EnMasse Forum Index EnMasse
This place is all that is left.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister   TATToday's Active Topics 
 ProfileProfile   Voting CentreVoting Centre   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 
  Front PageFront Page Front Page SubmissionsFront Page Submissions LinksLinks Acceptable Use PolicyAcceptable Use Policy  DonateDonate 

 

 


Omar Khadr
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    EnMasse Forum Index -> National and Breaking News
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
HeywoodFloyd
Token Right-Wing Mascot


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 1198

PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Diane Demorney wrote:
For the record, I'm backing TS. on this. I've been very busy at work lately, and have acquired a new family via Heywood Floyd... long story. The girls are doing very well, btw, Heywood. R. has decided that behind my flat-screen monitor is the bestest place in the world for a snooze. And M. thinks my bed is her's. ALL my bed. Mr. Green


AARGH! I missed this post. R would love that spot. She used to sleep on top of my receiver because of the heat.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Senor Magoo wrote:
Certainly it looks more sensible, to the average person, than simply repatriating him so that the Khadrs can be reunited as one big happy "Al Qaeda family" again.


It all went right over your head again, didn't it?
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Senor Magoo
He's got a big one


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8700

PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No, I just ignored your transparent attempt to make a li'l hay.
_________________
ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Senor Magoo wrote:
No, I just ignored your transparent attempt to make a li'l hay.


?

Pot calling kettle?

Whatever.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
The Evil Twin
Stoned Immaculate


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 3748
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
said Thomas Quiggin, Islamic radicalization expert and former Canadian intelligence officer.


I'd like to know what the fuck an "Islamic radicalization expert" is and how one goes about getting such a gig? I recall that rightwingers like Rush Limpballs and Stun Media columnists in Canada looove to poke fun at how "the undeserving" (read - "leftwing minorities" or "women") get "affirmitive action" jobs like "multicultural diversity officer" (Limpballs always pronounces the jobs with such contempt in his voice too). Why aren't these idiots wondering about the terrorism paranoia that has gripped North America creating ridiculous sounding job descriptions for retired white intelligence officers named "Thomas Quiggen"? Rolling Eyes
_________________
I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. - Assclown Rob Ford
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sparqui
Dog tired


Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 5166
Location: Winnipeg

PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

^^^ Right on ET. Clap, Clap
_________________
“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”

-- Gilles Duceppe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Evil Twin wrote:
Quote:
said Thomas Quiggin, Islamic radicalization expert and former Canadian intelligence officer.


I'd like to know what the fuck an "Islamic radicalization expert" is and how one goes about getting such a gig? I recall that rightwingers like Rush Limpballs and Stun Media columnists in Canada looove to poke fun at how "the undeserving" (read - "leftwing minorities" or "women") get "affirmitive action" jobs like "multicultural diversity officer" (Limpballs always pronounces the jobs with such contempt in his voice too). Why aren't these idiots wondering about the terrorism paranoia that has gripped North America creating ridiculous sounding job descriptions for retired white intelligence officers named "Thomas Quiggen"? Rolling Eyes


Reading about the mouth-breathers who sent Maher Arar, Abdulla Almalki, and several other Canadians to torture in Syria, based on imaginary ties to Al Qaeda, I'd guess that "Islamic Radicalization Experts" know exactly sweet fuck all about ANYTHING.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Romeo Dallaire has headed to Washington to lobby for Khadr's release on the grounds that he was in effect a child soldier. He says he's not getting anywhere with the Harper government. I know people round here have been up and down on Dallaire, but good for him, he's really taken on this issue and is pushing it.

Quote:
... "The reason I'm down here is because I've gotten nowhere with the Canadian government," said Dallaire.

... "If we take Omar Khadr back, we take one of [Obama's] problems away. I mean, we alleviate the situation for him where he doesn't have to look at a case of a Canadian child soldier being prosecuted in a process that is considered to be inappropriate," said Dallaire.

... At a news conference, Dallaire said he has received no help from the Canadian government in his attempts to aid Khadr, and suggested Prime Minister Stephen Harper's lack of action in the case was "unstatesmanlike."

... The Toronto Star reported on Monday that documents obtained through access to information requests show a rift between the prime minister's public stance on the Khadr case and that of federal lawyers.

The newspaper said the documents showed that the lawyers repeatedly raised concerns about Khadr's prosecution in the U.S. because he was only 15 years old when captured.

Dallaire noted that Canada has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international law saying children under 18 years old involved in armed conflict should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.


CBC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Who's Your Daggy?
Banned sock-puppet


Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 94
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 12:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have to admit, after reading this, I am having some more sympathy for this guy now. Don't know whether it was a Christmastime visit from Marley's ghost or what...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ienBNS...

My sympathy for Arar is on the wane, though...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
sparqui
Dog tired


Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 5166
Location: Winnipeg

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 1:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So when a frightened and seriously injured 15 year old gets tortured you actually believe that what he says is the truth? Give your head a shake.
_________________
“If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a tractor.”

-- Gilles Duceppe
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Who's Your Daggy?
Banned sock-puppet


Joined: 12 Dec 2008
Posts: 94
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I guess not... I'm just kind of wondering... you're probably right, though. Probably not worth giving a second thought.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
transplant
Starting Over Again


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 1710
Location: somewhere between here and there

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good point made this am on CBC Radio 1 by an author who has been following the Arar and Khadr stories:
Since Obama has said he will close down Gitmo and bring the detainees to US soil and into the US justice system he will almost certainly suspend the military commissions as well, and very likely that he will ask Stevie to take Khadr off his hands as well. With the inauguration today, this was their last chance to use Khadr to get this smear of Arar into the record and into the public mind.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OMFG: If somebody was wrongly accused of child molestation, was famously sent to prison and infamously beaten there for being a disgusting child molester, and then turned out to be completely innocent and successfully sued their former accusers for wrongful imprisonment and the resulting pain and suffering, ... would it be responsible to, years later, print the unfounded allegations of, say, a homeless schizophrenic person, that the person in question did, in fact, molest children?

Of course not.

So where the fuck does the CBC get off repeating the words of an obviously delusional and incompetent CIA agent (delusional because he imagines that his revolting lies mean anything to sane people) saying that Omar Khadr picked Maher Arar from a group of photographs stating that he saw him at a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan?

Arar's life was first destroyed when he was identified by another innocent Canadian who was being tortured in Syria at the behest of Canadian "intelligence" agencies for having an out-of-date tourist map of Ottawa in the glove compartment of his delivery truck. Under pressure from Arar's magnificent wife Monia Mazigh and several other fine people who make this a country worth living in, Arar's case was investigated by the Honourable Justice, Dennis O'Connor, who determined unequivacably that Arar was an innocent man whose rights were cruelly violated and he was awarded $10.5 million in compensation for those outrages.

For some reason, the CBC and other media outlets still saw fit to publish the information that Omar Khadr identified him from a photograph while being interrogated in Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay. This, in spite of the fact that it is known beyond a shadow of a doubt that Khadr has been tortured. In spite of the fact that it is known that evidence obtained under torture is worthless because people will say anything to stop the torture.

Perhaps I should call up the CBC and tell them there's still people talking about the Jews staying home on 9-11 2001, and they could put on the top of their website. Talk about it on the evening news. Shit, why don't I just torture somebody in my basement until they admit that Stephen Harper raped them, and then I'll call their Ottawa correspondent with the "news"?

In short, how completely stupid and/or callous do you have to be to publish garbage like that? How ignorant of journalistic standards do you have to be? Shame on everyone in the mainstream media who has been a party to this travesty!

For an indication of how loathsomely stupid these "journalists" and "editors" are to have relayed this information, let's note that the imbecilic Ezra Levant has also taken this story and waddled with it. In a sick sort of way, it's actually laughable that Levant believes this ridiculous garbage "vindicates" his failed line of toilet-paper, The Western Standard

Canadian Cynic mentions that even a really stupid, non-practicing lawyer should know better than to libel someone as a "liar" and hopes that Arar will sue Levant for having done just that in the title of his post. Indeed. I would like to see Arar sue every corporate media outlet that published this slander and reopened old wounds.

ETA: Dr. Dawg says what I've said and more, and also links to the Toronto Star speaking intelligently on the subject. Finally, Khadr's "information" was given out at Bagram Base in Afghanistan, not at Guantanamo. Both sites are notorious for torture.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
swirrlygrrl
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 321

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Globe was at least good enough to point out that Khadr would have been 6 or 7 years old when he supposedly saw Arar at the safe house. So, now you've got torture and a memory that is 8 or 9 years years old. So close to convincing me!! Rolling Eyes
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 3483
Location: SFU and/or the college of Riddlemastery at Caithnard

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 12:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since when do you respect the "average person" when they disagree with you, Magoo?
I'm not quite clear what the legal basis for all this stuff is supposed to be. He hasn't been convicted of any crime, he's just been held in illegal detention. He's a Canadian citizen and no longer a minor. If we get him back, under law I don't see what we can do to him against his will. Oh, wait, I see--
Quote:
One option would be to use a so-called "control order" under Canada's anti-terrorism law, which is a form of house arrest that places restrictions on suspects' movements and requires them to report daily to a police station.

So, OK, there's a *legal* basis. Unconstitutional as hell, I suspect and strongly hope, but legal yes.

Now, I do think the kid probably needs a lot of counselling and some time with psychologists because he's gonna be dealing with a wicked case of PTSD and then some from having been imprisoned and tortured since he was fifteen.
And, he needs an education, with maybe an emphasis on critical thinking skills, philosophy and other arts-ish stuff. He needs the tools to come to grips with his situation.
But the last thing he needs is for any of that stuff to be imposed on him against his will, and I don't see what the hell business anyone has doing so.

On a side note--Khadr's mother strikes me as a foolish wingnut. But I gotta say I agree with her fundamentally about one thing:

Quote:
"It's a war. What do you expect [Omar] to do — put his hand up in the air and surrender? They killed three of his friends. He killed one. Big deal," Zaynab Khadr


Assuming he did kill the guy, which seems to be in doubt, that's always been pretty much my take. Go in somewhere shootin' and it's not murder when someone tries to kill you back.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 1:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I typed a comment to Ezra Levant's site, wherein he called Arar a "liar" (and made pathetic attempts to celebrate The Western Standard's past "reporting"), I said: "I can't decide whether you're more sleazy than you are stupid."

It hasn't been posted yet.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Diane Demorney
Bazinga!


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 4746
Location: Calgary

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

thwap wrote:
I typed a comment to Ezra Levant's site, wherein he called Arar a "liar" (and made pathetic attempts to celebrate The Western Standard's past "reporting"), I said: "I can't decide whether you're more sleazy than you are stupid."

It hasn't been posted yet.

As I know Ezra, I don't think it's an either/or situation.
_________________
Scissors cuts paper. Paper covers rock. Rock crushes lizard. Lizard poisons Spock. Spock smashes scissors. Scissors decapitates lizard. Lizard eats paper. Paper disproves Spock. Spock vaporizes rock. And as it always has, rock crushes scissors.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

But which afflicts the horribly stupid dude worse? I think it's an open question.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 11:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

thwap wrote:
But which afflicts the horribly stupid dude worse?


Don't you mean which afflicts US worse?
_________________
"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Calls to bring Khadr home grow louder as Gitmo trial halts

Quote:
Ottawa was reconsidering its long-standing reluctance to bring Omar Khadr home Wednesday as a military judge called a 120-day halt to the Guantanamo Bay prisoner's war-crimes trial at the behest of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Obama, his presidency just hours old, ordered prosecutors to request the hiatus late Tuesday in order to allow for time to review the case of Khadr and 244 other detainees held at this infamous prison, according to prosecution documents.

That move prompted signals from Defence Minister Peter MacKay that the federal Conservatives would take Obama's cue and re-examine the oft-repeated position that due process in the U.S. be allowed to run its course.

"Everyone involved in these cases will be reassessing their positions," MacKay said in Ottawa.

"As everyone knows, the charges that Mr. Khadr has been facing have been very serious charges ... regardless of where this happened and when it happened, that type of behaviour that has resulted in the charges is something Canadians would take a very dim view of."

Khadr's defence, which had earlier pushed hard for the charges to be stayed, did not oppose Wednesday's motion.

"The practical effect of this ruling is to pronounce this military process dead," Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, Khadr's lawyer, said minutes after the judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, granted the continuance in a single-sentence ruling.

_________________
"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
TS.
Delicious schadenfreude


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It seems that the testimony about Omar Khadr and Maher Arar is not so true:
Quote:
The Globe and Mail An FBI agent's testimony that Omar Khadr said he saw Maher Arar in Afghanistan appeared significantly weaker yesterday than it did the day before - and, in the case of at least one key detail, at odds with reality.

Robert Fuller, a prosecution witness in the Pentagon's Guantanamo Bay case against Mr. Khadr, testified on Monday that Mr. Khadr, during a 2002 interrogation at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, identified a photo of Mr. Arar and said he had seen him in a Kabul safe house run by an alleged terrorist. But defence lawyers yesterday produced a report written by Mr. Fuller in which he states that Mr. Khadr told him he saw Mr. Arar in Afghanistan in September or October of 2001.

The problem is, Mr. Arar was in Canada in October, 2001, as the Arar commission's findings clearly show. U.S. authorities also know he was in California the previous month.

Under cross-examination yesterday by Mr. Khadr's U.S. military defence lawyers, Mr. Fuller admitted that Mr. Khadr could not immediately name Mr. Arar, but that agents gave him "a couple of minutes maybe" to think about it.

Mr. Khadr's interrogation at the hands of Mr. Fuller began on Oct. 7, the day before U.S. authorities transferred Mr. Arar to the Middle East. It appears that the entire Oct. 7 interrogation was focused on Mr. Arar, and that Mr. Khadr's information became one of the "multiple sources" of intelligence the U.S. Department of Justice used to defend its claim that Mr. Arar is a member of al-Qaeda, and its decision to send him to Syria in October of 2002.

It was almost exactly one year earlier - when Mr. Fuller said Mr. Khadr told him he saw Mr. Arar in Afghanistan - that the Mounties were running surveillance on an Ottawa exporter, Abdullah Almalki, who was spotted meeting Mr. Arar at a restaurant that Oct. 12. The RCMP spent the next month digging into Mr. Arar's life, including running periodic surveillance on him and his house.

But after a month's investigation they "observed nothing unusual" and moved on. No criminal allegations arose in Canada. Regardless, through a remarkable set of circumstances, both Mr. Arar and Mr. Almalki were jailed the next year in Syria, where they were interrogated by the same military squads.

More at the link.
_________________
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 3483
Location: SFU and/or the college of Riddlemastery at Caithnard

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds an awful lot like one of those "Yes, I'll identify whoever you want just stop hitting me" kinds of "identifications".
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Sat Apr 04, 2009 1:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah, hell, the Pentagon has fired Omar Khadr's lawyer, William Kuebler. Who knows what the ins and out of this really are, but Kuebler was very vocal in pushing for a proper trial for Khadr, for the Canadian government to take any responsibility for him, and to get real evidence introduced in the military trial.

Quote:
He had become the most vocal opponent of Omar Khadr's trial, taking a position more akin to politician than lawyer and launching a two-year campaign that landed him on the front pages of newspapers and inside magazines.

But U.S. Navy lawyer Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler's role as the Pentagon-appointed defender of 22-year-old Khadr came to an end yesterday when he was fired from the case.

An internal investigation by Guantanamo's Chief Defence lawyer, Col. Peter Masciola, had been launched into Kuebler's conduct in February following months of backroom fighting among the Pentagon's defence team. Kuebler had accused Masciola of a "conflict of interest."

An email sent last night by Guantanamo's deputy chief defence lawyer, Michael Berrigan, said Kuebler was dismissed for the improper supervision and management of Khadr's defence team.

... Reached at his office yesterday, Kuebler said he could not comment. A press release, issued on his behalf, lashed out at Masciola, saying he was acting "to support the agenda of military prosecutors."


Toronto Star.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2009 2:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oho! And the judge in the tribunal has reinstated Kuebler. Seems Hizzoner feels the Pentagon had no authority to fire him.

Quite the soap opera going on. Remind me when Guantanamo is supposed to be shut down?

Quote:
A Guantanamo judge has reinstated Omar Khadr's chief military lawyer, Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, ruling that his superior did not have the power to fire him.

... Air Force Col. Peter Masciola, Guantanamo's chief defence lawyer, said he plans to appeal the decision.

"We believe the military judge has erred as a matter of law," stated an email sent from Guantanamo by deputy chief defence lawyer Michael Berrigan.

Berrigan said the one-page ruling issued yesterday by Army Col. Patrick Parrish "did not review or make any determination concerning the underlying merits of Colonel Masciola's removal of Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler for good cause" but stated that only "the military judge may authorize the removal of a detailed counsel."


Toronto Star
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wonder if Stephen Harper is going to ignore the federal court, too. Because they've just told him to request that Khadr be returned to Canada asap.

Harper's going to "study the decision." Yeah, right. Because he went on to say that he was "obviously" going to seek an appeal.

Quote:
... Federal Court Justice James O'Reilly ruled toay that Ottawa must request that the "United States return Mr. Khadr to Canada as soon as practicable."

O'Reilly wrote that Canada's "ongoing refusal" to request that Khadr be sent home "offends a principle of fundamental justice" and violates his constitutional rights.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, questioned in the Commons this afternoon on whether he will finally seek Khadr's return, said his government will study the decision.

He reminded the Opposition his government took the same position as the previous Liberal government when it came to Khadr's legal situation.

"In fact, the facts in our judgment have not changed. We will be looking at the judgment very carefully and obviously considering an appeal," Harper said.


Toronto Star.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
bshmr
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 4004
Location: Central USA, Earth

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I can imagine the diatribe if an South American President had said that under similar circumstances, or Carribian head-of-state. Don't y'all regret electing Harper dictator?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cartman
Beyond cuddly


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8676
Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think Harper might be making history here. Have the courts ever had to waste money telling the PM to do his job before? Conservatives are fundamentally lazy and they waste money.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
thwap
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 4564
Location: Hamilton

PostPosted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 10:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"lazy money-wasters" ... that about says it. Such contemptible scum.
_________________
Man! I hate them fancy-lads!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Sifo-Dyas
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 390

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If Omar Khadr is repatriated, I assume that he and his family will then sue the Government of Canada for damages, monetary compensation, etc.

When Maher Arar sued, the Government of Canada settled for $10 million (given their track record at losing in the courts, Harper must have concluded that the government lawyers in the Department of Justice would not be able to win at trial).

If they sue, I wonder how much the Khadr family will get?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TS.
Delicious schadenfreude


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 1:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sifo-Dyas wrote:
If Omar Khadr is repatriated, I assume that he and his family will then sue the Government of Canada for damages, monetary compensation, etc.

When Maher Arar sued, the Government of Canada settled for $10 million (given their track record at losing in the courts, Harper must have concluded that the government lawyers in the Department of Justice would not be able to win at trial).

If they sue, I wonder how much the Khadr family will get?

They would be entitled to a substantial judgement, and the behaviour of the Canadian government in this case might be found sufficiently egregious to justify punitive damages. The non-pecuniary damages would be astronomical.
_________________
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
sam
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 466

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

TS. wrote:
Sifo-Dyas wrote:
If Omar Khadr is repatriated, I assume that he and his family will then sue the Government of Canada for damages, monetary compensation, etc.

When Maher Arar sued, the Government of Canada settled for $10 million (given their track record at losing in the courts, Harper must have concluded that the government lawyers in the Department of Justice would not be able to win at trial).

If they sue, I wonder how much the Khadr family will get?

They would be entitled to a substantial judgement, and the behaviour of the Canadian government in this case might be found sufficiently egregious to justify punitive damages. The non-pecuniary damages would be astronomical.


There isn't much of a precedent for courts awarding substantial monetary awards for Charter violations. So this could be a precedent-setting case if it got that far. I'm not sure about the Crown's liability in private law terms - it's possible, of course, but tricky to establish.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cartman
Beyond cuddly


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8676
Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thestar.com/specialsections/article/623291

Quote:
A Federal Court has ordered Stephen Harper to seek the immediate return of Omar Khadr from the cells of Guantanamo, but the Prime Minister has refused to comply.
...
But when questioned in Commons Thursday about whether he will seek Khadr's return, Harper said his government's position remains the same.

"The facts in our judgment have not changed. We will be looking at the judgment very carefully and obviously considering an appeal," Harper said.


Apparently, Harper will not accept the court's ruling and will appeal the decision. Is the dude cracked? Does he not see the polls showing he is losing considerable support? I don't get this.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TS.
Delicious schadenfreude


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't think it is the Charter violation that would attract the judgement so much as the various heads of civil liability. Just to start with, there is negligent misrepresenation, and more likely slander and defamation for the statements put about by government sources about him. The liability of the government could be established through vicarious liability on the Bazely v. Curry test, given that the spokespersons who spread this information were certainly acting in the course and scope of their employment.

There might also be a civil action for torture, given the role of the Canadian state in aiding and abetting his torture. Bouzari v. Iran seems to establish that there is likely a cause of action in torture, but simply that you have to sue the state you are claiming against in their own courts or the doctrine of sovereign immunity will quash the case. The cause of action isn't well enough developed yet, but if he sued the government in torture, it could go a long way toward elaborating that test.
_________________
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Sifo-Dyas
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 390

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sam wrote:
There isn't much of a precedent for courts awarding substantial monetary awards for Charter violations. So this could be a precedent-setting case if it got that far. I'm not sure about the Crown's liability in private law terms - it's possible, of course, but tricky to establish.


Then why did Harper settle the Maher Arar case for $10 million?

Whether the case is based on a violation of the Charter or traditional tort law, isn't the basic concept the same: if a Canadian citizen is accused by a foreign government of being a terrorist and is imprisoned in the foreign country, the Government of Canada can be liable for monetary damages if it doesn't do enough to bring the Canadian citizen back to Canada?

If Arar was able to get $10 million from the Government of Canada for being falsely imprisoned as a terrorist by Syria, I don't know why William Sampson doesn't sue the Government of Canada for being falsely imprisoned as a terrorist by Saudi Arabia.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TS.
Delicious schadenfreude


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the Arar case, the government of Canada was clearly complicit. From what I can tell, there is no allegation that the Canadian government was complicit in having Mr. Sampson falsely imprisoned or tortured.
_________________
"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
No Yards
Glutton for Punishment


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2944
Location: Toronto Ontario

PostPosted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:11 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm betting "Canada's new government" will fight whatever case they are going to fight (be it to keep Khadr from returning to Canada, or to defend against a law suit) based on the "fact" that Khadr is a "liar", and that if he hadn't of "lied" under torture then none of this would have happened ... hell, I'll bet they even make the claim that Khadr's "lies" are responsible for Arar's predicament, and that Khadr should be responsible for paying back that $10M.
_________________
I follow, but more importantly, respect the Golden Rule. I fully and completely respect your right to be 'done on to' as you would 'do on to' others.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 1:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

And you would be right. Rather than actually doing what they should, the federal government has decided to appeal the judicial ruling that they should do the bare minimum that should be expected by every Canadian citizen, let alone one who was incarcerated at 15.

Why? What exactly are they afraid of?

Quote:
The federal government has decided to file an appeal rather than abide by a judicial order to seek the return of Omar Khadr, jailed in a Guantanamo Bay prison, to Canada.

In an Ottawa courtroom, federal lawyer Elizabeth Richards made a casual reference to the Khadr appeal while presenting arguments in a completely separate application regarding the repatriation of Abousfian Abdelrazik, who has been living inside the Canadian embassy in Sudan for more than a year.

There was no formal announcement made publicly of the decision. The federal government had up to 30 days to file an appeal.

Canadian lawyer Nathan Whitling, acting for Khadr, confirmed the appeal was filed in an email to the Star.


Toronto Star.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...

PostPosted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Canadian lawyer Nathan Whitling, acting for Khadr, confirmed the appeal was filed in an email to the Star.


You can file an appeal now by e-mailing the Toronto Star ?!

Tsk tsk tsk... sloppy writing...
_________________
"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Sun May 24, 2009 4:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems Harper hasn't bothered to check if Omar Khadr is one of the 50 detainees who are being cleared for release.

Quote:
... "I have no information to that," said Harper, who spoke to reporters following a funding announcement in Calgary.

The prime minister was asked about Khadr, a Canadian citizen, in the wake of U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement Thursday of his plans for the roughly 240 prisoners still being held at the American military base in Cuba.

Obama, who wants the prison closed by 2010, said his administration has reviewed the cases of 50 detainees who "can be transferred safely to another country."

... Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, Khadr's military lawyer, said Thursday he doesn't believe Khadr is on the list.


CBC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Khadr tried to fire his American military lawyers, because it seems they're spending all their time fighting with each other. He wants his Canadian lawyers to represent him. The judge said no.

Quote:
Canadian Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr asked a judge Monday to dismiss his U.S. military lawyers because he said he has lost trust in them after seeing their squabbling over his case.

"I can't trust these lawyers," said Khadr, 22, who had a full black beard and wore a white prison jumpsuit. "They've been accusing each other for the last four months and fighting in front of me."

The Toronto-born Khadr — who was 15 years old when he was detained in 2002 on allegations he killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan — said he trusts only his Canadian lawyers, and he wants them to choose who should defend him against war crimes charges that include murder and conspiracy.

... Masciola had replaced Kuebler with Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, a reservist recently called to active duty. Both Kuebler and Ruiz were in court Monday as Parrish refused Khadr's request to dismiss them, saying the detainee had to choose one of the attorneys before he could speak to Canadian lawyers Dennis Edney and Nathan Whitling.


CBC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 24243
Location: Where the Wild Things Are...

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2009 4:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Feds appeal court order to bring Khadr home

Quote:
Federal lawyers are appealing a court ruling that ordered the government to seek Omar Khadr's return from Guantanamo Bay.

The federal government has filed an appeal of a Federal Court ruling that it seek the return of Khadr, 22, from the U.S. military prison in Cuba. Judge James O'Reilly ruled in April that the Conservative government's refusal to demand repatriation of Khadr offends fundamental justice.

The judge ruled that the government must ask the United States "as soon as practicable" to send Khadr home.

Opposition parties have demanded that Khadr be brought home and tried in Canada, if necessary, in light of the court decision.

[...]

Government lawyers were in court appealing the Khadr ruling days after Ottawa reversed its position on another Canadian jailed abroad.

The government said last week it would follow the Federal Court's order to let Abousfian Abdelrazik, a Montreal man jailed in Sudan, return to Canada.

_________________
"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CSIS has just had their collective wrists slapped. Doubt that it'll amount to anything but it will probably help bolster the case that Khadr should be assisted by our government.

Quote:
... In a report tabled with the government this morning, the Security Intelligence Review Committee said CSIS had "operational interests" to interview Khadr. But the service was criticized for not having special guidelines for dealing with youths and ignored widespread reports of abuse of Guantanamo's detainees.

"The time may have come for CSIS to undertake a fundamental reassessment of how it carries out its work, and to shift its operational culture to keep pace with recent political and legal developments," wrote Gary Filmon, Chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee in a statement.

... Their [SIRC] investigation disclosed for the first time quotes from a post-interrogation report written by a CSIS agent. He wrote that Khadr viewed the activities of his father "through the eyes of a child."

"It should be noted that (Khadr) was 15 years of age when captured, and most of the critical years in his father's association with Al Qaeda figures took place when he was merely a child," wrote the agent.

The SIRC report concluded: "In Canadian society, there is long-standing recognition that young people should be treated differently than adults because they have not attained certain decision-making skills and therefore require special protection and guidance."

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said that the government is "reviewing the SIRC report with interest."

"As you know, it deals with events that took place under the previous Liberal Government," noted spokesperson Chris McCluskey.


Lots more at the Toronto Star.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Federal Appeal Court is going to rule today as to whether or not to uphold the order that the Conservatives must intervene in Khadr's case.

While I'm glad we have the courts to help out with this, it makes how many cases now that they have held the Conservatives to account over a case of a Canadian in trouble in another country? Three? Four? How long should we put up with a government that blatantly flouts the laws of Canada and the international human rights treaties that we have signed?

Quote:
A Federal Appeal Court is to decide Friday whether to order the federal government to press for the return of Omar Khadr from a U.S. military detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In April, Federal Court Justice James O'Reilly ruled in favour of Khadr's charter challenge of the Canadian government's decision not to request his repatriation from Guantanamo Bay.

The federal government appealed the decision and has long maintained that because of the seriousness of the charges, Khadr should face military proceedings in the United States.

In his 43-page decision, O'Reilly wrote that the federal government's ongoing refusal to request his repatriation to Canada "offends a principle of fundamental justice and violates Mr. Khadr's rights.


CBC.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And the appeal court has upheld the ruling: The Cons must now get to work on getting Omar Khadr home.

About. Fucking. Time.

Want to bet the Conservatives take this to the Supreme Court?

Quote:
... The Federal Court of Appeal ruled today that the government offered no compelling reasons why it should not comply with an order to request that Khadr, 22, be repatriated to Canada.

"There is no legal or factual foundation upon which this Court can conclude that the decision not to request Mr. Khadr's repatriation is justified," the court ruled.

... The Tory government has refused to ask that Khadr be returned to Canadian custody, both because of his age — he was captured after a firefight in Afghanistan at age 15 and has been held in Cuba for seven years — and because of the treatment he has received while in U.S. custody.

... One of the government's most pressing arguments in refusing to comply with the Federal Court decision has been the assertion that the federal cabinet alone has responsibility for making foreign policy decisions, a jurisdiction that no court should be able to limit or sway.

"There is no factual basis" for that claim in Khadr's case, the appeal court ruled.

"In the unusual circumstances of this case, it was reasonable ... to conclude that being ordered to make such a request of a close ally is a relatively small intrusion into the conduct of international relations."


Toronto Star.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cartman
Beyond cuddly


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8676
Location: OMG! They killed Jason Kenney!

PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Want to bet the Conservatives take this to the Supreme Court?

Yup.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/08/24/conservatives-khadr.html

I don't understand this. Why not just get him here and deal with him? Is this because we don't have laws dealing with this sort of thing? Or, are they trying to avoid the use of law entirely?

I am not sure Harper really wants to win this one. It seems to have rather negative long-term consequences.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Maestro
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 2403
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 4:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, the Harper government is going to lose this one. There is no way any court in this land could allow the rights of citizenship to be subject to the whims of a foreign country.

The first duty of a national government is to the citizens of the nation. All other considerations come after that. They're going to lose this one, and they're going to look like shit while they do.
_________________
On the wilds of the Drive
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Tehanu
More or less, more or less


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 17673
Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation

PostPosted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That is so embarrassing. A government that has courts telling it to take care of its citizens, and appealing that. Again. Do they think this issue is just going to go away?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
thorin_bane
Member


Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 51

PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 1:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Funny how the party of Law and Order hates it when they don't agree with the LAW. I think they are just trying to wait till he gets a trial in the states or outright dies(accidentally). 7 Years and no trial. Longer than the americans were in WWI WWII and Korea all combined.

Don't we have rules about a speedy trial. If he comes home he will be free and the government both lib and con will be looking very bad on this file. They don't know what to do with it hence the reason they aren't acting. Besides even if he had been charged and some how found guilty(even as an adult) of murder(even in war as a soldier) he would have been through almost 1/3 of his imprisonment by now and eligible for parole. And by all accounts was a model inmate with no likely hood to re-offend.

He would be paroled next year. The law suit that will come from this will be huge. This is the problem they face, better to take the flak from outside the country where he doesn't have a voice than going through a civil trial while having an election to remind people how awful and vile your attitude is.

Funny they got that white chic out of mexico in a hurry though. Also got the guy from newsweek out pretty fast, once someone pointed out his occupation that is.
_________________
Ready for the revolution.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rufus Polson
Purple Library Guy


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 3483
Location: SFU and/or the college of Riddlemastery at Caithnard

PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 5:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

thorin_bane wrote:
Longer than the americans were in WWI WWII and Korea all combined.


Oh, that makes it sound so long, but it's only true because the Americans were such wimp-outs with no stomach to stand up to Hitler or the Kaiser.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
anne cameron
Fulltime enMasse Member


Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 3142
Location: tahsis, british columbia

PostPosted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

But very quick to invade Panama...or any other little place with no hope in hell of defending itself.

Bullies are like that though, I find.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    EnMasse Forum Index -> National and Breaking News All times are GMT
Goto page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4  Next
Page 2 of 4

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
TATToday's Active Topics


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group