The Canadian courts have acknowledged the wrong done to Omar Khadr, a 15 year-old child soldier who was tortured and imprisoned as an “enemy combatant” at Guantanamo for allegedly killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan. Khadr received a monetary settlement, but the Canadian government has never acknowledged that the U.S. invasion was illegal, and that Afghans had a right to resist it.
Canada Pays and Fails Omar Khadr
by Oscar Wailoo
“Afghans, as well as Omar Khadr, were legally entitled to defend the country against invaders who, incidentally, remain in the country to this day.”
Last July 7th, Canadian Omar Khadr received an apology and $10.5 million compensation from the Canadian government.
Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured by invading American forces in Afghanistan, shipped off to Guantanamo and charged for murdering Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, a US Army Delta Force medic, on July 27, 2002.
Raised on news as entertainment, Americans have become what US media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman describes as a people “distracted by trivia” as “public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk.” So it is unlikely that most Americans would have heard about or even be interested in the Khadr story. However, I can assure you that as soon as the Khadr story is off the front pages in Canada, normal habits will return and we will rejoin our American cousins to tweet unintelligible sentences about what Melania Trump wore on her recent visit to France or about Beyoncé’s new baby.
But the Omar Khadr issue was in the spotlight here for nearly 15 years and kept Canada’s attention. The triggers guaranteed that: a Muslim captured in Afghanistan, jailed in Guantanamo, member of what is described here as a “Jihadist Family.”
“Omar Khadr settlement, together with the government’s apology, was not popular with a majority of Canadians.”
The few Americans who pay attention to affairs beyond the border heard from Peter Kent, a Conservative Party opposition member in the Canadian Parliament. Kent wrote an article entitled “A Terrorist’s Big Payday, Courtesy of Trudeau” in the Wall Street Journal. Of course it attacked the Canadian government for making the settlement. A day later another Conservative member, Michelle Rempel, did the same on Fox News.
- surprise there -- airing out Canadian dirty knickers in right-wing American news media is nothing new in Canadian Conservative Party circles. Back in 2003, Stephen Harper, who was then Opposition Leader (later Prime Minister) co-authored an article in the Wall Street Journal criticizing then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for not supporting the invasion of Iraq.
Still, the $10.5 million Omar Khadr settlement, together with the government’s apology, was not popular with a majority of Canadians (according to opinion polls). Ditto for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which was dragged kicking and screaming by the Canadian courts to make right by Omar Khadr.
Our government would have been quite happy if the Omar Khadr incident in Afghanistan was as clear cut as Kent’s opening paragraph: “Omar Khadr pulled the pin from a grenade and tossed it at Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer, a US Army Delta Force medic, on July 27, 2002. Those are the facts to which Mr. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, confessed when he pleaded guilty to a Guantanamo war-crimes commission.” Speer died of his wounds and Sgt. First Class Layne Morris was partially blinded by the blast. But pay our government did. Why?
Omar Khadr was born in Canada in 1986 of Arab Muslim parents, one of six children. His Egypt-born father Ahmad Khadr was an active member of the Mujahedeen, the multinational Muslim jihadist force that was sponsored by the CIA to fight the Russians following the 1979 invasion.
In those days Ahmad Khadr moved easily around Canada, Pakistan, Bahrain, and Afghanistan, raising funds to run relief organizations for Afghan refugees and orphans following the Soviet invasion. At various times he lived in these countries, sometimes alone, sometimes with his family. In truth, the Mujahedeen, considered heroic in their struggle against the “Soviet Evil Empire,” also moved freely around Western countries; Ahmad Khadr was admitted to Canada as an immigrant in 1977 where he studied computer programming.
“His Egypt-born father Ahmad Khadr was an active member of the Mujahedeen, the multinational Muslim jihadist force that was sponsored by the CIA to fight the Russians.”
It was in the 1980s, during the fight against the Soviets that, according to US authorities, Khadr befriended Osama bin Laden. It was also when bin Laden and the Mujahedeen were being lionized by the West for their valiant fight against “ungodly communism.”
Ahmad Khadr was so well-regarded by Canada that when he was arrested in Pakistan for allegedly bombing the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, Jean Chretien, Canada’s Prime Minister, arranged his release after meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. (Khadr died in a gun battle with Pakistani forces near the Afghanistan border in 2003).
All that changed when planes crashed into the World Trade Centre buildings on Sept. 11, 2001. Within hours the US government named Osama bin Laden as the mastermind, operating out of what was the CIA-sponsored Mujahedeen training camp in Afghanistan. Less than a month later on Oct. 7, the US with the support of Canada, the UK and 40 other nations, invaded Afghanistan.
By then, Omar Khadr was living in the bin Laden compound in Afghanistan, having been brought there by his father at age nine. He was 15 when, during a fire fight, he allegedly threw a grenade that killed US soldier Speer and injured Morris.
Of course, America, having declared itself an exceptional nation, took exception to having one of its soldiers killed in a war. When ordinary soldiers from ordinary countries are killed in battle, it’s normally attributed to “the fog of war,” they get buried with honors and that’s that. But an American soldier is not ordinary, so Omar Khadr was defined as an “enemy combatant,” charged with murdering an American soldier on the battlefield, and jailed in Guantanamo. Even the Nazis in WWII did not suffer the fate of Omar Khadr for killing an enemy soldier in the heat of battle.
“America, having declared itself an exceptional nation, took exception to having one of its soldiers killed in a war.”
It bears recalling that few questioned America’s right to invade Afghanistan. After all, we saw the towers fall in living color, over and over again. We heard President George W. Bush’s assertion that it was Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda affiliates who arranged it. The world’s appetite was so primed for war that few questioned Bush’s assertion or the legitimacy of the invasion.
Linda McQuaig, a Canadian writer known for questioning the establishment, is one of a few journalists who did not accept the received American view. In her 2007 book “Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the US Empire,” reminded us that the Afghanistan invasion was in fact illegal.
McQuaig wrote that after the 9/11 attack, the US insisted that Osama bin Laden was the mastermind; and they wanted him handed over to face “justice” mere days after Mullah Omar, the Afghan leader, agreed that this would happen if the US could provide the evidence. Under international law, he was entitled to do so since it was not the Afghanistan government that was accused.
According to McQuaig, “International law, as set out in the UN Charter, is very specific in defining scenarios under which war can be legally waged.
First, if a country is directly attacked, and there is no non-violent remedy, it can respond with military force in self-defense. The only other scenario -- when the collective interest of international peace and security is at stake -- requires the authorization of the UN Security Council.”
Quoting Michael Mandel, a law professor at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, she argues that: “… self-defense does not apply in the case of the US attack on Afghanistan, since the US launched wars against both Iraq and Afghanistan, even though it was not attacked by either country … In the case of Afghanistan, Washington never even tried for Security Council authorization.” The UN Charter specifies that “the parties to any dispute shall, first of all, seek solution by … peaceful means” such as “negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement.”
“The world’s appetite was so primed for war that few questioned Bush’s assertion or the legitimacy of the invasion.“
On the eve of the invasion, the Afghans were still seeking a negotiated settlement, but George Bush demanded that all al-Qeida members be handed over. Bush added that “These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion.”
No negotiations occurred and Canada followed the US into Afghanistan without UN authorization. Therefore, the invasion of Afghanistan was illegal. Afghans, as well as Omar Khadr, were legally entitled to defend the country against invaders who, incidentally, remain in the country to this day.
I have no doubt Canadian governments, which often boast about Canada’s record as a peacekeeper and “honest broker” in international affairs are quite familiar with international law and knew full well the invasion was illegal. They also knew that 15-year-old Omar Khadr was a child soldier, protected under the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” a treaty that requires signatories to give special consideration to captured enemy fighters under age 18 with the aim of rehabilitating child soldiers and reintegrating them into society.
In 2002, Canada was among the first to sign the protocol and was eager to follow that protocol in dealing with child soldiers of the many African wars, but not so with Omar Khadr.
While Britain intervened and had their citizens sent home from the Guantanamo prison, paying them millions of pounds into the bargain, Canada went to the other extreme and helped the Americans grill Khadr in Guantanamo.
Here’s a timeline that details how we got to this point:
February 2003: Investigators from the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) interview Khadr at Guantanamo.
Aug. 10, 2005: A Federal Court judge says Canadian agencies, including CSIS, are violating Khadr’s Charter rights by turning information gleaned in interviews over to US investigators.
Nov. 7, 2005: The US military charges Khadr with conspiracy, attempted murder and aiding the enemy in connection with the deadly 2002 skirmish that killed Sgt. Speer.
March 17, 2008: Khadr alleges he was threatened with rape and violence by interrogators seeking to extract a confession.
May 23, 2008: The Supreme Court of Canada concludes that Canadian officials illegally shared information about Khadr with the US.
Aug. 14, 2009: Canada’s Federal Court of Appeal upholds ruling that requires the Canadian government to press for Omar Khadr’s return from Guantanamo Bay.
Jan. 29, 2010: Canada’s Supreme Court agreed that Khadr’s human rights are being violated.
Oct. 25, 2010: Amid talk of an agreement, Khadr changes his plea to guilty on all five counts; gets opportunity to apply for a transfer to a Canadian prison after one year in a US facility.
Oct. 31, 2010: Jurors sentence Khadr to 40 years in prison for war crimes but a pre-trial deal limits the actual sentence to eight years.
April 2012: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta signs off on Khadr’s transfer to Canada.
Sept. 29, 2012: Khadr was returned to Canada to complete his jail sentence.
In April 2015, a judge in the province of Alberta grants bail to Khadr pending the outcome of his appeal in the US for his war crimes conviction. He was released on bail on May 7 last year.
“Fifteen year-old Omar Khadr was a child soldier, protected under the “Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
To the Canadian media’s credit -- left, right and center -- while harboring no love for Omar Khadr or the settlement, accepted the courts’ findings and grudgingly wrote in favor of the monetary settlement and the apology. They acknowledged Khadr was tortured in Guantanamo and that he was a child soldier.
Maclean’s, a Canadian news magazine, sums up the general media view stating that twice the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously decided that Canada violated Omar Khadr’s basic human rights. According to the court: “Canada actively participated in a process contrary to Canada’s international human rights obligations and contributed to Mr. Khadr’s ongoing detention so as to deprive him of his right to liberty and security of the person guaranteed by Section 7 of the Charter, contrary to the principles of fundamental justice,” and that Canada offended “the most basic standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.”
“This view” it wrote, “has been echoed by civil rights experts and jurists, from Supreme Court judges, to Amnesty International, The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Dean of the Osgoode Hall Law School [University of Toronto].”
The treatment meted out to Omar Khadr by the Americans, with Canada’s complicity, is nothing short of disgraceful. And while the settlement is applauded by right-minded persons, Canada is in no position to boast about “doing the right thing” and claiming the moral high ground vis-a-vis America.
Governments under Liberal and Conservative prime ministers were enthusiastic supporters of the invasion of Afghanistan, never once questioning its legitimacy while aiding in the ongoing abuse of Omar Khadr, a born Canadian and child soldier. The corporate media were in lockstep with official Canada while the opposition New [socialist] Democrats fiddled, croaked about putting Canadian soldiers in harm’s way, and worried about the quality of their arms and equipment.
But for the Canadian courts, which consistently ruled without bias and with clear thinking, a segment of Canadians who called a spade by its right name, and Denis Edney, the Scotland-born, Canadian lawyer who defended Omar Khadr with a passion and decency seen mostly in the world of fiction, our country’s main institutions failed Omar Khadr and couldn’t muster a moral argument.
Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in defense of his decision to issue an apology to Khadr said in a nutshell that he had no choice; the court forced his hand.
Oscar Wailoo lives in Toronto, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
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