Omar Screwed By Conservatives

Yeah, that title shouldn't some as a surprise to Canadians as Stephen Harper would never dare to show up his leader George Bush, but still there is some surprise. I guess the fact that Steve's on a "Yo'ing" level with Georgie he has a whole new appreciation for Bush's breaking of Mr. Khadr's  rights.

But as it turns out, Harper vowed to leave the Omar Khadr case in American hands, leaving him there to be the only citizen of a western nation who is still left there. The Brits and the Aussies got their citizens out of Gitmo, but not Harper. The kicker in all of this is that Harper could have said he would today, and would even be able to blame the Liberals for why he had to do it at the same time. How is that you ask??? Here's how:

"Canadian officials knew Omar Khadr was sleep-deprived for weeks to make him more willing to talk for an interrogation, a newly released document shows.

According to the internal report from the Foreign Affairs department, Canadian official Jim Gould visited Khadr on March 30, 2004 in Guantanamo Bay and was told that measures were taken to make him "more amenable and willing to talk."

Dated April 20, 2004, the report — written by R. Scott Heatherington, who was the director of the department's Foreign Intelligence Division — states Gould was told Khadr was placed on a "frequent flyer program" for three weeks before Gould's visit. That meant Khadr was "not permitted more than three hours in any one location.""

March 0f 2004. Hmm, who was Prime Minister at that time??? Oh yeah, that was none other than Paul Martin. Right there was Harper's chance to use his favourite line, but nope, he didn't do it. So why is that??? Well I guess there could be many reasons to point to but when I look at it I can't help but think that Harper is more interested in pleasing his patron Mr. Bush than pleasing Canadians, and sure as hell more interested in pleasing Bush than standing up for the rights of a Canadian citizen, regardless of what they allegedly did. For all their blather about being the party of "Law and Order", the Conservatives seem to have decided, again, that the whole idea of being innocent until proven guilty is not a universal one. The double standard of Conservative justice rears it's ugly head again.

In the meantime, Omar Khadr is stuck in Gitmo and we now know for sure that his human rights have been violated by the United States and the past and now the current Canadian government have been complicit in it. As the Toronto Star article on this topic today said, they knew that Mr. Khadr was being abused but still denied that he was being mistreated. Regardless of how you feel about Mr. Khadr, the Canadian Government is supposed to stand up for human rights of all Canadians and definitely not cover up the abuses of those rights by other nations. This is a black eye to the reputation of Canada. This is a sad, sad example of throwing a citizens human rights aside and treating them as guilty without due process all under the veil of national security. We have slid pretty far down that slippery slope and I shutter to think about what going further down might look like.

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