This is the week that was

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 2:21 PM - 1 Comment

Paul Dewar, a man of faith, launched his bid for the NDP leadership. Martin Singh joined the race too. Peter Julian decided to stay out. Brian Topp stated his cases for supporting the arts and taxing the rich. Team Mulcair and Team Topp took shape.

Peter MacKay wasn’t involved in the decision to launch an independent review of the Afghan mission. The NDP questioned the Prime Minister’s control and the government insisted on a separation of public and private business. David Johnston celebrated one year at Rideau. PEI, Manitoba and Ontario voted for their incumbents. The Harper government worked towards an office of religious freedom. The Liberals called for a national strategy on suicide prevention and the House came together to consider the challenge.

Continue…

Choose your own position

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, October 7, 2011 at 4:05 PM - 19 Comments

Yesterday during QP, Liberal MP Geoff Regan stood and asked about the case of a Nova Scotia resident languishing in a Spanish prison. In response, Diane Ablonczy stood and outlined the government’s position on the repatriation of Omar Khadr. She later lamented for the House audio system.

All of which wouldn’t have been cause for much notice except for the fact that Ms. Ablonczy’s volunteered comment on Mr. Khadr—”We will respect the agreement between Omar Khadr and the U.S. government”—seems to contradict the position of the Public Safety Minister.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Thursday the minister’s decision about the 25-year-old Guantanamo prisoner’s transfer to Canada will be made irrespective of the deal Khadr signed. “It would not affect the minister at all,” spokesman Michael Patton told the Toronto Star. “I don’t know what’s in the plea deal but it wouldn’t matter because the minister is not a signatory.”

… According to government sources in Ottawa and Washington, the embarrassing exchange reflects a behind-the-scenes uncertainty about the Khadr case, which has divided Canadians for almost a decade and which the Obama administration seems eager to hand over. Senior officials with the U.S. Defense and State Departments met with their counterparts in Ottawa last month to discuss the case, but left without finalizing details.

Khadr fires Canadian lawyers

By macleans.ca - Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 6:32 PM - 4 Comments

Months before he is due to be repatriated from Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr has fired his lawyers, Dennis Edney and Nate Whitling, the Canadian Press reports. The pair have represented Khadr for several years, and have repeatedly called for Canada to repatriate the Canadian-born convicted war criminal and successfully argued before the Supreme Court that Ottawa had violated Khadr’s rights. Toronto lawyers John Norris and Brydie Bethell will now represent him. “I have no idea what pressures are being placed on Omar Khadr in Guantanamo to make that decision,” Edney told the Canadian Press. Edney had previously expressed suspicions that Khadr’s Pentagon-appointed attorney Lt.-Col. Jon Jackson had pressured his client to give his Canadian lawyers the boot. Lt.-Col. Jackson has yet to comment. Khadr was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 after an American soldier was killed by a grenade he allegedly threw, and was transferred to Guantanamo, where he has remained since.

The Globe and Mail

Good news, bad news: May 19-26, 2011

By macleans.ca - Friday, June 3, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Good news

Manu Fernandez/AP

Upper house repair

The Tories plan to overhaul the Senate by introducing a bill later this month that will put term limits on senators—as low as eight or 10 years—and allow provinces to elect members when positions open up. Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have long talked about Senate reform, but their actions lately have been anything but democratic. Harper recently appointed to the Senate three Tory candidates who had failed to get elected to the House of Commons in the May election. Real Senate reform means more democracy, less hypocrisy.

The fast lane

The Canadian economic recovery is alive and well. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.9 per cent in the first quarter—double the rate in the U.S. The manufacturing sector also received a vote of confidence as Chrysler paid back $1.7 billion in loans to Ottawa, and Fiat’s CEO, Sergio Marchionne, said this week his company is interested in buying Canada’s remaining shares in Chrysler. The bailout of Chrysler two years ago was widely criticized, but the automaker now appears to be back on the road to being a profitable, job-producing company.

In the name of hockey

In a show of hometown support, the Richmond, B.C.-based Boston Pizza will become “Vancouver Pizza” for the duration of the Stanley Cup playoffs. All restaurants will receive Vancouver Pizza banners to hang over their signage and Vancouver Pizza stickers for takeout containers. The strategy might play well outside B.C., too—a new Sportsnet poll shows 85 per cent of Canadian hockey followers are pulling for the team.

Pop till you drop

America’s knack for innovation keeps on giving. Google unveiled a mobile payment system called Google Wallet that allows shoppers to swipe their cellphones at registers to pay for purchases. Meanwhile, Coca-Cola is rolling out touch-screen vending machines that offer customers a choice between more than 100 different pop flavours. The machines use ink-jet-like syrup mixers and send data about people’s preferences back to Coke headquarters. It’s never been a better time to be a consumer.

Bad news

Julian Stratenschulte/EPA/KEYSTONE

Losing control

Yemen slipped closer to civil war as a ceasefire between government and opposition forces broke down. Fighting in the capital of Sanaa has led to over 100 deaths since President Ali Abdullah Saleh refused to follow through on a pledge to resign. The government also bombed the city of Zinjibar after it was seized by Islamic militants. Saleh is accused of trying to curry favour with Western allies by exaggerating the militants’ connection to al-Qaeda, but there is little doubt the chaos raises dangerous instability. This is a black eye for the Arab Spring.

No mercy

After nearly nine years locked inside the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Omar Khadr should be accustomed to dreary news. This week brought even more: his clemency claim has been denied. The Toronto native, who was captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15 and convicted of killing an American soldier, will be transferred to a Canadian penitentiary later this year. The failed clemency bid effectively rubber-stamps the eight-year sentence he received at his recent trial, and eliminates any hope that he could apply for early parole before June 2013.

Mailing it in

The union representing 50,000 Canada Post employees is threatening to strike unless workers can keep banking sick days and get a roughly three per cent raise annually for the next four years. These demands come despite a 17 per cent drop in letter mail—not to mention that employees begin with seven weeks vacation, earn $24 an hour to start, and can retire as early as age 55. The timing of the strike also couldn’t be worse. In B.C., the long overdue HST referendum would have to be delayed because three million mail-in ballots wouldn’t reach voters.

To catch a criminal

California mistakenly released hundreds of violent inmates after being ordered to limit overcrowding in prisons. Over 450 inmates “with a high risk of violence” were let out on unsupervised parole. At least on the other side of the country, police caught a lucky break. In Maine, a man wanted on two warrants accidently “pocket-dialled” 911 while doing yardwork. He was promptly tracked down by officers.

Good news, bad news: April 21-28, 2011

By macleans.ca - Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 2:00 PM - 2 Comments

Good News

Khadr context

Omar Khadr should never have spent nine years of his young life locked inside the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. But as the Toronto native prepares for his imminent return to Canada—and the hero’s welcome he will no doubt receive—newly released Pentagon documents offer a timely reminder of why the Scarborough-born teenager was such a prized catch. According to a 2004 intelligence assessment published on the WikiLeaks website, Khadr’s father was al-Qaeda’s “fourth in command,” and young Omar provided “valuable information” about the inner workings of Osama bin Laden’s network. Child or not, Khadr was hardly a naive bystander.

Resurrecting road hockey

Another week, another doomsday report about Canada’s obesity epidemic. The latest version, from the advocacy group Active Healthy Kids Canada, says only seven per cent of children in the video game generation get the recommended 60 minutes of daily “active play.” Which is precisely why we’re rooting for Alexander Anderson, Andrew Polanyi, Liam McMahon and Bowen Pausey. The Toronto teens are petitioning the city to overturn its long-standing ban on road hockey—a misguided bylaw that has no place in any Canadian neighbourhood.

Doing the right thing

It was a good week for those who act on instinct. In Fayetteville, N.C., a high school basketball coach saved dozens from a tornado by herding 300 players and parents into a safe area of the school—just before the twister began shredding cars and flipping vans. Then on Sunday, crew members on an Alitalia fiight from Paris to Rome overpowered a would-be hijacker who was armed with a knife, and who demanded to be flown to Libya. Not everyone can play the saviour. But when crisis calls, it’s reassuring to know that some folks step up.

#$%! Tylenol

Researchers have found a natural remedy for stubbed toes and hammered thumbs: swearing at the top of your lungs. According to a British study, F-bombs and other curse words help relieve drastic pain, especially if the person cussing isn’t a typical potty mouth. Michael Ignatieff may want to remember that tip next week.

Bad News

Rude awakening

Bashar al-Assad’s bloody crackdown on Syrian protesters drove home the cost of political freedom in certain Arab countries—leaving open the question of whether the international community is willing to help pay the price. No sooner had U.S. drones levelled part of Moammar Gadhafi’s compound in Tripoli than al-Assad unleashed tanks and troops on his own people, killing as many as 25 in Daraa. Britain, France and other countries voiced outrage, but having already committed air and logistical support in Libya, the best they could do was seek a toothless condemnation from the UN Security Council. The long-awaited Arab Awakening may yet reach Damascus. For now, though, it must proceed without help.

Shawshank Kandahar

Later this year, Canadian soldiers will begin the next phase of our military mission in Kandahar: training Afghan security forces. Perhaps they could help the prison guards, too. In a plot straight out of Hollywood, nearly 500 inmates—including senior Taliban commanders—escaped from the Saraposa jail through an underground tunnel burrowed by insurgent allies on the outside. A Taliban spokesman said the getaway route took five months to dig, with the help of “skilled professionals” and “trained engineers.” Said one escapee, in between giggles: “The guards are always drunk. Either they smoke heroin or marijuana, and then they just fall asleep.”

Spare us the spin

Well, that’s puzzling: after the fatal tasering of Robert Dziekanski, the mysterious death of a man in custody in Houston, B.C., a series of botched 911 calls in Saskatchewan, an officer’s kick to the face of a co-operative driver in Kelowna, and obstruction of justice charges against an allegedly drunk-driving Mountie who killed a motorcyclist, a survey has found that nearly 85 per cent of Canadians still trust the RCMP. And who commissioned this survey? The RCMP, you say? Never mind. Puzzle solved.

Head in the clouds

The union representing U.S. air traffic controllers is pushing for new measures to stop members from sleeping on the job. Their recommendation? Monitored naps. Here’s a better suggestion: a coffee maker in each tower, and a good night’s sleep. At home.

This week: Good news, bad news

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 11:48 AM - 0 Comments

GOOD NEWS

Jose Gomez/Reuters

The good hunt

As East Coast fishermen prepare for another seal hunting season—and the annual clash with animal rights activists—the Harper government is bracing for its own fight. Ottawa announced it will file a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization, challenging the European Union’s ban on Canadian seal products. It is the right decision. Despite the spin of celebrities like Paul McCartney, the hunt is neither barbaric nor disgraceful. What happens on those ice floes is no more gruesome than a typical abattoir, and it injects millions into the East Coast economy. It is an industry worth defending.

Welcome back, Khadr?

Four months after pleading guilty to “murdering” an American soldier, Omar Khadr is asking the U.S. government for clemency—a tactic that could see him back in Canada sooner than expected. Let’s hope the Pentagon approves the application. Like it or not, Khadr’s return is a foregone conclusion, whether it happens in six months or six weeks. And the sooner he comes home, the sooner his fellow citizens can find out who he really is: a peaceful 24-year-old, as his lawyers insist, or a hardened radical bent on re, venge.

Common sense

The municipality of Clarington, Ont., has backed down on its attempt to suppress an annual countryside get-together for libertarian scholars and students. Marta and Lech Jaworski have held the Liberty Summer Seminar for 10 years on their eight-hectare estate, cooking for participants and collecting modest fees to cover their costs. But last year, the pair was accused of running a “commercial conference centre” and threatened with fines. A Charter challenge convinced the city to respect the Jaworskis’ rights to “peaceful assembly.”

On fire

Acclaimed Montreal indie-rock horde Arcade Fire pulled off a Grammy upset, winning Album of the Year for their third studio effort, The Suburbs. Other nominees included Eminem, Lady Gaga, and Katy Perry. Front man Win Butler’s first words upon hearing of the win were, “What the hell?”, and many U.S. compatriots felt the same: Twitter erupted with cries of “Who?” from not-yet-clued-in Americans.

BAD NEWS

Riccardo De Luca/AP

Land of the free (spenders)

Barack Obama talked about making tough choices this week to cut America’s spending. But the budget that landed in Congress didn’t walk the talk. It will reduce but not nearly eliminate annual deficits over the next decade (the projected 2011 deficit is US$1.6 trillion) and it fails to tackle the biggest source of red ink: bloated Social Security and Medicare programs that are under growing pressure from an aging population. America is fast digging itself into a hole from which it may never escape.

In the nick of time

Thank goodness those Chilean miners were rescued when they were; another few days and they would have swallowed each other. According to a new book, the 33 men trapped deep underground for 69 agonizing days were on the verge of cannibalism, agreeing to eat the first man who died of starvation. “They had a pot and a saw ready,” the author says. Sadly, life above ground has been equally hellish. Despite their historic rescue and new-found celebrity, most of the miners are coping with severe psychological problems—including Edison Peña, who famously sang on David Letterman’s show. He is now hospitalized, battling anxiety and depression.

A good idea—not

Bev Oda may “not” be in cabinet much longer. In a stunning about-face, the international co-operation minister admitted that she ordered the word “not” be penned into a document to change it from approving to rejecting $7 million for the church-based aid group Kairos. CIDA officials signed the document thinking they were renewing the group’s funding, only to find out that Oda ordered the insertion of “not” before the word “approve.” Although she originally testified that she didn’t know who added the mysterious “not,” Oda eventually confessed in the House of Commons that it was done at her direction.

Big waistline, small brain

A sugary, fatty diet isn’t just bad for your child’s waistline. It’s bad for the brain. A new study says a three-year-old who eats predominantly processed foods will have a noticeably lower IQ by the age of 8½, compared to kids who eat lots of fruits and veggies. The “good” news? The world’s chocolate supply will reportedly run out by 2014.

Welcome back Khadr?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 11:58 AM - 4 Comments

The saga continues. Omar Khadr, the Canadian teenager/convicted war criminal who has spent the past nine years locked inside a Guantanamo Bay jail cell, is applying for clemency—a move that could see him back in Toronto sooner than expected. In October, the now 24-year-old pleaded guilty to “murdering” a U.S. soldier on the battlefields of Afghanistan, and was slapped with an eight-year sentence. As part of his plea deal, Khadr is allowed to apply for a transfer to a Canadian prison after serving one more year at Gitmo, but his lawyers have confirmed that they are now asking the head of the U.S. Office of Military Commissions to shorten his punishment. If approved, Khadr could be allowed to apply for his Canadian transfer before next fall. Ottawa has already said it will not oppose the application.

Toronto Sun

Where are they now?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 2:22 PM - 36 Comments

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has hired Howard Anglin as his chief of staff.

In recent years, Mr. Anglin stepped forward to defend the Conservative government’s position that Omar Khadr was not a child soldier. In 2008, he testified before the subcommittee on international human rights.

In 2006, he and Alykhan Velshi, currently Mr. Kenney’s director of communications, penned a piece for National Review, in which they stated their objections to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

The rest of Anglin’s writing for National Review is here. His writing for the Daily Caller is here.

Ready to wrap

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 4:40 PM - 1 Comment

James Cameron; Céline Dion; Ryan Reynolds | Roger Kisby/Christopher Polk/Matt Carr/Getty Images

Céline Dion
The new mom of twins gets two Metro Babycotpod cribs ($595), a “Bandit” Doll ($65) from Vancouver’s the Cross (ships across Canada) and a Hudson’s Bay blanket, to keep her Canuck roots strong. For René Jr., the start of a broader musical education: “Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings” (Columbia/Legacy, $130).

Naomi Campbell
Infamous for her blood diamonds, compliments of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, the supermodel could use some conflict-free bling: ethically sourced sapphires and Canadian diamonds from Brilliant Earth ($1,150).

Glenn Beck
A tea kettle, of course. How about this Michael Graves design from Alessi, along with a sample of soothing herbal brews? As for all those righteous tears, Beck could use a fresh pile of Paul Smith handkerchiefs ($42), all 100 per cent woven cotton. This striped one is nice, though he might also like the white one that says: “Bless You.”

Continue…

Wherryleaks

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, December 1, 2010 at 4:11 PM - 17 Comments

The Globe reports that, according to a memo released by Wikileaks, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner pressed the matter of Omar Khadr with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a meeting in February 2009.

Loyal readers will recall that this blog uncovered the French news release that announced this intervention more than a year and a half ago.

Abuse in a time of fear

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 11:36 AM - 28 Comments

Barbara Falk compares the Rosenbergs and Omar Khadr.

American justice has been marred in both the Cold War and the War on Terror by a combination of politically motivated prosecutions with larger didactic purposes, the over-reliance on conspiracy charges to lower the burden of proof, and the relaxation of the rules of evidence law. In both eras, the refrain of national security has been invoked. But it is at times of national insecurity that legal safeguards are needed the most, and it is to the most politically unpopular defendants already demonized by the media and in the court of public opinion that the most stringent due-process requirements should be applied. To do otherwise, as both the cases of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and of Omar Khadr attest, is to politicize justice and abuse the rule of law.

Who is the real Omar Khadr?

By Michael Friscolanti - Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 71 Comments

Michelle Shephard/Toronto Star

In exchange for another eight years in prison—and the chance to be a free man in Canada long before that—Omar Khadr consented to a long list of strict conditions. He cannot sue the U.S. government for damages, regardless of how many torture sessions he may (or may not) have endured inside the barbed-wire walls of Guantánamo Bay. He will never step foot on American soil for as long as he lives. And he is not allowed to profit one penny from public speaking tours or movie deals or anything else that would involve selling his saga to the highest bidder. Any such proceeds, the agreement says, will go straight “to the Government of Canada.”

Khadr has read a lot of books during his stint behind bars (from steamy Danielle Steele novels to Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom), and his pen pals include an English professor at an Edmonton university. But when he signed his name to that seven-page plea deal on Oct. 13, he received a first-hand lesson in the meaning of irony: the same government that spent many years and millions of dollars fighting to keep him out of Canada now owns the exclusive rights to his life story.

Continue…

For the Tories, happiness is a warm F-35

By Paul Wells - Friday, November 5, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Trevor Hagan/CP

So much in modern life is a combination of problems that have already been solved and problems that can’t be solved at all. Take Emirates Airlines Flight 201, which was escorted by Canadian fighter jets through Canadian airspace on Oct. 29 as it flew from Dubai to New York City. The airplane was carrying cargo from Yemen. This was a day when other airplanes were found to be carrying cargo from Yemen of the potentially explosive variety. So Flight 201 found itself sprouting fighter escorts. Out of an “abundance of caution,” NORAD said later.

Dimitri Soudas, who speaks for the Prime Minister, could hardly contain his glee. Here was a chance to show that the Harper government is spending wisely when it allocates $16 billion to buy 65 F-35 fighter planes. Soudas put out a news release: “Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals and their coalition partners would cancel the deal to buy the F-35s. They would rather use kites to defend Canada than fighter jets. Canada’s air force needs the right equipment to protect Canadian airspace.”

In examining whether F-35s would have constituted “the right equipment” on Oct. 29, it may be handy to recall precisely what NORAD was worried about. Cargo on other planes had been found to contain explosive devices. So “the right equipment” would need to sort through the cargo compartments of this plane, at a distance, while airborne, to detect, isolate and remove the explosive.

Continue…

Omar Khadr is more dangerous than Russell Williams?

By macleans.ca - Thursday, November 4, 2010 at 3:18 PM - 0 Comments

Clearly, none of the 991 people who responded to this poll were inside the courtroom for Russell Williams’s sentencing hearing last month. For three days, prosecutors laid out—in gruesome detail—the chilling truth about the ex-colonel’s depraved double life as a sexual predator and serial killer. His first murder victim, Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, begged for her life; instead, Williams placed a piece of duct tape over her nose and videotaped her last breaths. He told his second victim, Jessica Lloyd, that as long as she obeyed his orders, she would live; after 18 hours of rape and torture (again, all caught on video), Williams strangled her and dumped her body in his garage. Lee Burgess, one of the Crown Attorneys, put it best: “Russell Williams is simply one of the worst offenders in Canadian history. He is one of the handful of despicable, heinous, self-centered individuals who terrorize and traumatize victims without a shred of remorse.” And yet somehow, there are still people who believe that Williams is less dangerous than Omar Khadr, a grenade-throwing 15-year-old who, if not for his al Qaeda dad, would have never ended up in Afghanistan—let alone in a firefight with U.S. troops. Abacus Data, an Ottawa-based polling firm, asked Canadians which of the two headline-grabbing defendants is the greater threat to Canada’s public safety. Thirty-four per cent of respondents said Khadr, while 24 per cent said Williams. Even more shocking? Women were more likely than men to choose Khadr as the bigger threat (35 per cent versus 23 per cent). Thankfully, the justice system got it right. Williams will never again walk the streets, while Khadr could be a free man as early as 2013.

Toronto Sun

The Commons: This government of powerless men

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 7:02 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. Once more, Ralph Goodale stood and beseeched the Prime Minister to explain himself, at least as it pertains to the potential sale of Saskatchewan’s PotashCorp. To his credit, the Prime Minister stood and did just that. Which is to say, he rose and explained that he and his position were in this case entirely irrelevant.

“I can assure him,” Mr. Harper assured Mr. Goodale, “the Minister of Industry will make a decision according to a legal process.”

Unsatisfied, Mr. Goodale turned to the Minister of Agriculture, wondering if perhaps the honourable Gerry Ritz, the elected representative for a larger parcel of land in Saskatchewan, might have something to say about the matter. Mr. Ritz leaned forward as if willing to respond, but it was Tony Clement who stood, the Industry Minister so emboldened as to refer to himself in the third person.

“There is a process under the Investment Canada Act which leads to the assessment by the Minister of Industry of the net benefit to Canada test,” he said of himself. “That is what is being done and that will be delivered to the people of Canada in the due course of time.”

One will forgive Mr. Clement if he lingers for the fullness of this allotted time, if he revels in this newfound regard. For in this moment, Tweeting Tony is quite possibly the most powerful man in Ottawa. Continue…

'It is time to earn back our place in the world'

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 1:55 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Ignatieff lays out his foreign policy vision to an audience in Montreal.

But none of this will be possible without the talents of every Canadian. Foreign policy is no longer reserved for diplomats, development workers, and soldiers. We used to talk about a “whole-of-government” approach. Our Global Networks Strategy requires a “whole-of-Canada” approach instead.

The next generation of Canadians will be the most international ever. Young people studying and working abroad will be Canada’s best ambassadors, and their experiences will shape the future of our country. We must rebuild our leadership in the world so that our young people can be proud again to live in a country that helps to improve our world.

And we must always support the youth of this country, when they go abroad to serve Canada. They are our finest representatives.

In the centre of our engagement with the world, we must restore our finest Canadian traditions, inspired by peace, justice, and mutual aid. We must show the world – and ourselves – that Canada can inspire us again.

A resolution that pleases no one

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 11:50 AM - 0 Comments

If it’s any consolation, it seems even the Harper government is displeased with the Harper government’s handling of Omar Khadr.

Conservative cabinet ministers are not happy with the Khadr deal and the reality that he will be returned to Canada next year and free shortly thereafter. On Monday when cabinet gathered to prepare for question period tempers flared. According to sources at the meeting and those close to cabinet ministers, there was yelling and accusations…

Questioned about why the government acted the way it did, one senior official threw their hands up in disgust.

The Commons: Agreeing to, but not with Omar Khadr

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 6:21 PM - 0 Comments

The Scene. The challenge of the day would be this: could the government be compelled to agree to agree that it had agreed to an agreement to which it had officially signaled its agreeability.

Whatever the futility of the effort, it was first for Gilles Duceppe to attempt to break our impervious Foreign Affairs Minister. How, the Bloc leader wondered, with the public release of diplomatic notes detailing discussions between the Canadian and American administrations, could the Foreign Affairs Minister deny knowledge of negotiations meant to resolve the matter of Omar Khadr?

Lawrence Cannon was, of course, prepared for this and rose to repeat his carefully scripted words into the record. ”The government of Canada,” he said, “did not participate in negotiations regarding the sentence.”

This was a hair finely split. And surely Mr. Cannon should have been allowed a moment to bask in the dexterity of such a display. But before the galleries could shower the Minister with applause and bouquets, Mr. Duceppe was up to have another try. Oui ou non, he demanded: would the Minister authorize the return of Mr. Khadr to Canada after another year has been served stateside?

Over again to Mr. Cannon, this time not so much to pirouette as to pull an extrajudicially detained rabbit from his hat. Continue…

Cannon denies Ottawa participated in Khadr plea discussions

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 4:51 PM - 0 Comments

Canada has agreed to “implement” a plea deal between the U.S. Government and Omar Khadr, to allow the confessed criminal back into the country after he serves one year in Guantanamo Bay. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon faced questions in the House of Commons, and insisted the Canadian government was not involved in plea negotiations. However, shortly before Cannon spoke in the Commons, a State Department spokesman in Washington said an exchange of diplomatic notes with Canada on Oct. 23 “helped pave the way” for the plea bargain. But Cannon quoted the chief prosecutor at the tribunals, navy Capt. John F. Murphy, as saying the plea deal was solely between the U.S. and Khadr’s lawyers. Cannon is accused of either being disingenuous and knowingly misleading Canadians or of ignorance about the goings-on in his department. Khadr, now 24, was sentenced Sunday to 40 years in prison for war crimes, including the murder of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. The plea deal caps Khadr’s sentence at eight years.

CBC

Khadr given symbolic 40 year sentence

By macleans.ca - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 12:34 PM - 0 Comments

A U.S. military jury has given Canadian detainee Omar Khadr a 40 year sentence. However, the sentence is largely symbolic, as it is believed that Khadr will be transferred to Canada in one year, where he will serve at most another 8 years. Though the Canadian government has officially denied being involved in the plea deal, other documents have shown that the Harper government indicated strongly that it would repatriate Khadr. 24-year-old Khadr has spent the last eight years in Guantanamo Bay. Last week, he pleaded guilty to five war crimes that he committed as a 15-year-old in 2002.

National Post

The deal that dare not speak its name

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 9:15 AM - 0 Comments

The final absurdity of the trial of Omar Khadr.

In Ottawa, the government continued to attempt to distance itself from Mr. Khadr’s early return. ”The matter remains between Omar Khadr and the U.S. government,” Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon’s spokeswoman Melissa Lantsman said.

But senior U.S. government officials, prosecutors and defence attorneys all say that Mr. Cannon has approved the deal and an exchange of diplomatic notes has confirmed the Canadian government will favourably consider Mr. Khadr’s repatriation bid in a year. The diplomatic notes make it explicitly clear that Ottawa has been involved. ”The Government of Canada therefore wishes to convey that, as requested by the United States, the Government of Canada is inclined to favourably consider Mr. Khadr’s application to be transferred to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence, or such portion of the remainder of his sentence as the National Parole Board determines.”

The Star has posted the notes in question.

Hypothetical commitments

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, October 28, 2010 at 4:01 PM - 0 Comments

As referenced by John earlier, here is Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s exchange with reporters on the subject of child soldiers and Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Continue…

The guilty plea (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 11:45 AM - 0 Comments

Amy Davidson considers the fate of Omar Khadr.

The war crime charges Khadr accepted include working with Al Qaeda, helping to plant roadside bombs, and, in the firefight in which he was captured, in July, 2002, throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier, Sergeant Christopher Speer. Tabitha Speer, Christopher’s widow, was at Guantánamo today; according to Rosenberg, she “wore a black dress to court and sat weeping when the portion about her husband’s death by grenade was mentioned.” One feels a great deal of sympathy for her, and for her loss. But it is hard to see how the Khadr saga has served anyone well.

On Khadr's guilty plea

By John Geddes - Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 9:46 AM - 0 Comments

To anyone tempted to imagine that Omar Khadr’s acceptance of a plea bargain somehow means everything the U.S. government has done to him, and the Canadian government’s refusal to intervene on his behalf, is just fine after all, I recommend a close reading of Dan Garnder’s column from today’s Ottawa Citizen.