Canada, Convulsing Under Trudeau Management

"On behalf of the government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. Khadr for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm."
"We hope that this expression, and the negotiated settlement reached with the government, will assist him in his efforts to begin a new and hopeful chapter in his life with his fellow Canadians."
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale/Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland

Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould stands with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. The two senior cabinet ministers announced an apology and settlement with Omar Khadr. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

"I can't discuss any details of the settlement but I don't look at this as profiting. This is not a time for profit or for gaining or for thinking, 'I hit the jackpot'. This is a time for remembering. It's a time of reconciliation. This is a time for healing and it's not about forgetting. I'm sorry if this is causing people pain. I'm trying to turn a page. Not to forget that page, but just trying to turn a page and move along."
"The good thing about this apology for me is that it's going to restore a little bit of my reputation here in Canada. It's been a struggle to find jobs. People see you with that past reputation. An apology helps people say, 'We acknowledge the past'. Maybe that will give people an opportunity to give me a chance and think there might be more than what is said in the media."
Omar Khadr, former al-Qaeda jihadist, former Guantanamo Bay inmate, murderer

Omar Khadr leaves court after a judge ruled to relax bail conditions in Edmonton on Sept. 18, 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken

"The government today attempted to lay blame elsewhere for their decision to conclude a secret deal with Omar Khadr. The decision to enter into this deal is theirs, and theirs alone, and it is simply wrong."
"Canadians deserve better than this."
Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper

"[The Liberal government chose to apologize and pay Khadr $10.5-million as continuing to defend itself would have cost more] with virtually no chance of success [against the civil suit brought by Khadr for $20-million in damages]."
"Despite the Supreme Court of Canada, the Harper government refused to repatriate Mr. Khadr or otherwise resolve the matter."
"They could have, but they didn't."
Ralph Goodale, Liberal Public Safety minister 

"The government has deliberately helped Mr. Khadr block Sgt. Speer's widow from executing the $134-million court judgement against him."
"They issued the cheque [to Khadr] in the dark of night. If anything they should have co-operated with the counsel for Mrs. Speer [wife of slain U.S. army medic Christopher Speer, killed by Khadr] to ensure her claim could be heard at a Canadian court prior to the transfer of these funds."
Alberta Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney, former federal Cabinet minister

Canada's very own home-grown jihadist, trained along with his brothers by their al-Qaeda-linked father's arrangement, at a terrorist training camp to ply their ideological trade of mayhem and murder feels justified in his contention that he is owed an apology from Canada, and taxpayer-funded wealth to compensate for his past as an al-Qaeda/Taliban recruit whose battle experience at age 15 won him a prolonged residence at Guantanamo Bay prison in recognition of his killer-exploits.

Because he holds Canadian citizenship he is entitled to the very same broad-based benefits and human rights and equality assurances as any law-abiding member of the Canadian community of communities. He is a criminal terrorist; his age while communing with others of his ilk in Afghanistan is irrelevant within a tribal-religious congregation where so-called child warriors for Islam is commonplace.

For that matter, during the First- and Second-World Wars, global conflagrations, many such-aged young Canadians lost their lives honourably on the battlefield. Theirs was a war to protect their nations from those who would wrench their freedom from them. Khadr's war is one where the ideology of Islamofascism believes no individual nor nation has the freedom not to devote themselves wholly to Islam.

In his own words Omar Khadr, now 30, believes that Canada owes him:

• An apology for Canadian representatives having questioned him while in custody and sleep-deprived;
• For having relaying what information they gleaned to their American counterparts;
• Financial recompense for the pain and suffering he experienced while incarcerated by the U.S. military as punishment for throwing an explosive killing an Army medic and blinding another member of the U.S. military;
• These gestures of good will and accommodation are a requisite, enabling him to find employment in Canada;
• The rehabilitation of his 'reputation' from jihadi killer to one-time jihadi.

This is what Omar Khadr describes as 'reconciliation'. As though Canada has an obligation for restitution on behalf of an individual who exercised free will in practising his Egyptian-Palestinian-Canadian family's belief in the superiority of Islam and the requirement of its faithful to engage in violent jihad in support of terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and the Taliban, both of which were complicit in the deadliest atrocities committed by non-state militias against nation-states and exulted in their historical 'conquests', along with much of the world of Islam celebrating alongside them.

Unsurprisingly, another Muslim, Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar -- who not long after the dread occurrences of September 11, 2001, travelled abroad to visit with extended family in North Africa with his wife at a time of emotional and reactive tumult, was arrested as he transited the U.S. on his way back to Canada. He was suspected of having links to jihadist groups, and flown to Syria, his country of birth, where he was imprisoned and tortured. He too won the support of Canada's justice system with charges of complicity in his illegal and unwarranted arrest, and received compensation similar to Omar Khadr's -- has expressed his support for Khadr

Canada's previous Conservative-led government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper had no wish to welcome Omar Khadr back to Canada. "We regret that a convicted terrorist has been allowed back into Canadian society without having served his full sentence", stated then-Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, expressing the sentiments of most Canadians in the matter. In the final analysis, against their better judgement but acceding to Canadian law,  Prime Minister Harper did accept that Omar Khadr would complete his sentence for murder in a Canadian prison.

Which leaves the current Public Safety Minister uttering a complete fabrication in claiming that this entire matter is the fault of the previous government for not having settled the issue. The previous government, in fact, balked at anything resembling the wholesale absurdity of an apology to this man who claims that the handing over of $10.5-million of taxpayer money is irrelevant, that all he really wants is to have the opportunity to be a normal citizen and live his life free of drama, doing good things for other people.

As the new leader of the Conservative party of Canada suggests, the good he could start with is surrendering the money directly to Sgt. Speer's widow and to the American soldier whose eyesight his explosive took. And then, no one in Canada wants to see his name in the news again. He will be free to live out his life alongside that of his mother, sister and brothers who subscribe proudly to the Islamofascist ideology that motivated them to leave Canada, returning only when they needed to take advantage of its social welfare and universal health care systems.

The Canadian public, that portion that is reeling with disbelief at this extraordinary turn of events, should now have a clearer picture of the personal sentiments and beliefs of the man they voted for as Prime Minister of this nation. When the next general election falls due, memories should sharpen to recall all that his man has done and continues to do, to demonstrate he might find employment more suitable to his skills as a drama-school educator, or a teacher of snowboarding.