The Demonization of Omar Khadr by the Harper government.... My POV

Unlike Paul Rose, leader of the Chenier Cell of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), an armed group that terrorized Quebecers in the City of Montreal back in 1970 and who was convicted, although later found not to be present, of the murder of Pierre Laporte the Harper government choses to demonize Omar Khadr for political gain.

The Rose case had National interest in 1970 but, unlike Stephen Harper, it was not exploited by the government of the time to terrorize its own citizens. In fact the War Measures Act was not only controversial, there was political fall out. 

Sadly there are many Canadians who feel Omar Khadr should never be released, some would even like to see him hang. These people are reacting out of the exploited fear and hysteria pandering of Stephen Harper and his white supremacy attitude.

None of us really know the 15 year old boy accused of killing an American medic in Afghanistan, a mere child brought to the battlefield by his father. Sure he went willingly, but then how many young boys would follow their father into battle.

We just celebrated the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Germany, how many Canadian, British and American children took up arms in the 1940's and followed their older brothers into battle?

I don't see the difference. Many will argue that WW II was a battle of good versus evil. then through the eyes of 15 year old Omar Khadr he likely saw things the same way.

I know that I would have followed my father into battle and take a bullet for him.

The initial report by the commanding officer at the scene of the firefight that led to the capture of then 15 year old Omar Khadr stated that in his opinion Omar Khadr was too severely injured by shrapnel to have tossed the fatal grenade.

Remember, there were no witnesses as to who threw the fatal grenade, Omar Khadr happened to be the lone surviving combatant. The assumption at his trial was that it couldn't have been anyone else.

What most government and media fail to tell the public is that there was a second survivor on that day, an adult male who was summarily shot in the head by a soldier known only as OC-1 before the commanding officer prevented OC-1 from executing Omar Khadr.

Not only does the Harper government choose to ignore the facts that torture played a major part in  Khadr's confession but Harper chooses to ignore the fact that Omar Khadr was offered a deal in exchange for his admission of guilt. Americans needed a guilty participant because the widow of the US medic wanted revenge for her husbands death A death that occurred in combat. The key words here are "death in combat", how does it become a criminal act when a combatant, whether medical or not, is killed during a firefight? And how does a government convict a child soldier?

If the evidence truly supported what the Harper government wants Canadians to believe and the Americans had an open and shut case against him do you really believe he would have got off with such a soft sentence?

Do you really believe the American government would have forced Canada to take Omar Khadr off their hands?

The release of Omar Khadr by Canada is exactly what the US hoped for, someone to blame rather than have him released on appeal in the US. The evidence against him was that flimsy.