In Harper's World...

It seems that in the world of Stephen Harper and the HarperCon$, citizenship is conditional, and the government's willingness to support its citizens abroad is even more so conditional.

Since Harper came to power, there has been a string of cases where Harper has failed to intervene on behalf of Canadians held in dubious circumstances abroad. Whether we are talking about the Celil case in China, Brenda Martin in Mexico, or Omar Khadr detained in Guantanamo Bay, we have a string of cases where Harper's involvement has been superficial, late and ineffective.

In the case of Omar Khadr, we find the government trying to sidestep providing material to the Khadr defense team. Khadr is charged with some very serious crimes, and worse, Canadian officials have been active participants in interrogating the man (who has been rotting in US custody for six years or so now), and have copies of "evidence" that the US government will only allow access to a highly redacted version of.

Half-baked comments about national security issues are sophistry. The real issue here is whether or not Khadr stands even the faintest chance of a fair trial in Bush's extra-judicial system of show courts set up to handle these detainees. When Bush has gone out of his way to construct a court system that is deliberately stacked against the accused - while still having the ability to avail itself of the most drastic of punishments.

What is at issue here is not national security, but whether or not the HarperCon$ have even the slightest concept of what "fair trial" means, much less just how ludicrous it is to accuse someone of "war crimes" at the age of fifteen - especially in a combat zone! Given the number of attempts that Bush has made at concocting these bogus "courts", he's already in the very questionable game of making criminal law that is retroactive - and that doesn't even address the problems with concurrently claiming and denying military involvement on the part of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

As Canadians, we don't have to like the Khadr family's exploits, but we absolutely should be disgusted and horrified by the cavalier approach that the Harper government has taken towards Canadian citizens held in questionable circumstances abroad.