For those interested in facts, here are some.
Khadr was raised mainly outside Canada, in Afghanistan/Pakistan by and among people who thought it was right to fight against the US in the Afghanistan insurgency because the US invaded Afghanistan and they saw it as being at war with their religion. We wouldn't see it that way, but there is no reason why 15 year old Khadr wouldn't accept the beliefs of his parents and those around him. He had 8 years of education, only grade one in Canada.
He was willing to join the war for the same reason countless others have joined wars, because those around them encouraged them and because the idea of war is attractive, especially to boys and young men. They don't generally think very deeply about whether the cause is just or not, and that's usually a complex issue.
Omar Khadr's father, who was a co-ordinator in the insurgency, sent him on a mission with the head of the Lybian faction to act as a translator and guide, asking him to "look after him". Omar ended up in a fight with the US military two months later.
Khadr's actions in that war, including killing a soldier with a grenade, which he might have done but nobody knows for sure, did not resemble war crimes, or terrorism, as those are normally defined. But, his status as a person fighting with an irregular armed group meant he wasn't immune from prosecution for anything he did under the domestic laws of the country he was in. But the US used the military commission system to charge him with war crimes and terrorism anyway, through a highly controversial legal interpretation, and by using illegal methods to interrogate him, under which people tend to say whatever the interrogator wants to hear. The US Supreme Court decided this system was illegal.
Khadr should have come under the protection of a law that was adopted by both Canada and the US, nicknamed the child soldier law, but it doesn't apply only to soldiers of regular armies. It applies to minors involved in war and usually they are with irregular armed groups because responsible military organizations don't recruit them. The head of the UN program asked the military commission to consider this law, but the Gtmo judge determined it was superceded by the Military Commission Act, although he actually seemed sympathetic to the argument. He was the same judge who tried to dismiss this case, and was replaced because of that, likely as a result of political interference during the Bush years.
The thinking behind this "child soldier law", actually the law on minors in armed conflict, is that very young people join wars with neither the knowledge nor ability to evaluate the validity of the cause, which is always complex. In fact, there is generally a reluctance to charge low level soldiers or fighters of any age with war crimes for the same reason. There is much more a tradition of charging those in command.
In the period immediately following 9/11, the Bush Admin wanted to charge any of its Gtmo detainees if it possibly could in order to justify rounding up hundreds of people. That's why Khadr was charged. He seems to have been the only person similarly charged by the US in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Canadian government wasn't in any position to challenge the US in the early years. Later it could have intervened on Khadr's behalf but chose not to, for political reasons. The government in power in the early years expressed regret for not having done so, after the fact, based on subsequent information.
The media regularly reports that Khadr "confessed" to being a "terrorist" and "war criminal" but he had no choice if he ever wanted to get out of Gtmo, on a plea deal, because that's how the system works. The US had been going after a plea deal for years because part of the bargain was that Khadr couldn't appeal the decision in the regular courts. Remember that the US Supreme Court had declared the whole system illegal, as it was when the case against Khadr was being concocted, and the Canadian Supreme Court decided his particular treatment was illegal.
Given his experience in his family and since being at Gtmo, it's possible Khadr could be dangerous, but if the US government thought so it would never have agreed to a deal that would mean his release just over their border in Canada within about seven years or sooner. All reports from Gtmo indicate that he is not dangerous. He appears to realize that he was caught in something very wrong, and is trying to prepare himself for a decent life some day. His American lawyer delivers school lessons sent by a Canadian teacher. They do their lessons while Omar is shackled in place, mostly held in solidtary confinement now. He was always considered a "compliant" detainee but the rule is that once a person has had a trial they have to be in solitary. There are only 4 Gtmo detainees who have been convicted of anything and are still there. The Miami Herald calls them the video maker, the small arms trainer, the cook and the kid (Omar), illustrating the unintentional absurdities of the military commision system.
Khadr deserves a chance to prove, under surveillance, that he can be a good citizen. Those Canadians who don't want to give him this chance are mindlessly, ignorantly hateful. Shame on them. They discredit our country.
