Omar Khadr: A Child Soldier Comes Home

It has been a seemingly endless nightmare, a horror story not only for Omar Khadr, but also for the country that let him down so shamefully.

But at least tonight he is finally home.

Omar Khadr has been returned to Canada and is being held at a maximum-security prison in eastern Ontario, after spending a decade at a U.S.-run detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

I've written 69 posts on this case in the last six years. But they could all be summed up as simply as this:

Omar Khadr was a child soldier, who was victimized by his terrorist father, exploited by the Taliban group he was forced to join. He was horribly wounded, tortured by the Americans, held in the totalitarian hell hole known as Guantanamo, subjected to a kangaroo trial worthy of Orwell or Kafka, betrayed by two Canadian governments.

And to add insult to injury, or shame to disgrace, he was also abandoned by many Canadians, for the sole and outrageous reason that they hate his family. As if that should have ANYTHING to do with the rule of law. 

For what kind of legal system would they bring down upon us? In what dark jungle of mob rule would those Cons and other troglodytes have us live? In the pit of depravity or Ezra Levant's sewer?

I have no idea what kind of a human being Omar Khadr is as a result of his nightmarish history; I would be astonished if he is able to emerge unscathed. But what I cannot fathom is the personalized vindictiveness without limit expressed by Levant against someone who has been systematically abused by all the adults and authorities in his young life. What can drive such unhinged hatred for a young man he has never even met?

For there are many other Canadians who should ask themselves that same question.

Oh well. The good news is that despite the horror and the loneliness he has had to endure, all those who have met Khadr say he is a decent young Canadian, who likes Disney cartoons and Harry Potter stories, wants to be a healer, and is an excellent candidate for rehabilitation.

"He's gentle. And very mannered. He is a remarkable individual considering the experiences that he's had and what he has had to endure. … I feel confident in evaluating and stating clearly that Omar Khadr does not have a history of violent and aggressive conduct.

Despite what the sinister Vic Toews ominously suggests:

Toews said, however, he has concerns as to whether the parole board can "effectively administer" Khadr's sentence...He also said Omar Khadr's mother and older sister have "openly applauded his crimes and terrorist activities."

The old Con zombie, who would stir up the mob to pervert the justice system, and for whom no punishment is ever enough.

Even though by any normal standard of decent humanity, Omar Khadr's punishment has already been excessive.

By now Khadr has spent 10 years behind bars for his wrongdoing. That’s years longer than he would have spent in prison here, had he been convicted in a credible Canadian court of first-degree murder as a young offender. Now that he is finally back on Canadian soil, the corrections service and parole board should work toward freeing him at the earliest safe opportunity, subject to a rehabilitation program that includes psychiatric care, monitoring and schooling. He has already done excessive time for his misdeeds.

Rather than try to build a case that Khadr now needs to spend six more years behind bars, Canadian officials should come up with a plan to help Khadr rehabilitate himself, and ring down the curtain on this infamous spectacle.

Yup. It's time for all decent Canadians to tell the ghastly Cons to stop shaming us further.

Welcome home Omar.

I always said you lived here...

But now you're finally back.

And our long nightmare is almost over...

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