Canada Must Guarantee Khadr's Safety.

  • Posted by St Dan
  • Filed in City
  • December 20, 2005

Abdullah Khadr, Canadian citizen.On Saturday, at the request of United States authorities, Toronto resident Abdullah Khadr was arrested under foreign-issued terror related charges. He now sits in a jail-cell, awaiting the possibility of extradition to the United States to face accusations that he helped supply munitions to Al-Qaeda.

Let us ignore for a moment the question of guilt or innocence in relation to Mr Khadr. Surely, there is not a one amongst us who would argue that he should be extradited if he is innocent, or set free if guilty - this then is not the question before us. Rather, we must ask ourselves what guarantees Canada should demand before an extradition hearing even begins.

Despite having a comprehensive extradition treaty with the United States, Canada can, and has in the past refused to extradite prisoners for reasons of conscience, most commonly over concerns regarding the death penalty. To this effect, Canada has generally demanded a guarantee that the accused will not be executed before an extraditioin hearing takes place.

Clearly in this case a guarantee of that nature is not necessary - Khadr's alleged crimes are not capital ones. However, with the proliferation of US secret prisons around the world, and with the known US technique of sending captives already on US soil to third countries to be tortured, Canada needs assurances that these manuevers will not be applied to Khadr.

Yes, Khadr has possibly done a great deal of wrong, but he is still a Canadian. As a Canadian, he is as deserving of government protection to his civil liberties as you or I. A scenario can easily be imagined in which a fearful United States, worried that their interrogation of Khadr is not moving along at a rapid enough pace, decides to send him back to Afghanistan, Eastern Europe, or Syria to be worked over in the hopes of extracting a confession. This cannot be allowed to happen. We need assurances from US officials that Mr Khadr will not be labeled an 'enemy combattant'

Canada must do what is right and just - without a US guarantee that Khadr will remain in a US prison in the continental United States, and without a similar promise that no coersive tactics will be put upon him, Canada must refuse to begin any extradition.

It's the humane thing to do.

Photo courtesy of www.cageprisoners.com

Reader Reviews and Comments

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I would like to think Canada will protect him, though it's unclear at this point if they will or not. There is ample evidence that the US has been torturing prisoners by proxy in countries like Egypt and Syria. We are a country complicit in sanctioning torture if we send him off to the States.

Posted by: Ramanan at December 20, 2005 9:19 AM

Frag the creep.

Posted by: stitt at December 20, 2005 9:46 AM

Have u heard of extra orindary rendition ??

Khadar is on his own. Canada is goin thru political reelections.

Posted by: /pd at December 20, 2005 10:40 PM

Stitt:

Creep he may be, but he is a Canadian, and as such is deserving of the protections owing to a Canadian just as much as myself or you. At minimum, we must have gurantees that he will remain in the US, not be executed, and tried in open court.

Ramanan & pd:

I worry that you may be right. Martin only seems to be able to stand up to the US when nothing is really at stake. Still, let's hope.

Posted by: St Dan at December 20, 2005 11:45 PM

Regardless of any guarantees, we all know this dude is in for a world of hurt. Think Adabissi in Oz.

Posted by: Greg at December 21, 2005 12:06 PM

Regardless of any guarantees, we all know this dude is in for a world of hurt. Think Adabissi in Oz.

Posted by: Greg at December 21, 2005 12:07 PM

Send him to Texas, get all information possible, then a have him killed under the death penalty. This man is a terrorist and does not deserve to live.

Posted by: Tim at December 21, 2005 3:02 PM

agreed, this farger is bad news and only makes us look worse by association, hang him out dry

Posted by: rocco at December 21, 2005 5:02 PM

Tim:

He may be a terrorist, we don't know yet - nothing has been proven in court, and we all know that the US is apt to making mistakes *ahem*Mahar Arar*ahem*.

Rocco: Allowing our citizens to potentially be tortured is what makes us look bad, not protecting human rights.

Posted by: St Dan at December 21, 2005 9:17 PM

Danny boy,
Calling this guy a 'citizen' is like calling the shoe bomber a 'passenger'. Read up on his history. There is a point when our fabled Canadian openness and trust gets abused by cynical, murderous a-holes with hate agendas like this guy and we can't cling sentimentally to our old notions of fairness without endangering ourselves and our friends.

Posted by: rocco at December 22, 2005 7:08 AM

Rocco:

Nobody is suggesting that he be sent to Disneyland and given a teddy-bear.

If he's guilty, and if it can be proven, he should be punished to the full extent of the law (both Canadian and USian). Insisting that he not be tortured doesn't endanger anybody - in prison he won't be making any arms deals.

Posted by: St Dan at December 22, 2005 10:46 AM

No.

We are now fighting a war. Al -Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups have described it as a war.

Khadr is a Prisoner of War. By international law he will remain so until the war ends. This is how captured combatants were treated in WW1 and WW2. When either the Islamic terrorists or the rest of the world declares victory he will be released.

Posted by: Ross at January 12, 2006 2:02 AM

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