Not surprisingly, millions of Canadians are furious that Omar Khadr will be receiving $10.5 million in taxpayer dollars for what he has termed as human rights abuses.
Khadr was born in Canada, but fought against soldiers from Canada, the U.S. and other countries following the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. When he was 15 years old, he killed an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.
After being wounded in a firefight, he was detained as a teenager in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he spent the next 10 years. It should be noted that while at Guantanamo Bay, he pleaded guilty to war and terror-related charges.
Upon returning to Canada, Khadr decided to sue the federal government for $20 million, because he claimed Canada conspired with the U.S. to abuse his rights.
Khadr, by all accounts, is an intelligent and articulate individual who wound up fighting against Canadians and other soldiers in Afghanistan at a very young age.
His supporters will say he was brainwashed by his extremist father and others, which led to him fighting for extremists before he would have been legally old enough to drive in Canada.
But those who have criticized the government’s $10.5 million settlement want to see him back in prison, and they definitely don’t want to see their taxpayer dollars sent to him in an eight-figure deal.
Now, this issue isn’t as black-and-white as some people want it to be. Khadr was a child soldier. There are few things as reprehensible and appalling as the use of child soldiers in combat. There’s no excuse for a nation to employ them, and those who have encountered them on the battlefield will describe the mental anguish of the situation.
And while we should be very careful of how we handle child soldiers who survive the battlefield, that doesn’t mean Khadr should be given a settlement of $10.5 million from our federal government.
Keep in mind the Liberals were in power when Khadr was detained in Guantanamo Bay. Maybe there’s a reason former prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin didn’t want to touch this issue. And maybe there’s a reason Stephen Harper and the Tories didn’t want anything to do with his case, either.
Hint: it’s not just political ideology at play. The Liberal and Tory governments of the day understood the political ramifications and divisiveness of Khadr’s case.
Ultimately, he likely would have won in court, and been awarded $20 million. But the federal government of Justin Trudeau should have fought this case until the bitter end, rather than capitulating and giving him millions of dollars.
It’s sad when the government would rather give money to a man who killed the soldier from an ally, than the family of that soldier.
We can only hope the family of that soldier is granted a lien on Khadr’s money.
Ìý
