The Province June 6, 2007

A second attempt by the U.S. military to prosecute alleged Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr in a Guantanamo Bay kangaroo court has failed.

Khadr, 15 when captured in Afghanistan in 2002, has rotted away in America’s Cuban military prison for five years awaiting due process that never arrives.

Now 20, Khadr had charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, spying, and providing material support for terrorism thrown out Monday when U.S. Army judge Col. Peter Brownback ruled the war crimes commission lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

The failed attempt at a “new” trial followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that an earlier Guantanamo trial system was illegal.

It is true that Khadr is no model citizen, coming from a family whose father raised his children to be warriors for jihad.

It is also true that everyone, no matter their guilt or innocence, deserves a fair hearing in a legitimate court of due process.

When that fails to occur for a Canadian citizen in a foreign land, it is imperative that the Canadian government stand up for that citizen’s right to a proper trial.

Stephen Harper understands this, repeatedly criticizing China for its shady handling of Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil, recently sentenced in secret to life in prison on questionable terrorism-related charges.

Harper carries a much different line on Khadr. Not wanting to offend his war-on-terror pal George W. Bush, Harper and his government — much like the previous Liberal regime — remains silent on the Khadr matter.

The opposition parties aren’t much better, apparently fearing that support for Khadr’s right to a fair trial may be portrayed as being “soft of terrorism.”

Liberal deputy leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP MP Joe Comartin briefly broke the silence this week by demanding the Harper regime get more involved in Khadr’s file.

Their protests were late, weak, and likely to be ignored without a full bench press from House colleagues.

It is a national disgrace that Canada remains one of the few Western nations supporting the impossibly flawed Guantanamo legal circus.

Officials from the U.S. State Department recently decreed that they have the right to hold Khadr indefinitely, even if he were to be eventually acquitted.

The Canadian government should be raising hell about this violation of basic law, and demand that Khadr be returned home to face trial here under anti-terrorism laws passed in 2001 making activities in terrorist groups in Canada or abroad a criminal offence.

Britain, Australia and all other Western nations have successfully demanded that their Guantanamo citizens be returned home.

Australian David Hicks, after pleading guilty in Guantanamo to providing material support for terrorism in Afghanistan, was flown home last month to serve the rest of his sentence in Australia.

Not everyone there supports the move, but as Australian Prime Minister John Howard recently noted, even critics of Hicks “were worried about the process, they were concerned about the principle of justice delayed is justice denied.”

Unlike Harper, Howard didn’t allow his support for Bush to get in the way of defending an Australian citizen’s basic rights.

Unlike Howard, Harper is content to sell out Canadian citizens in his quest to curry favour with Bush.

This article was posted on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 and is filed under Canadian Issues and Politics, Human Rights, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.