Canada rewards terrorists – Omar Khadr to be given $10.5 million

July 2017

It’s an utter disgrace that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would even consider giving Omar Khadr $10.5 million and an official apology, let alone actually doing it.

This of course, was done quickly and paid in just two weeks after a secret deal was negotiated with, according to a government leak, the intention of sheltering the money from a $134 million civil court judgement, launched by Tabitha Speer, widow of Sergeant Speer, something the government admits to doing.  After the information was leaked, lawyers for the Speer family prepared to file an injunction against payment of the money.

On the morning it was officially announced that payment had already been made, the lawyers were scheduled to plead their case in a Toronto courtroom.

Khadr is admitted terrorist and bomb-maker from an unrepentant terrorist family, who bragged that killing U.S. Army Special Forces medic Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer in a fire-fight in 2002 was the happiest day of his life.  Fellow American soldier Sergeant First Class Layne Morris was wounded in the same attack, loosing an eye.

Khadr’s father, Ahmed Said Khadr, a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, was in a Pakistani prison in 1998 in connection with the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad.  Then Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien intervened on his behalf and Khadr released from prison shortly afterwards.

After a brief stay in Canada, the Khadr family returned to Pakistan, where his sons received weapons training with the Taliban and bin Laden, setting Omar on the path that lead to that fateful battle with American forces.

It’s been debated over and over as to whether Omar was willingly participating in actions as an enemy combatant or if he even understood the gravity of the actions he was taking given his young age, but given what journalist and secular Muslim Tarek Fatah points out in “Canada rewards terrorists, Israel punishes them” (Toronto Sun, July 4), it’s likely that he knew perfectly well what he was doing and was a willing participant.

According to Fatah, “The Muslim boys who go to fight jihad do so not under any pressure, but for the lure of entering Paradise and meeting the opposite gender for the first time. This may sound bizarre to the non-Muslim, but trust me, this is not fiction nor propaganda.”

We know that Omar lived in an Afghan compound with a group of bomb-building Islamic jihadis planting roadside explosives and was seen in happily making improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in footage found after his capture.

We know that Omar took up arms against his country of birth and Canada’s allies, an act that alone should have seen him charged with high treason.  The Criminal Code of Canada states that anyone who “assists an enemy at war with Canada, or any armed forces against whom Canadian Forces are engaged in hostilities, whether or not a state of war exists between Canada and the country whose forces they are” is guilty of an offence.

Fellow secular Muslim and Toronto Sun columnist Farzana Hassan notes in her column, “Under Islamic beliefs, Omar Khadr was no child” (July 7), “Accepted Islamic belief confirms the age of maturity at puberty…….Not only is marriage condoned at a very young age, but punishment and retribution are also determined on the basis of who is considered an adult.  For example, the current Iranian penal code sets the age of maturity under sharia law for girls at nine years and for boys at 15.”

If Omar Khadr was truly a naïve “kid” who was led astray by his terrorist father, then why has he never publicly denounced his family, especially his father, for leading him down an extremist path.

His reward should be that the U.S. Army saved his life rather than letting him die on the battlefield and that he was eventually allowed to return to Canada to serve out his sentence. Period.

In an interview with CTV News, Sergeant First Class Layne Morris shares the opinion that “Canada owes this man nothing…….His reward is that he’s still alive”  and suggests that Khadr should have a long Christmas card list that includes at the top of it, the United States government because it was due to the fact that his unit had a second medic with them that day who saved Khadr’s life rather that letting him bleed out “in 30 seconds.”

In Morris’ opinion, the only one who owes an apology is Khadr’s family, who “…owe an apology to humanity.”

As for Trudeau’s actions, Morris says in an interview with the Toronto Sun, “I don’t see this as anything but treason. It’s something a traitor would do. As far as I am concerned, Prime Minister Trudeau should be charged.”

Some will argue that this award is justified given that his Charter rights were violated, as stated in two court rulings in 2008 and 2010, but it still doesn’t sit well with Canadians, especially given that Trudeau just rolled over and gave up rather than fighting Khadr’s $20 million lawsuit against the Canadian government.  Any prime minister is constitutionally justified in over-ruling the Supreme Court using Section 33 of the Constitution Act 1982, the Not Withstanding Clause.

Commentator and author Rex Murphy commented in his column “Justin Trudeau skips the theme socks for his scheming Omar Khadr apology” (National Post July 7):  “A government famously so sluggish in so many areas — veterans’ treatment comes first to mind — went full Road Runner getting the cash to Khadr.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said at the press conference announcing this deal stated that the government decided to make the payment to save money by not having to fight Khadr’s $20 million lawsuit against the government.  So a government that has had no problem racking up over $20 billion in new debt in less than 2 years suddenly is concerned about saving money?  Get real!

There was always a chance that Tabitha Speer would never collect a single penny of her judgement but with this secretive deal, Trudeau made sure she will have a tough time getting a penny of this money either.

At the very least, it would be a fitting end if every penny of the $10.5 million “compensation” that Prime Minister Selfie wants to give to Omar Khadr goes straight from his pockets to Tabitha Speer and Sergeant 1st Class Morris.

Even better than that would be if Khadr willingly donated the money himself.  That would go a LONG way to rehabilitating his image in Canada, something Khadr has stated he wants to do.

Sources:  http://www.torontosun.com/2017/07/04/canada-rewards-terrorists-israel-punishes-them, https://www.child-soldiers.org/international-laws-and-child-rights, http://www.torontosun.com/2017/07/06/under-islamic-beliefs-omar-khadr-was-no-child#.WV-f1ao7auM.facebook, http://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-i-suspect-mr-trudeau-will-skip-the-theme-socks-for-the-omar-khadr-apology/wcm/05aa6ed9-bbe2-4976-bedc-219efac565df, http://www.torontosun.com/2017/07/08/trudeau-should-be-charged-with-treason-morris.