The Liberal Government’s recent $10.5 million settlement with Canadian-born Omar Khadr blocked the tax payers financed Tories’ Machiavellian plan to keep the case alive for a perpetual political fight. It was a very lengthy legal battle. The Conservative government resolutely fought it by spending millions of Canadian tax dollars but in the end it was legally defeated in the fight. The courts were used with intentions to generate publicity for the Conservative government’s anti-terrorism campaign. However, it demonstrated the real motive of the previous ruling party to seek a ruling prejudiced with politics of hatred and racism against minorities, particularly Muslims as in this case.
By Promod Puri
Unfortunately, there are no laws in Canada which bar the lawyers, who on behalf of government, pursue a legal battle, not to seek justice but to influence the justice, with directions from the ruling party for its own political motives.
The case in point is the role of the Conservative Party under Harper leadership which has delusively manipulated the file of Omar Khadr with spirited party’s right-wing die-hard ideology to establish him as a terrorist right from his teen years. Using Khadr as a sacrificial goat, the party in its hidden agenda tried to create for itself a better image of its handling of terrorism.
However, the Liberal Government’s $10.5 million settlement with Canadian-born Khadr blocked the tax payers financed Tories’ Machiavellian plan to keep the case alive for a perpetual political fight.
Khadr was just 15 years old 15 years ago when imprisoned in one of world’s most notorious jails accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. America calls the torturous Guantanamo jail, which broke all global human rights laws, in occupied Cuba’s land as a detention facility.
It was a very lengthy legal battle. The Conservative government resolutely fought it by spending millions of Canadian tax dollars but in the end it was legally defeated in the fight. The courts were used with intentions to generate publicity for the Conservative government’s anti-terrorism campaign. However, it demonstrated the real motive of the previous ruling party to seek a ruling prejudiced with politics of hatred and racism against minorities, particularly Muslims as in this case.
Whereas the Supreme Court had explicitly ruled in 2010 that the Canadian authorities violated Mr. Khadr’s charter of rights, Harper, and party in this one of the most expensive legal juggernaut, rather than accepting the judgement, was more interested to get political mileage out of Khadr’s illegal detention and torture.
What the Trudeau government has done is not only to save the public money from more legal costs but more importantly to restore the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Canadians irrespective of their ethnic or religious stripes.
At the same time, unlike the Conservative government under Harper leadership, the Liberal leadership has kept the Canadian justice system above party politics.
Now, as the lessons learned, some safeguards can be enacted whereby the courts can clearly discern if there are seedlings of an astute opportunism which can be a political harvest thru the Canadian justice system.
Otherwise, we tax payers will keep on paying for politics rather than justice.
Promod Puri resides in Vancouver. He is a writer, and author of Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs, and Traditions. Websites: promodpuri.com and progressivehindudialogue.com
