Justice James O'Reilly slapped the wrist of Canada's Conservative government this week by issuing an order that Prime Minister Stephen Harper take steps to repatriate Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen who was taken into custody at age 15 by American authorities for allegedly lobbing a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan. Khadr's spent the past seven years at Guantanamo Bay, where the amenities, as we all know, include complimentary torture.
Harper et al have announced their plan to appeal the ruling, basing their continued inaction on the fact that Khadr's been charged with serious crimes and the U.S. hasn't yet decided to drop those charges. O'Reilly's of the opinion that respecting American legal sovereignty is secondary to upholding Canada's own Charter of Rights and Freedoms and international agreements such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.
We don't yet know what will become of Harper's appeal, but having this story in the news again is its own kind of justice. It's a reminder that the rule of law still applies in wartime, and that the spectacular crime of 9/11 is no justification for ignoring established policy on child soldiers. When young fighters are pitted against each other in Africa, we call it a tragedy and, when they are saved, we acknowledge their minimal culpability in their crimes. When they fight against the West, they're treated as fully culpable adults. Time for some consistency here.
For years, Harper's deferred a crucial moral and legal decision, leaving Khadr's fate in the hands of the U.S. government rather than take a sovereign stand (worth noting that this goes for his Liberal predecessor Paul Martin, too). If nothing else, this judicial scolding could force him to behave like a leader whether he likes it or not.
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