In questions he put to Senator Dallaire about the Conservative Government's mishandling of Omar Khadr's case, Dallaire handed Kenney's ass back to him:
Kenney pointed to a number of al-Qaeda actions, including an incident in which the group allegedly outfitted mentally challenged young girls with explosive belts and sent them to their deaths in a Baghdad animal market.
"Is it your testimony that al-Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down Syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated is the moral equivalent to Canada's not making extraordinary political efforts for a transfer of Omar Khadr to this country?" asked Kenney.
"If you want a black and white [response] … I am only too prepared to give it to you: absolutely," said Dallaire. "You are either with the law or you are against the law. You're either a child soldier or you're not. You're either guilty or you're not."
Canada must be ready to deal with similar situations in the future, Dallaire said.
"If you think this is the last one, then we're really smoking dope because in this era, we're going to face similar scenarios and we've got to be prepared in this multi-ethnic country to handle it," he said.
Canada must protect all of its citizens, "whether we like them and their beliefs or not. That is irrelevant," he said.
Dallaire's comment makes the point I've been making since day one with the Harper government's blindly partisan approach to foreign affairs - namely that they are all too selective about just who they are willing to deign to intervene on behalf of. (Or, if the political cost becomes too high - as in Brenda Martin's case)
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