NS senator backs Khadr settlement – TheChronicleHerald.ca

One of Nova Scotias new senators is throwing her support behind the Liberal governments controversial $10.5 million payout and apology to former child soldier Omar Khadr.

Independent senator Wanda Thomas Bernard released a joint statement with Ontario senator Kim Pate on Monday in the form of an open letter to Justin Trudeau.

In the letter, Pate and Bernard said Canada owes Khadr much more than an apology,

We commend you for challenging the use of the label terrorist to excuse the inexcusable: the unlawful detention and torture of a Canadian teen, as well as the complicity and the condonation of the torture and imprisonment, the statement said.

After far too many years, we are pleased to see our government finally acknowledge what the Supreme Court of Canada recognized in 2010, when it found Canada complicit in the unconstitutional violations of Mr. Khadrs rights in Guantanamo Bay.

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Khadr, now 30, is a Canadian citizen who was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay from age 16 to 26. In 2002 at age 15, he was captured by American soldiers in Afghanistan after a firefight left him severely injured, and later sent to Guantanamo Bay where he was accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American. Khadr pled guilty to the accusation but later said it was only because he believed that would help him get transferred out of Guantanamo. In 2013 he filed a $20 million civil suit against the Canadian government, and was released on bail in 2015.

In the statement, Bernard and Pate said they echoed the views of former senator and child solider advocate Romo Dallaire when he said, it is not Omar who was the threat, but those who recruit young girls and boys to fight their wars for them who are the greatest threat.

The decision by the Liberal government to settle out of court, offering a payout and apologize to Khadr rather than continue to fight the legal case, has been met with criticism from the general public.

But Pate and Bernard, a well known anti-oppression and social justice advocate in Nova Scotia, called the decision a step towards a more just society.

We reiterate our willingness to assist the government in any way we can as it carries out its constitutional duty to uphold the human rights of Mr. Khadr and of all Canadians, their release said,

Both Pate and Bernard are both unaffiliated Senators appointed in the last year under the Liberal government's new arms-length application process. Bernard, a Dalhousie social work professor, was officially sworn in to the Senate in November.

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NS senator backs Khadr settlement - TheChronicleHerald.ca