to move up and down
Michael Den Tandt: The Khadr case pits extreme against extreme, with no room in the middle
Depending on which news sites you favour, Omar Khadr is either an innocent pawn, who if paroled would re-integrate seamlessly into civil society just like any other wrongfully imprisoned, harmless former child conscript soldier; or a cold-blooded terrorist and unrepentant murderer champing at the bit to get back to bomb-making and mayhem.
But what if the truth were more nuanced? What if the facts called on us to both condemn Khadr for his past actions on the enemy side in the war in Afghanistan, yet still acknowledge that he has been treated unjustly by Washington and by Ottawa? Ah, but that would be complicated. It’s so much easier, in Canada today, to stick with simple. (Sketch: Janet Hamlin/Reuters)
Omar Khadr return to Canada: “His spirits are good. He is very, very happy to be home.”
A decade after 15-year-old Omar Khadr was pulled near death from the rubble of a bombed-out compound in Afghanistan, the Canadian citizen set foot on Canadian soil early Saturday after an American military flight from the notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay.
Khadr was immediately whisked off to a maximum-security facility in eastern Ontario following the five-hour flight to CFB Trenton, Ont.
“He’s finding it hard to believe that this has finally happened,” John Norris, one of Khadr’s lawyers, told The Canadian Press just after speaking to his client by phone.
