Big Internet Me

Moreover, there is no necessary connection between a requirement that the government attempt to repatriate citizens being held in violation of international law and being soft on terrorism (a concern the government has used in the past to justify its inaction).

Or rather, try to justify it.

Khadr’s relatives are not necessarily wonderful people. His dad may in fact have been an associate of Bin Laden’s. His mother once said this:

“I like my son to be brave…I would like my son to be trained to protect himself, to protect his home, to protect his neighbor, to see a young girl innocent, being raped or attacked, to really fight to defend it. I would really love to do that, and I would love my son to grow with this mentality…[a]nd you would you like me to raise my child in Canada and by the time he’s 12 or 13 he’ll be on drugs or having some homosexual relation or this and that? Is it better? For me, no. I would rather have my son as a strong man who knows right and wrong and stands for it, even if it’s against his parents.”

But that’s not really relevant; this isn’t about the Khadr family. This is about Omar. The fact that he was a minor at the time he was captured absolutely should be taken into consideration, and I’m glad to read that some people do care about that. Plus, he hasn’t exactly received a speedy trial. He’s been imprisoned for a quarter of 25 year max he’d get if he murdered somebody in Canada (25 is still the max if somebody’s not labeled a dangerous offender, right?), and that’s without having actually being convicted of anything, without even having a fair trial. It’s also in conditions that are arguably worse than any Canadian prison.

Even if all of the worst assumptions about him are true, there are some things nobody deserves.

I wish this government would stop worrying about being “soft on terrorism” and worry more about being perceived as “soft on torture.”

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Ah okay, thank you.

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