reason you wanted to come to Canada in the first place had more to do with the Policies the NDP imposed on the sitting government than anything the Liberals or Conservatives were capable of bringing about on their own.
Strange how CD picks up this story but not the one which entertains the posibility that the medic may not have been killed by Omar Khadr (or anyone who was in the compound with him) but by friendly fire. Seems that CD figures that one just too controversial!
Khadr's lawyers uncovered that the American soldiers were throwing grenades towards the compound. This brings up the possibility that someone mishandled a grenade (ie did not throw if fast enough). It also brings up the possibility that if someone from the compound did throw a grenade, that it was in self defense before it blew them to pieces.
RE: As the old US saying goes: "If it ain't white, it ain't right."
Then how do you explain the policies of Condi Rice!
Omar Khadr's dad pissed off the Americans severely. How would you like to be blamed, while still a child, for every rude thing your father ever did or said?
Yeah, racism is involved, but to say it is the only factor simplifies things a bit too much. None of the other children soldiers the Americans caught were mistreated the way Omar Khadr was.
As the old US saying goes:
"If it ain't white, it ain't right."
What a sad country I live in. I once thought that it meant something to be a Canadian citizen. Apparently there are two types of citizenships in Canada, one for the visibly ethnic and another for the rest. Being from another country, I originally thought that Canada took better care of their citizens than this but apparently our citizenship gets trumped by this Harper idiots willingness to shove his head ever deeper up America's arse. I am waiting to see if Justin Trudeau will take us out of this hole we have joined the Americans in. We can only hope....
cedross
RE: "Under various laws of Canada and the United States, such an age provides for special treatment of such persons with respect to legal or judicial processes," reads the letter from the Canadian Embassy in Washington, dated Sept. 13, 2002.
Who was the Canadian Ambassador to the United States on Sept. 13, 2002?
It was not former Mulroney era cabinet Minister Michael Wilson, he did not start the job until March 2006.
It was not former New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna, his term was from March 2005 to March 2006.
It was Michael Kergin - a name that is as notable to both Canadians and Americans as his Wikipedia entry.
Both McKenna and Kergin were appointed by a Liberal Prime Minister - Kergin by Jean Cretien and McKenna by Paul Martin (who took office December 2003 - which might as well be 2004).
Seems to me that Paul Martin, who promised friendlier relations with the Americans than his predessessor, felt that Kergin was ruffling too many feathers. Either that, or the Bush administration had expressed their displeasure with Kergin to Martin, and urged Martin to shut Kergin up.
S
Galen;
We don't want to be the next country that the usa decides to 'democratize'... Not to mention that it is a tory gov't in Ottawa at this point, led by a man who thinks that there is justice in the us justice system. Harpy is your standard neo-con bastard born with a silver spoon up his arse and who lives without a single compassionate thought.
But, other than complain to their fascist masters in Washington, what exactly has the Canadian government done for it's illegally arrested and detained citizen?
Nothing.
Especially in light of new evidence that the man Omar Khadr is accused of killing may have died from so-called 'friendly fire'...