Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Judge and jury

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, April 24, 2009 1:26pm - 4 Comments

From this morning’s QP.

Hon. Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Foreign Affairs a question about the Khadr case. Mr. Justice O’Reilly’s judgment is really quite straightforward. He says: ‘There’s such evidence of systematic mistreatment of this prisoner at Guantanamo that there is now a positive obligation on the part of the Canadian government to make representations to bring him home.’ I would like to ask the minister a very simple question: What is it in Mr. Justice O’Reilly’s decision that the Government of Canada now takes objection to?

Hon. Lawrence Cannon (Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am happy to see my colleague from Toronto Centre. We have not seen each other for the last couple of weeks. Omar Khadr faces very serious charges. We all know that. As a matter of fact, last night we were able to see television footage of Mr. Khadr’s alleged building and planting of explosive devices that are actually planted in Afghanistan. Those devices are the devices that basically have taken away the lives of young Canadian men and women.

L’hon. Bob Rae (Toronto-Centre, Lib.): Monsieur le Président, ce que vient de dire le ministre est extraordinaire, parce que plutôt que d’accepter la décision d’un juge de la cour fédérale, le gouvernement a décidé d’augmenter ses campagnes personnelles contre ce jeune homme, qu’on a recruté à l’âge de 13 ans et qui a été fait prisonnier en Afghanistan à l’âge de 15 ans. Je vais répéter ma question, qui est très directe et à laquelle le ministre n’a pas répondu. Quel est le contenu de la décision…

Le vice-président: Je regrette de devoir interrompre l’honorable député de Toronto-Centre. L’honorable ministre des Affaires étrangères a la parole.

L’hon. Lawrence Cannon (ministre des Affaires étrangères, PCC): Monsieur le Président, soyons clairs, et la réponse sera directe. Il s’agit d’un homme qui a été accusé de très graves crimes. Hier soir, on pouvait voir cet individu à la télévision en train de faire des montages en vue de créer des bombes qui tuent des Afghans, qui tuent des civils et qui tuent effectivement des militaires canadiens. Nous analyserons la décision et nous irons fort probablement en appel de cette décision.

Tags: Afghanistan, Bob Rae, federal court, Guantanamo, Justice O'Reilly, lawrence cannon, Omar Khadr, terrorism, torture

More by Aaron Wherry

PolJunkie

God himself would come down to the House of Commons, tell these idiots to repatriate Khadr and they’d probably still try to figure out a way to leave him there.
DisplacedCanadian

Larry, you’re doin’ a heck of a job. They’ll do anything for short-term political gain.
kip

I don’t see anything wrong with what Mr. Cannon said, neither in English nor in French. Obviously, the bombs Khadr made were made with the intention of killing… soldiers or civilians. What other purpose would they have had? I’ve heard ‘journalists’ say today that Cannon said that the bombs that Khadr made killed Karine Blais. What blatent misrepresentation!! It would be nice (but probably a shock to the system) if the media were at least accurate.
dan in van

Heck, the same logic would go to convict the Ronald Reagan administration for having supported the Taliban team during the russian-afghanistan war… Or having encouraged Saddam during his early tyrannical days.
But nice to see the ‘evolution deniers’ of culpability are standing behind their team. No doubt that the person ‘on trial’ — oops, i mean waiting seven years for a trial — is less than an impeccable character makes it all the more easy to toss off the principle of justice and due diligence.