Canadian Government Discounts Human Rights
Omar Khadr Left in Guantanamo Bay as Ottawa Appeals Court Rulings
Aug 27, 2009
Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen. At the age of 15, which by definition made him a child soldier, Mr. Khadr got caught up in a firefight in Afghanistan. He was in that war-torn country because his father, who had terrorist connections, had taken him there. Captured by U.S. soldiers, he was accused of killing an American. He has been held under that charge in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison since 2002.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada was prominent in writing and ratifying, extends protection to child soldiers from prosecution for war crimes.
Canadian Officials Violated Khadr’s Rights
Held in solitary confinement and subjected to “enhanced interrogation” by U.S. agents, Omar Khadr was said to be in a fragile mental state when Canadian officials visited him in prison. Writing in The Globe and Mail, Bill Curry (August 26, 2009) reported, “Canadian officials violated his Charter rights in 2003 and 2004 by interrogating him at Guantanamo while he was under duress, and then sharing that information with the Americans.”
This was the judgement on August 14, 2009 of the Federal Court of Appeals, which then ordered Ottawa to seek the release of Khadr. This decision upheld an April 2009 ruling by Federal Court Judge James O’Reilly.
Now, the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has asked the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn the decisions of the two lower courts.
Khadr’s Prison Conditions Described as Poor
The Globe and Mail article reports that “Mr. Khadr is now being held with other detainees. His Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, describes the area as a ‘cage’ in which his client is chained to the floor.”
According to Edney, Khadr has lost the sight in one eye and the vision in his other is deteriorating. Citing security concerns, prison guards won’t allow inmates at Guantanamo to have glasses.
Toronto Star writer Tonda McCharles says (August 26, 2009) that “Even some Conservatives privately admit they have been taken aback by Harper’s utter indifference to pleas about Khadr’s plight.
“There’s no clear explanation for it. Is it good foreign policy? Good politics? Or simple ideological stubborness?”
Campaign for Khadr’s Release
Among the human rights groups pressing for Omar Khadr’s release is the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children. Its Chair is Kathy Vandergrift and she was quoted in Embassy magazine (July 29, 2009) as saying her group has advocated that Omar Khadr to be considered a child solider. "At senior levels, we don’t think we have a problem," she said, "we think the (foreign affairs) department understands, but at the political level there is a sense that children involved with terrorists groups are not child soldiers, and that’s simply not the case under international law.”
Meanwhile, the Toronto Star quotes Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff as saying (August 25, 2009), “We don’t minimize the seriousness of the crimes for (which) Khadr was accused. But he’s done, what is it, seven, eight years in Guantanamo in horrendous conditions, and we think it’s time he was brought home and re-integrated.”
See also: Canada's Foreign Policy Gets a Harder Edge
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