[FORUM] What do you think of Omar Khadr's return to Canada?

[rfmcdonald]

I'd have expected articles like the CBC's "Omar Khadr returns to Canada", recounting how the Egyptian-Canadian taken to Taliban-era Afghanistan by his al-Qaeda father and later captured in battle to be held at Guantanamo for more than a decade was finally returned to Canbada, to have made more appearances in my friends' posts on Facebook.

Omar Khadr has been returned to Canada and is being held at a maximum-security prison in eastern Ontario, after spending a decade at a U.S.-run detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Khadr, 26, left the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo early Saturday and arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton before being transferred to the Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., to serve the balance of his sentence for war crimes.

"Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the al-Qaeda terrorist network and a convicted terrorist," Toews said.

"I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration.

"Any decisions related to his future will be determined by the independent Parole Board of Canada in accordance with Canadian law," Toews said.

[. . .]

Under a plea deal with prosecutors in October 2010, Khadr admitted to being responsible for the death of American Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer.

In exchange for that plea, he was promised he would be transferred to Canada to serve out the rest of his sentence.

He agreed to a sentence of eight years, with no credit for time served, with the first year spent in U.S. custody.

[. . .]

Khadr's Canadian co-counsel, Brydie Bethel, told CBC News that he is "very relieved that he's finally back in his home country... It's obviously a huge day for Omar. He has been anxiously awaiting this day for over a decade."

News that Khadr was back in Canada caught his relatives in Toronto off guard.

"Do you know where he is so we can maybe go see him?" one close relative asked a Canadian Press reporter.

[. . . ]
Khadr was 15 when he was found badly injured in the rubble of a bombed-out compound near Khost, Afghanistan. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later, accused of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

"I am very satisfied, even if [the repatriation] is done in the dead of night and on a weekend to avoid media attention," said Senator Romeo Dallaire, who recently wrote a book about the use of child soldiers.

Khadr was the youngest and last Western detainee to be released from the naval base, which opened in January 2002.

Amongst other things, Khadr was held in stress positions, threatened with rape and deprived of sleep during some of his years in custody.

"Because he was a child soldier, Canada would have an obligation to provide rehabilitation and counselling to him under international law," constitutional and human rights lawyer Paul Champ said.

In a 2008 post I suggested that Khadr's fate would be dire unless the military commission system proved to be better than I feared. I'm pleased those fears have been proven wrong.

The Khadr affair speaks to a lot of different issues, like the question of the responsibilities of the Canadian government towards its citizens, and concerns over the fate of child soldiers. Did the Canadian government--for more than a decade, with multiple prime ministers and two different parties in charge--fail to repatriate a child soldier to his homeland because of the side he was fighting on?

What do you have to say about this affair?