Currently being discussed across the country is Omar Khadr and a multimillion-dollar settlement for wrongful imprisonment. The argument being the government violated international law when it allowed the United States to detain him at Guantanamo Bay. He was the youngest at 15-years-old and the last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison located in Cuba.
Khadr is a Canadian born citizen. At 15-years-old, he was captured by U.S. troops in Afghanistan after a gunfight broke out. Khadr was suspected of throwing a grenade, which killed one and injured another U.S. soldier. He was taken to Guantanamo and charged with war crimes, which he pleaded guilty to years later, and later recanted as it was made under duress. He was sentenced eight years in addition to the time he already spent in custody and was returned to Canada in 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence before being released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilt.
Khadr was likened by some to a child soldier, his mind poisoned by radicalism, and these people asked for leniency. Others, however, are indifferent to how he was treated in Guantanamo Bay and simply see a guilty man who should pay for his crimes.
Is torture an accurate way to illicit a confession though? Sleep deprivation was used, which is prohibited under Canadian law. The Supreme Court in 2010 stated, “Canada actively participated in a process contrary to its international human rights obligations and contributed to (Khadr’s) ongoing detention so as to deprive him of his right to liberty and security of the person.”
He was threatened with a lifetime of detention without trial unless he pleaded guilty.
I’ve never been tortured and I never want to be. I am getting a large piece tattooed on my side – which is substantially more painful than any of my tattoos. I was able to say stop when I needed a break to breathe. At one point it actually felt like I had been speared straight through my side and it got me thinking about torture. When you’re being tortured that’s not how it works and there’s only so much the mind and body can endure before breaking.
So, did he do it? Was he a child soldier? Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time because of his father? No one knows for certain except for him. However, whether he did it or not, he is a Canadian citizen and is therefore subject to our laws and under our laws it says that he was mistreated and our government is being held to that. Our government is not above the law. When government is above the law, that’s when trouble ensues… Stalin, Hitler, any other dictator, Absolute Monarchs, etc…
The Liberals did decide to settle outside of court, but with the Maher Arar case under the Conservatives, a precedent was set to make a payout in this situation anyways; so, the Liberals avoided going to court where who knows how much would be spent in legal costs – whether they won the case or not – and very likely have to pay Khadr on top of these amassed legal fees. They opted to avoid a case that looked unwinnable, especially considering the Supreme Court’s statement from 2010 and the Conservatives payout for the Arar case.
Khadr now vehemently opposes radical Islam and is pursuing a career in health care. Our judicial system is supposed to be based on rehabilitation and reintegration (although it doesn’t always work in many people’s opinions and in the public’s eye he will always face hardships – whether repentant or not); looking at his life now, it would, however, appear that with his second chance he’s going to attempt to right any wrongs.
