Let’s Ignore the Sideshow and Stand Up for the Children of War
Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire’s clumsily expressed comments before the parliamentary subcommittee on human rights were regrettable, but not for the reason many people have suggested.
Testifying about the trial of Canadian Omar Khadr before a military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Dallaire suggested that Canada and the U.S. were no better than terrorists in allowing the trial to continue.
Egged on by Conservative MP Jason Kenney, who asked Dallaire if Canada’s failure to advocate on behalf of Khadr was the moral equivalent of strapping bombs to mentally disabled children, Dallaire responded that it was, because “you’re either with the law or not with the law.”
Kenney remarked afterwards that he was “shocked and disturbed” by Dallaire’s comments, and Liberal leader Stephane Dion said he disagreed with Dallaire’s choice of words and suggested that he might be disciplined.
Dallaire’s remarks were unfortunate — as was Kenney’s attempt to score cheap political points — because both serve to obscure what is a most serious issue: The trial of a child soldier in violation of international norms that Canada and the U.S. have pioneered and supported.
Dallaire, who was sensitized to the issue of child soldiers during his time in Rwanda, did make many more defensible comments at the hearing, as he noted that the trial of Khadr amounts to “playing with” human rights and international conventions.
Those remarks were echoed by David Crane, a former U.S. prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which refused to try children under the age of 18. Indeed, virtually all international tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, have chosen not to prosecute juveniles.
And there is good reason for their decisions. The “Paris Principles,” which Canada and the U.S. support, state that child soldiers “should be considered primarily as victims of offences against international law,” and calls on states to emphasize restorative justice and social rehabilitation when dealing with underage combatants.
Similarly, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the design of which was led by Canada and the U.S., requires parties to provide assistance for the physical and psychological recovery of child soldiers and to facilitate their social reintegration.
As evidence of their commitment to these principles, Canada and the U.S. have earmarked millions of dollars to aid in the rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers worldwide, including those in Afghanistan. And the U.S. released three underage Guantanamo detainees to the care of their families in Afghanistan.
That means Khadr, who was 10 when he was first introduced to al-Qaida by his father and 15 when he was captured, is the only child soldier left in Guantanamo, and the only one facing trial. This process has sullied the reputation of the U.S., which had long been seen as a staunch defender of human rights, especially during wartime.
Similarly, Canada’s failure to do anything about the violation of international norms, and to speak up on behalf of our own child soldier, is a national shame.
And if we let the Dallaire/Kenney sideshow further obscure this serious matter, it will say much about our true commitment to the rights of children of war.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
The seal hunt is a national shame.
Canada has its hands dyed deep red already.
Nice to see Vancouver papers make the CD cut though–good job!!
A couple points…
1) Jason Kenney is an idiot. Have you ever seen that guy? He has no business questioning an honourable man like Dallaire.
2) I 100% agree with Dallaire said… You’re either with the law or against it. By allowing the incarceration and torture of a child soldier, the US and Canada are against the law.
3) Dallaire didn’t mince any words. He’s a soldier not a liar politician. He’s done more to serve humanity that Jason Kenney could even begin to.
4) Harper and his so called “conservatives” are JUST as evil as BushCo and should be driven from power as soon as possible. If you know anyone who traditionally votes conservative, you MUST do everything possible to convince them that Harper and his crew are far from the traditional Canadian conservatives. They should be rebranded as the Canadian NAZI party.
Earlier phases of the US-led war against Iraq resulted in increased young child mortality that let to an estimated 1/2 million dead children under age 5 in the early to mid 1990s. In the last 5 years, approximately the same level has been reimposed. Anyone who did not anticipate this happening prior to March 1993 was not paying attention. At the very minimum, the Generals and Admirals are guilty of gross negligence, as well as the Bush Administration and most of Congress, and the 5 in the Supreme Court who put Bush in office.
I saw a documentary about Dallaire in Rwanda. I cried. I read his book, “Shake hands with the Devil”. I’d never had a “hero” from the military, I’m certainly not the type, but dude, this guy rules. And he’s quite correct in what he says. But really, it makes no difference in my life that the Conservative Reform Alliance Party has outraged me 726 times over the past year rather than just 725.
Kenney was “shocked and disturbed”? Excuse me while I vomit!
What’s that basic point that Noam Chomsky is always trying to slip through the tiny crack in the media wall? Something like, “the most basic moral principle you can have is, if it’s wrong for them to do it, then it’s wrong for us to do it as well.” Therefore, contemporary western conservative thought is basically immoral. Their only morality is enrirely self-referential. If the guys in the white hats do it, it’s good. If the guys in the black hats do it, then it’s terror. And our hats are always white since we’ve come up with a bleach so powerful that no blood stains can ever be seen. Jason Kenney must have a lifetime supply of the stuff.
We seem to be having a communication problem with this old boy Jason Kenney. He seems to be having way too much success at miscommunicating what’s agoing here, and
his “shock” is itself a shock. The real need is for Stephane Dion to just keep cool, and not let the Canadian neo cons pressure him do anything to this Liberal senator. If that senator were to face party discipline, the NDP ought to welcome him to their party, and we all would need wish, and for those who believe in it, pray for a Liberal minority government dependent on the NDP to stay in office to make sure Canada can go back to being Canada again. But I’d like to think Dion would keep his cool, and tell the Canadian neo cons to go straight to hell!