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November 15, 2007 Amnesty International is asking people to send letters to Prime Minister Harper demanding that he "immediately request the repatriation of Omar Khadr and, if there is sufficient and admissible evidence, arrange for a fair trial before a Canadian court." Khadr was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002 when he was fifteen years old and has been imprisoned at the U.S. military camp in Guantanamo Bay for almost five years. He is charged with five counts including conspiracy, murder and supplying material support to terrorism and, as Amnesty explains, "Khadr’s human rights as a minor have never been recognized." Other countries such as Britain, France and Australia have pushed the U.S. for fair treatment of their nationals but Canada has remained shamefully silent. "I am genuinely surprised," said Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, one of Khadr's U.S. lawyers, in an interview with the Toronto Star's Thomas Walkom earlier this year. "I understand there are some issues with Omar's family. But ... the process he's being subjected to is still unlawful. And it is surprising that the Canadian government would stand by while one of its citizens was treated that way." "By not insisting that Omar Khadr be treated in accordance with the full range of his basic human rights, the Canadian government is indicating that it is willing to trade away rights for the sake of making friends in Washington, wrote Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty Canada, and Roch Tasse, co-ordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, in an op-ed that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on June 5. "It is time for Canada to speak out about Guantanamo Bay, and advocate more forcefully on behalf of Omar Khadr. If there is one file where the U.S. government needs to be pressed by Canada to restore the protection of fundamental human rights, this is it. The silence must come to an end." Click here to send a letter to Harper from the Amnest International website. |
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