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"Any harsh treatment endured by Khadr is Canada's responsibility," says lawyer Kuebler July 17, 2008 As reported by CTV this week, new documents and video footage “suggest Canada was aware of the harsh treatment that Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr was being subjected to in Guantanamo Bay at the hands of U.S. military interrogators.” But Prime Minister Harper still says the government knew nothing and has no intention of interfering, or in asking that Khadr be allowed to return to Canada. “Khadr was visited in 2004 by Canadian officials,” continues the story. “They found the then 17-year-old had been deprived of sleep for weeks in an attempt to make him more pliable for interrogation by U.S. agents. Harper distanced his government from the documents.” Harper told the media that Canada, “frankly, has no real alternative,” to the U.S. legal process. “However,” continues the article, “Khadr's U.S, military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, put the blame squarely on Harper's shoulders. He said the U.S. would probably have complied with a request from Harper to have Khadr transferred into Canadian custody -- but the request hasn't been made. As a result, Kuebler said, any harsh treatment endured by Khadr is Canada's responsibility." In fact, Kuebler says that Stephen Harper should "stand up as the Prime Minister of Canada and protect the rights of a Canadian citizen, and stop taking his orders from the Bush administration and stop being the last leader of a Western country to support a failed process in Guantanamo Bay." He has also been recently quoted saying, "I hope that the prime minister of Canada finally decides to stand up and act like a prime minister of Canada and protect the rights of a Canadian citizen." The Canadian Arab Federation and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group put out a strongly worded joint press release following the release of the new government documents. “With this position, the government has become complicit in the use of torture techniques by American officials at Guantanamo, revealing a shocking double standard with regards to the use of torture and by whom,” said Khaled Mouammar, CAF national president, in the release. “Omar Khadr will also be subjected to an illegal military commission, contrary to international law. “Additionally, our government knowingly lied to Canadians by denying any mistreatment of Omar Khadr by Americans. Sadly we are realizing that Canada will quite willingly sacrifice its own citizen to appease American interests.” Maude Barlow, Alex Neve and Roch Tasse wrote in an Ottawa Citizen op-ed in June 2007 that: "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. 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." You can take by e-mailing the prime minister at pm@pm.gc.ca and telling him that Canada should immediately request the repatriation of Omar Khadr to Canada and that the Government of Canada should be clearly stating to the United States that they must apply international human rights standards to ‘war on terror’ detainees. As Maude, Alex and Roch wrote in their op-ed, the Harper government’s silence must come to an end.
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