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omar khadr
Viral Facebook Post Rips Right-Wing Arguments Against Omar Khadr Settlement
"Do you believe that you, as a Canadian, have the right to be presumed innocent, until proven guilty, as well as the right to a fair and quick trial?"
Jul 12, 2017
A Canadian entrepreneur has some striking words for right-wing politicians, pundits, and citizens who have argued that the Canadian government's decision to settle with and apologize to Omar Khadr--a Canadian citizen who was detained by the United States at age 15 and subsequently spent 10 years at Guantanamo--is tantamount to compensating "a terrorist."
In a recent Facebook post that quickly went viral, Ben Feral Selinger confronted those denouncing the settlement, calling their arguments "willfully ignorant and hypocritical."
Following the introduction of crucial background information--like the fact that Khadr was detained for years without charge, denied access to a lawyer, and tortured--Selinger highlighted the hypocrisy of those who presume Khadr is guilty of the charges leveled against him despite the fact that there was no fair trial.
"Do you believe that you, as a Canadian, have the right to be presumed innocent, until proven guilty, as well as the right to a fair and quick trial?" Selinger asked.
Khadr pleaded guilty to a number of charges in 2010, but Canada's Supreme Court later ruled that the guilty plea was obtained under "oppressive circumstances."
"Seriously consider this," Selinger wrote. "Do you believe you have, as a Canadian, the inalienable right to everything laid out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?"
He continued:
If you do, but still think Khadr does not, because he is a terrorist, let me ask you; "How do you know he is guilty?" There was no trial for 10 years, and he was only offered a trial on the condition that he plead guilty. How do we, as Canadians, determine guilt? Have you read and understood the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Its entire purpose is precisely to ensure that what happened to Khadr, is not allowed to happen. Period.
Now I know many of you still can't get past the "but he's a traitor so he doesn't deserve a trial" even though neither you, nor me, nor the U.S. or Canadian government were able to provide ANY evidence whatsoever, of his guilt (no evidence was submitted during his trial, presumably because none exists), but that doesn't matter. Let me explain the problem to you.
You are worried that terrorists are trying to take away your freedoms as a Canadian right? They're trying to force their way of life upon us and we as Canadians, won't stand for that right?
Do you see where I'm going here? Presuming Khadr's guilt, with no evidence and without trial, is precisely what the terrorists want to do to Canada. Isn't that your concern? Does it not strike you then, that by saying that Khadr doesn't deserve a fair trial because he is a terrorist, with absolutely no evidence, nor a trial to prove the charges, that you are doing precisely what you are worried the terrorists are trying to do do us? A presumption of guilt, no trial, a decade of detention and torture. Is that not EXACTLY what you are worried terrorists are trying to do to us?
Rights groups celebrated the Canadian government's decision to apologize to Khadr. Amnesty International called the move "welcome and long overdue."
Moazzam Begg, a British man who was compensated by the United Kingdom after being detained and tortured at Guantanamo for close to three years, likewise applauded the settlement.
"The nation shouldn't be upset about issuing an apology for something that's right," Begg said in an interview with The Canadian Press. "If people are getting upset about that, I think they need to revisit what their morals and values are about."
Read Selinger's Facebook post in full:
"Okay, I'm fucking sick of the idiocy and done with writing a diatribe every single time a friend posts about how they're upset that Trudeau is giving a terrorist $10m. You people are.... willfully ignorant and hypocritical. Here's why. (And I thoroughly suggest reading the entire post. If you know me, you know I'm neither stupid, nor an apologist. I am pure fucking science, and this post is such. Read it before making an ass of yourself by posting about how we just gave a terrorist money).
The story (the facts we know).
- Canadian born Khadr was taken to Afghanistan at age 9, by his father. We don't know if he wanted to go, and we don't know why they went. There has been zero evidence put forth to suggest the trip had anything to do with terrorism. Regardless, as he was only 9, he had no choice in the matter.
- Khadr, aged 15, was found in critical condition following a firefight. The mission debrief report filed by the U.S. troops stated that a middle aged man threw a grenade, which killed one US soldier. The grenadier was shot in the head and confirmed killed.
- Khadr was taken to Guantanamo Bay prison. No charges were filed against him at that time.
- Several years later, formal charges were filed. These charges were technically not even charges of war crimes, as if they were true, Khadr would be considered an enemy combatant during a time of war, and thus everything he was accused of doing, was legal under rules of engagement. He was denied access to a lawyer at this point and no trial date was set. He was held in detention and tortured for nearly 10 years.
- Nearly a decade later, an addendum to the original mission debrief was submitted, which identified the grenadier as Khadr by name. The original report was not rescinded. No one knows who made the addendum. No U.S. personnel present during the firefight confirms the addendum. (at least I've not been able to find any).
- A week later, Khadr is offered a plea deal. The terms of the deal were to admit guilt to all charges and serve a few more years in a Canadian prison, or refuse to admit guilt and be denied trial indefinitely. (the latter portion is not confirmed by the U.S. government, but let's be realistic here...)
- Khadr takes the plea deal, is transferred to Canada.
- Khadr sues the Canadian government for their involvement in his illegal detention, torture, and lack of a trial.
All of the above is true as far as anyone knows. That is the official story, from both the Canadian and US governments. They have said straight out that Khadr would not be offered a trial unless he took the plea deal. Just let that sink in for a moment.
Now let me ask you a question.
As a Canadian, what do you stand for? Do you believe that you, as a Canadian, have the right to be presumed innocent, until proven guilty, as well as the right to a fair and quick trial? I know this is hard for many of you to consider without jumping to "oh, but he's a terrorist, so fuck him, he's a traitor and doesn't deserve anything", but we'll get to that in a minute. Seriously consider this. Do you believe you have, as a Canadian, the inalienable right to everything laid out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
If you do, but still think Khadr does not, because he is a terrorist, let me ask you; "How do you know he is guilty?" There was no trial for 10 years, and he was only offered a trial on the condition that he plead guilty. How do we, as Canadians, determine guilt? Have you read and understood the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? It's entire purpose is precisely to ensure that what happened to Khadr, is not allowed to happen. Period.
Now I know many of you still can't get past the "but he's a traitor so he doesn't deserve a trial" even though neither you, nor me, nor the US or Canadian government were able to provide ANY evidence whatsoever, of his guilt (no evidence was submitted during his trial, presumably because none exists), but that doesn't matter. Let me explain the problem to you.
You are worried that terrorists are trying to take away your freedoms as a Canadian right? They're trying to force their way of life upon us and we as Canadians, won't stand for that right?
Do you see where I'm going here? Presuming Khadr's guilt, with no evidence and without trial, is precisely what the terrorists want to do to Canada. Isn't that your concern? Does it not strike you then, that by saying that Khadr doesn't deserve a fair trial because he is a terrorist, with absolutely no evidence, nor a trial to prove the charges, that you are doing precisely what you are worried the terrorists are trying to do do us? A presumption of guilt, no trial, a decade of detention and torture. Is that not EXACTLY what you are worried terrorists are trying to do to us?
At this point, I don't think any of us should even be concerned about Khadrs innocence or guilt. He is inconsequential at this point. The REAL concern for all Canadians, is that our government denied a Canadian citizen his inalienable rights, guaranteed to him under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They did EXACTLY what you are worried the terrorists are trying to do. If Khadr was guilty, a trial probably would have proven such, so why was he denied a trial?
For your information, the Canadian government did not simply offer up an apology and $10m for no reason. They were sued. Khadr filed a civil suit with the supreme court of Canada, and that court found in favour of Khadr, in that the Canadian government was in breach of Canadian and International law. Over half the money awarded will be going toward legal fees.
Think about it this way. Your government, was just successfully sued for war crimes. Crimes they committed not only against Khadr, but against the entire Canadian public. They assured us that we would all be given a fair trial, but now we know that is not true. They assured us that we will always be presumed innocent until proven guilty. We know that is not true. They took your money, money which could have been spent on building half a hospital or something, and spent it instead, on committing war crimes, and crimes directly against the Charter for which our country stands.
Now I don't know if Khadr is innocent or guilty and I don't know if that money will end up right back in the middle east, but before you get upset about that, I want you to consider this: Had the Canadian government offered Khadr a fair trial, regardless of his guilt, there would have been no civil suit and we'd have $10.5m more Canadian Pesos to spend on Moose shirts, or maple syrup flavoured hockey sticks.
All they had to do, was abide by our own legal doctrine, and this whole mess would have never happened.
In summation:
If you believe Khadr did not deserve a fair and quick trial, you are not Canadian. You do not stand for what Canada stands for. You are saying very clearly, that you don't care about evidence, treating people (who we presume are innocent until proven guilty) with basic decency, or your own or anyone else's right to a fair trial. You are, quite literally, openly supporting about half of Sharia law. You fuckwits."
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Justice for Omar Khadr: Child Detainee to Receive Apology, at Least $10 Million From Canada
The former child prisoner will be compensated for abuses he suffered while he was detained by the US in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
Jul 04, 2017
Toronto-born Omar Khadr--who was captured by the U.S. military in 2002 when he was just a teenager and held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba--will receive an apology and reportedly $10.5 million ($8 million USD) from the Canadian government for failing to protect him from abuse while he was detained for more than a decade.
Khadr sought $20 million from the Canadian government in a civil suit, and the Toronto Star reports that last month his attorneys met with representatives from Canada's Department of Justice to finalize the settlement details. A federal source told the Globe and Mail that the apology and compensation are expected this week.
Prominent Canadians, activists and newspaper editorial boards have rallied behind Khadr for several years through public statements, visits to MPs, a parliamentary petition, and a letter writing campaign. Following reports of the upcoming apology and compensation, Laura Pitter, senior national security counsel at Human Rights Watch, tweeted: "This is fantastic news! Hope it sends signal to US about healing power of apology, redress." Journalist Glenn Greenwald said on Twitter: "At least Canada pays & apologizes for its gross abuses. US courts have shamefully refused all suits, citing secrecy."
CBC Radio-Canada shared the reactions of human rights groups:
"For 15 years Omar Khadr's case has been a stark reminder of the many ways that an overreaching and unchecked approach to national security readily runs roughshod over universally protected human rights," said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada.
Neve said Khadr's rights were violated or ignored in Afghanistan, at Guantanamo Bay and in Canadian prisons, and that U.S. interrogators, jailors and officials refused to recognize him as a child soldier.
The previous Conservative government offered "inflammatory rhetoric" instead of making an effort to help him, Neve said.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims said it would welcome a "long overdue" apology and compensation.
"It is the right decision in light of the callous and unlawful treatment meted out to Mr. Khadr with the complicity of Canadian officials," NCCM executive director Ihsaan Gardee said in a news release.
Addressing reporters from Dublin on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "There is a judicial process underway that has been underway for a number of years now and we are anticipating, like I think a number of people are, that that judicial process is coming to its conclusion." Trudeau, who has garnered criticism for his silence on the topic, did not comment on the compensation.
Once the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Khadr, now 30, says he suffered various abuses--including beatings, sleep deprivation, rape threats, and being forced to urinate on himself--during at least 142 interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo.
Khadr's defense team has maintained that he was pushed into fighting by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, a supposed associate of Osama bin Laden who was killed in 2003. Khadr was shot and captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in July 2002, at the age of 15, after a firefight. He was accused of throwing the grenade that killed Delta Force Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, though those charges were never proven. After being detained and interrogated at a U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, for three months, Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where he remained for 10 years.
In 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Canadian officials had interrogated Khadr under "oppressive circumstances"--after three weeks of sleep deprivation while in U.S. custody--then shared evidence with U.S. officials, which "offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects." However, the court also ruled that it could not force the Canadian government to request that the U.S. send Khadr back to Canada.
The Bush administration, and then the Obama administration, fought to convict Khadr of war crimes. As part of a Pentagon plea deal that capped his sentence at eight years and would allow Khadr to return to Canada after serving some time in the U.S., he told a Guantanamo Bay military commission that he threw the grenade and pled guilty to five charges.
Khadr has since has told reporters he is uncertain whether he threw the grenade, and pleaded guilty so he could return to Canada. The Star has published classified photos that suggest the then-teen was buried in rubble when Speer was killed. In 2012, Khadr was transferred to back Canada, where in May 2015 he was released on bail to live with his attorney's family, after nearly 13 years behind bars.
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In New Documentary, Omar Khadr Speaks for Himself
In filmed interview, Khadr talks about the torture he endured before and after his transfer from Guantanamo to a Canadian prison
May 28, 2015
Viewers in Canada and beyond are finally getting the chance to hear directly from Omar Khadr, once the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay prison, who has spent the last 13 of his 28 years in custody.
Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was 15 when he was shot and captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay, was released on bail earlier this month after a judge in Alberta rejected a final effort by the Canadian government to keep him in jail. Khadr--the first person since World War II to be prosecuted for war crimes committed as a juvenile--will remain free while he appeals his U.S. military conviction.
All along, Toronto Star journalist Michelle Shephard followed Khadr's case. In 2008, she published Guantanamo's Child: the Untold Story of Omar Khadr, and now she has co-directed a documentary that premieres Thursday night on CBC-TV: Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows.
According to CBC News, Khadr and others talk in the film about the torture he endured before and after his transfer from Guantanamo to a Canadian prison.
He describes how one prisoner would be taken from his cell for a few days and the other inmates would hear constant screaming. "Then he would come back just a destroyed person, so you can only imagine what happened to him."''
Watch exclusive excerpts and CBC coverage below:
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US Still Seeks Jail for 'Fighter' Captured at 15 in Afghanistan
May 09, 2015
The good news is that an appellate judge in Canada has had the courage and good sense to uphold the release from jail on bail of Omar Khadr, a native of Canada who was captured as a child soldier at the age of 15 in Afghanistan by US forces back in 2002 and shipped off to Guantanamo, where he became one of the children held in captivity.
The bad news is that Khadr, who spent 13 years in the Guantanamo hellhole, should never have been imprisoned in the first place. Brought along at the age of 14 to fight in Afghanistan by his father, a Canadian Muslim extremist who was killed in Afghanistan, the young Khadr should have, when captured, been treated under international law not as a combatant, illegal or otherwise. Under the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty signed by the US and thus an integral part of US law, all children under the age of 18 captured while fighting in wars are to be offered "special protection" and treated as victims, not as combatants.
Instead, as Reuters reports, "Khadr claims that during at least 142 interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by barking dogs, subjected to flashing lights and sleep deprivation and threatened with rape."
Under these circumstances, and fearing that he would never leave Guantanamo, Khadr in 2010, at the age of 23, agreed to plead guilty to the US military's spurious murder charge, so that he could be sent to serve out his prison sentence in his home country of Canada. Now appealing his sentence, and renouncing his plea on the grounds that it was made under duress, he will be confined to the home of his attorney under the court's order.
This plea clearly cannot be fairly considered a real admission of guilt. It was a desperate maneuver by someone who had spent half his young life in an unregulated and illegal prison to escape all the endless torture and abuse, not to mention the lengthy separation from his home and family.
As I wrote back in 2010, charging Khadr with murder was never justified, and could never had survived a fair trial, or probably even a corrupt military tribunal:
Khadr's crime? He was in a [residential compound] that was struck by a US air strike and then raided by US special forces during the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2002. The gravely wounded Khadr was accused of tossing a grenade at advancing US troops, which killed US Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer, and caused another soldier to lose an eye.
Although Khadr, after nine years of harsh confinement at Guantanamo, and facing a military tribunal, has pleaded guilty in a plea bargain, after insisting for nine years that he did not throw the grenade (there is no living witness to his having done so, and the Special Forces soldier who shot the wounded Khadr twice in the back said he had done so because Khadr was the only one still alive who could have tossed the grenade that killed another US soldier), one issue here is that even if he did toss it, that action would have been seen as that heroic act of a gravely-wounded young fighter facing a superior enemy force, but for the fact that the US is claiming Khadr was not a legitimate soldier, but rather a "terrorist."
This is a rather spurious claim, since the US says it went to "war" in Afghanistan to go after Al Qaeda forces there, who had been set up with CIA assistance initially to help the Mujahadeen fight the Soviet occupiers. So the force that Khadr was supposedly fighting with was a legitimate fighting force once, but became not a fighting force when the enemy was the US. Clearly, such fine distinctions would have meant nothing to a 15-year-old boy who had been "drafted" into the war at 14 by his Al Qaeda-member father, who was later killed by US fire. Note too that the US can say its soldiers, who have been killing a prodigious number of civilians in Afghanistan, cannot be charged with murder or manslaughter because they are soldiers, but the enemy they are fighting can be charged with murder if they fight back, because they are supposedly not legitimate soldiers.
Canada's conservative government, headed by the right-wing Prime Minister Stephen Harper, had been fighting to keep Khadr in prison, but has now, thankfully, lost that battle.
The US should simply admit the atrocity it has committed against Khadr, and drop the charges against him. Canada should also stand up for international law and denounce this war crime by the US, and free him, instead of supporting the continued effort by the US to have him locked up. (To get away from Guantanamo and US military control, Khadr had to accept a sentence of eight years, not counting the 10 he had already spent at Guantanamo without charge, which means if he loses his appeal he could remain in captivity in Canada until 2018.)
This outrage, just one of hundreds among all the captives held at Guantanamo, is particularly egregious because it involves someone captured and detained illegally as a child. That his arrest and detention are based on a bogus charge of murder makes it all the more outrageous.
If there were any decency left at all in the White House, President Obama would have long ago ended Khadr's nightmare by releasing him to his family and apologizing or his years of torture and confinement without charge.
But there isn't.
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Omar Khadr, Former Child Prisoner at Gitmo, Granted Bail
Once the youngest detainee at Guantanamo Bay, 28-year-old Canadian-born Khadr will be allowed to leave prison after 13 years
May 07, 2015
Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who was 15 when he was shot and captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2002 and sent to Guantanamo Bay, was granted bail on Thursday after a judge in Alberta rejected a final effort by the Canadian government to keep Khadr in jail.
Court of Appeal Justice Myra Bielby granted the bail after announcing on Tuesday that she would need more time to make a decision on whether to release Khadr, now 28, as he appeals his Guantanamo Bay conviction.
The courtroom reportedly burst into cheers after Bielby announced her decision and said, "Mr. Khadr, you're free to go."
A lower court judge granted Khadr bail last month.
Toronto-born Khadr spent a decade in Guantanamo Bay after his capture. At 15, he was once the youngest detainee at the prison.
Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing an American soldier in Afghanistan eight years earlier, as part of a deal that would allow him to avoid a war crimes trial and be moved to a Canadian prison. He later recanted that admission, saying that it had been made under duress. Khadr said that he was tortured during numerous interrogations at Guantanamo Bay and the U.S.-operated Bagram Prison in Afghanistan, where he was briefly imprisoned before being sent to Cuba.
According to Reuters: "Khadr claims that during at least 142 interrogations in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, he was beaten, chained in painful positions, forced to urinate on himself, terrorized by barking dogs, subjected to flashing lights and sleep deprivation and threatened with rape."
The Associated Press reported:
Khadr's long-time lawyer Dennis Edney and wife have offered to take him into their home. Among the bail conditions imposed were that Khadr wear a tracking bracelet, live with the Edneys, observe a curfew between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., and have only supervised access to the Internet. Also, he can communicate with his family in Ontario only while under supervision and only in English.
"He's met very few people outside a jail cell," said Nate Whitling, one of Khadr's lawyers.
"It's going to be a major adjustment for him, but I'm sure he's up for it."
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Omar Khadr's Road to Freedom
Even if Omar Khadr becomes a free man, he will discover that there will be no escape from Harper's politics.
May 05, 2015
Nobody was surprised when the Canadian government announced on April 24 that it would again dip into the public purse to keep its most prominent political prisoner behind bars.
That morning, Justice June Ross of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench decided that Omar Khadr, 28, was low-risk, had been a model prisoner after 12 and a half years of incarceration, mostly at Guantanamo Bay, and could go into the care of one of his lawyers' family.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives wasted no time moving on an appeal of her decision to allow him bail. That despite how, as Ross pointed out, the government had presented no evidence to contradict her conclusions. All it could offer was, the US government wanted him in jail so in jail he must stay. Not good enough, ruled Ross.
The Harper government is obsessed with Khadr. He's terrorism's poster child, perfect for pandering to the Islamophobic, jihadists-are-out-to-get us, better-get-a-gun base.
For added fear points, Conservatives love to mention his middle name "Ahmed", just like American right-wingers like to insert Hussein into Barack Obama.
Harper's mouthpieces
No wonder that, right on cue, Harper's mouthpieces were on their feet in parliament, bellowing against Ross' decision earlier that day.
"Omar Ahmed Khadr is a convicted murderer," railed Conservative backbencher Ryal Leef, adding that "this terrorist will be out on our streets".
MP Roxanne James echoed, "Omar Ahmed Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes," and is a "convicted terrorist".
Yes, but not convicted by any court recognised as just, and certainly no court in the country of his birth. But the HarperCons don't care. Khadr is on page one of their terrorists-among-us playbook.
He was taken from a Toronto suburb by his fanatical al-Qaeda-supporting parents and pressed into joining Taliban forces in Afghanistan. That he fit the very definition of child soldier as laid out by the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child - which Canada was the first to sign in 2000 - was never of any consequence to the Harper government.
So far, it has spent uncounted taxpayer dollars to deny Khadr his freedom, lost in 2002 when, at age 15, he was captured by US Special Forces after a bloody firefight.
The story - and it was never actually corroborated nor proven - is that Khadr, despite hideous shrapnel wounds from which he still aches, had lobbed a grenade up to 24m, causing the death of armed medic Sgt Christopher Speer.
The Toronto teen was then shot in the back twice, so badly that he pleaded in English, much to the surprise of his captors, to be killed. Instead, they hauled him off, eventually shipping him to Guantanamo Bay.
Youngest prisoner
There he became the youngest prisoner and the last citizen of a NATO alliance member country to go home. He was left to rot by the Harper government, after having been tortured, isolated, and allowed to suffer from his many injuries, some of which would not be treated for a decade.
Had he been convicted of homicide as a juvenile in Canada, he would have been out years ago. But there has been no getting out for Khadr.
As his lawyer Dennis Edney told CTV News: "Canada should never have allowed Omar Khadr to be locked away in Guantanamo. Every other Western country requested and were granted return of their returnees. The second part of that fiction that they create is that they know that there's no evidence to tie Omar Khadr to having thrown a hand grenade."
In 2010, in order to avoid spending virtually the rest of his life in prison, he pleaded guilty before a US military tribunal to five charges related to murder and other crimes "in violation of the laws of war". The deal he got was another eight years, the first of which would be served at Gitmo, the next seven in Canada.
In 2012, he was finally repatriated. First he was locked up in maximum security, along with Canada's most notorious killers, at Millhaven in Ontario. Last year, he was moved to a medium security facility in Alberta where he would eventually be classified as minimum security.
Throughout his ordeal, he has fought for his constitutional rights and won them repeatedly through the courts - only to see the government strip him of them over and over again.
Last Friday, the Toronto Star's Michelle Shephard reported that US sources say that letting him out on bail would not harm diplomatic relations with Canada, no matter how much the Harper government claims that it will.
Back in court
On May 5, Khadr will be back in court to learn the conditions of his release. He could finally emerge as a free man, free to live with the Edneys, their children and pets, and free to attend a Christian college where he has already been accepted.
But on Sunday, the Canadian Press reported that the federal government is planning to seek an emergency stay of Justice Ross' decision.
"The Harper government is not interested in the rule of law," Edney said. "It refuses to listen to what the courts have said about Omar Khadr's rights. It continues to spend millions of taxpayers dollars only to lose time and time again."
And so, even if Khadr, who has spent almost half his life as a political prisoner, becomes a free man, he will discover that he may be able to get out of Harper's prisons but there will be no escape from his politics.
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