Stephen Harper Makes me Ashamed to be a Canadian

There is not a lot I can say about Omar Khadr I haven't already said in other posts. Besides I think I am just to angry to write much  about it right now.

Omar Khadr was born in Canada and he is a Canadian citizen.

He was 11 years old when his father, an alleged al-Qaeda financier, took him to Pakistan.

When he was 15 has tagged along with a small group of al-Qaeda fighters. The group got into a firefight with some Americans.

The Americans claim that, despite being seriously wounded, somehow Omar threw a grenade and an American was killed.

Omar was taken captive and tortured by the Americans.

He was locked up in Guantanamo Bay for 8 years.

Faced with a process, so unfair, that it would never be permitted in any civilized western country, including the USA he was left with little choice but to purger himself by pleading guilty,  in an effort to get a plea bargain deal which should allow him to return to Canada after a year.  

He will be the only person found guilty of killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan where over 1,000 American soldier's have died since their invasion in 2001.

Omar was sent to trial this year, the only war crimes tribunal to prosecute someone for acts committed while they were a child since the second world war.

He is only western foreign national left in Guantanamo. Every other western country intervened on their citizen's behalf and lobbied for their release. Under the leadership of Stephen Harper our government has refused to do the same.

I have often been concerned about the actions of my government but the conduct of the Harper Conservatives in this matter is worse than I could have imagined possible. As Canadians we should be ashamed that we let this happen.