Lawrence Martin
You either support high standards of justice or you don’t.To avoid depression over the standards of justice in this country, here’s a tip: Stay away from opinion polls on Omar Khadr.
If you ever thought Canadians were a progressive, fair-minded people who believed in equal rights before the law, these soundings tell a different story.
They say most Canadians don’t want the Toronto-born Mr. Khadr to be returned to Canada from Guantanamo Bay for a legitimate judicial process. All other nations have repatriated their Gitmo detainees. Led by our counterclockwise Justice Department, we are the lone heathen holdout.
In the case of the 23-year-old Mr. Khadr, we invoke a double standard. We’re saying he’s not entitled to the same judicial rights as others. In so doing, we turn our backs on repeated rulings of our top courts that his rights have been violated, that we’re failing “to comply with a fundamental principle of justice.”
After four years of non-stop, pro-war, pro-violence propaganda, including Hockey Night in Canada's eager participation, is it any wonder that Canadians no longer have a sense of what is right or wrong in the so called war on terror. War crimes. What dat? Civil rights. Who cares? Peacenik says it is time to bring Mr. Khadr, a child soldier, home. And it is time to bring the troops home.
