Are Canadians actually "split on" Omar Khadr’s interrogation video?

The mainstream news is buzzing today about a video of Omar Khadr’s interrogation by a Canadian CSIS official at Guantanamo Bay. The video most prominently being played by news agencies is of Khadr weeping and saying “kill me”.

Khadr is being detained for allegedly throwing a grenade that fatally wounded an American soldier. He was also shot three times. There’s no word of the punishment faced by the person who shot Khadr, who, at that time, was 15 years old.

The government has said it will not comment on the video.

It is fair to assume that only public pressure will snap the feds into action on this case. Khadr, who fits the definition of a child soldier, was engaged in an illegal war. However, the Canadian Press has reported that Khadr’s case has somehow “Split Canadians”.

The article uses comments posted on some media websites to argue that Canadians are divided in how they view Khadr. Many of the comments made against Khadr quote things that have been said by his family in the past to argue their case. It’s important to mention that much of what has been written on the Khadr family has been blown up by right-wing editorial journals like Maclean’s Magazine, a rag that has recently been condemned by the Ontario Human Rights Commission for publishing content that can be seen as Islamophobic.

But, if there were truth in the Canadian Press article, what exactly are Canadians “Split On”?

Isn’t the majority of Canadians supportive of the definition of child soldier? Or is this definition thrown out when the child-in-question is complicit in ‘terrorism?’ Or is Muslim? Or is Canadian and Muslim? Is this a definition to be imposed upon other countries with other conflicts, and not a definition that the Canadian government or Stephen Harper needs to uphold?

When framed this way, it’s likely that this video does not split Canadians. It is only when the facts are skewed, when ambiguous and loaded terms like terrorism are used, and when rhetoric and racism are thrown in the mix could the Canadian population look “split” on how Omar Khadr has been treated.

If Canadians hope to hold high heads on the world stage when they declare their country a peace-loving and peace-keeping nation, their government needs to stop being complicit in American foreign occupations and conflict. Canada needs to demand that Khadr is returned to the country of his citizenship.

Canadians to help construct the "Great Wall of Kandahar"

The Canadian Press reported yesterday that Canadian Forces have agreed to help with the construction of a wall that will surround Kandahar University, Afghanistan.

The wall will be “a three-kilometre perimeter of stone, brick and iron around the school campus”. Its main purpose, according to the article, will be to keep out thieves, make it safer for women to attend school and stop sheep herders from using the area around the university for sheep herding and grazing.

This endeavour will cost the Canadians approximately $500,000.

Hasn’t history demonstrated that building walls to keep out various threats instead of trying to develop proactive solutions is not a sustainable practice? Canadians would do well to challenge the use of our resources for this project.

However, if we think hard enough we might be able to imagine some bright sides to this new project: maybe the wall will help protect students from Canadian soldiers who will be building it. With at least 6500 people killed in Afghanistan in 2007, perhaps Afghans will actually appreciate the added security from NATO troops.

However, if the Canadian Armed Forces are representing Canadians overseas and doing it through taxpayers’ dollars, having troops build a fence around a university is yet another example of a band-aid solution that will not go very far in addressing the root problems of the conflict there.

Afghanistan is a nation that has faced occupation after occupation, where today, warlords still control many of its regions. The bottom line is that, with or without Canadian walls, Afghanistan will not find peace while it is occupied by foreign troops.

KI6 and Bob Lovelace "Fully Vindicated"

The leaders of Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) have won an appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal in regards to their recent jail sentences.

Donny Morris, Chief of KI, Bob Lovelace, retired Chief of Ardoch and their legal counsel Chris Reid, have just circulated a press release announcing the victory.

Morris, Lovelace and five other leaders from KI were sentenced to six months in jail earlier this year. In similar cases, all were put there for disobeying court orders that allowed for prospecting on traditional lands. Morris chose to obey Algonquin law to protect the land around Ardoch. The KI6 made a similar decision.

The press release said,

“In both cases, Ontario’s Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Michael Bryant, instructed Ontario’s lawyers to support the mining companies in seeking the harshest possible punishment for our “disobedience” of Ontario’s laws. The government made it clear at every step of the legal proceedings that their only priority is to support the 19^th century Mining Act which states that mining is always the best use of land, and any peaceful protesters who oppose mining should expect jail and crippling fines.”

While the seven leaders were released on May 28, it was only today that the reasons that their release was made known. The Court had this to say:

“Where a requested injunction is intended to create ‘a protest-free zone’ for contentious private activity that affects asserted aboriginal or treaty rights, the court must be very careful to ensure that, in the context of the dispute before it, the Crown has fully and faithfully discharged its duty to consult with the affected First Nations. The court must further be satisfied that every effort has been exhausted to obtain a negotiated or legislated solution to the dispute before it. Good faith on both sides is required in this process”

At the heart of this issue is Ontario’s colonial approach to First Nations’ rights over traditional land. While these rights are constitutionally allowed, they are in direct opposition to the Mining Act, which allows prospectors onto any land, regardless of ‘ownership’, as long as it has the approval of the Provincial government.

Jailing these leaders was an embarrassment to the province of Ontario. With Steven Truscott being awarded $6.5 million for the wrongful conviction that stole his youth, Ontarians are again reminded that our justice system needs to be changed if justice is indeed going to be served. And, nearly 50 years after one innocent man’s journey for justice has finished, a very different group of seven have been vindicated for another wrongful conviction.

When will the Government of Ontario learn?

Link: YouTube coverage of the National Day of Action in Toronto

War Resister’s case sent back to Immigration and Refugee Board by Federal Court

It had just been reported that a Federal Court has ruled that the Immigration and Refugee Board must rehear the case of Joshua Key, a war resister.

Key had spent eight months in Iraq and witnessed “savage acts committed against civilians” by US soldiers. He fled to Canada after deciding not to return while home on leave.

This is good news for the hundreds of American war resisters who are in Canada either in hiding, waiting to hear about their own refugee case, or facing deportation. Corey Glass, a resister who could face redeployment to Iraq if he were to return to the United States, faces deportation on July 10. This is despite Parliament voting in favour of letting Glass and other resisters to stay.

According to an Angus Reid poll conducted online, out of 1001 Canadians asked, 64 percent do not want Glass to be deported.

The War Resister campaign has had a lot of support from students’ unions across Canada. For students’ unions, links are often made between aggressive recruitment on campuses in the US to the high cost of post-secondary education. In both Canada and the US, it doesn’t take too long to hear a recruiter use the notion of free tuition to lure low- or middle-income students towards a “career” in the armed forces.

Isn’t it time for the Conservatives to listen to the will of the people they’re supposed to represent? If parliament has already voted in favour of letting Glass and other resisters to stay, the Conservative government has a responsibility to listen to the majority.

Of course, that’s only if they actually believe in democracy.

Morgentaler gets Order of Canada under Conservative rule

Amid the backlash from Canada’s conservative media condemning organizations like the York Federation of Students and the Canadian Federation of Students for sticking to their pro-choice roots, Henry Morgentaler has just been granted the Order of Canada. Dr. Morgentaler has been a dedicated pro-choice and womens’ rights advocate.

Unsurprisingly, the Harper government is trying to distance itself from the decision.

This move comes at an interesting time. In addition to the decisions by some student organizations not to fund anti-choice campaigns being misrepresented as “banning” pro-life groups from campus—a the misrepresentation that the conservative media and and anti-choice groups are willfully promoting—this decision comes as Conservative MP Ken Epp’s private members’ bill “Unborn Victims of Crime”, is still before the House. But Ken Epp’s bill is only the latest attack against women’s rights by Harper’s Conservatives. In December, 2006 for example, they drastically cut the National Action Committee on the Status of Women and the Court Challenges Program.

To many Canadians, Morgentaler’s recognition for his years of dedication to women’s reproductive rights is long overdue. But the fact that this appointment was made while Harper’s government is standing, is a strong political indication that Canadians will not easily flip-flop on their long-standing preference for progressive abortion laws.

The Ryerson Free Press congratulates Dr. Henry Morgentaler and the selection committee who chose him for this award. Those who stand committed to ensuring that women’s reproductive rights are respected in Canada should likewise publicly celebrate this timely award.