Omar Khadr...

[fajrdrako]

Seems to me that every time I turn on the television or the radio I'm getting yet more discussion and presentation of the Omar Khadr video and discussion concerning it. And it all boils down to the same thing: a Canadian's rights are being violated and our government is afraid to object. And this has been going on for eight years.

It's so depressing.

Comments

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is that the current (since 2006) federal government is *much* more cowardly than their predecessors.

Come *on*, Liberals & NDP. Step up to the plate; bring on the Vote of Non-Confidence. We **need** a federal general election, darn it!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The Liberals and NDP don't seem to have the same priorities I do these days.

[(Anonymous)]

Afraid or happily disinterested?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Maybe disinterested, but I really think they are afraid of stirring up cross-border trouble of any kind. Including the kind that defends Canadian law and autonomy.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

NPR quoted a Canadian journalist saying that a lot of people there aren't as sympathetic (or outraged, I suppose) because of some stuff the kid's family members said in news interviews in the past, along the lines of "wouldn't you rather have your son be a jihadi hero than a homosexual in Canada?"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter to me if the kid is evil incarnate, or his family are a horde of ravening terrorists. It's that the principles of Canadian law and citizenship are being ignored: he's been imprisoned for years in a foreign country without trial, underage for most of that time, without any presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

It bothers me even more that our government acts as if it doesn't care. There's a Canadian in prison without trial in Somalia, and they aren't doing anything to help him, either. But I don't necessarily expect better of Somalians.

Somehow it's more disturbing when it's our friends and neighbours doing it.

[duncanmac.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, there is no real central government of Somalia (or *in* Somalia) these days, so the situation there is all too predictable.

It's much more offensive when a government like the USA's, which is a *signatory* to the Geneva Accords against torture, ignores the treaty and tortures anyone it declares detestable or an "enemy combatant." It's a very short step from there to torturing anyone ... including its own citizens.

Omar Khadr is just the tip of a Very Ugly Iceberg.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Omar Khadr is just the tip of a Very Ugly Iceberg.

Should we be thankful, then, for global warming and potential melting?

a *signatory* to the Geneva Accords

I find this totally baffling. Of all the countries who should know better - why don't they?

I Share Your Pain

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Because right now we don't have a government; we have a big-corporation-enabling network in place all the way up to our highest elected office. And it might lessen your depression just a tiny bit to know that people in the States are outraged about this boy's imprisonment, too. Slight progress has been made. For instance, last week the Supreme Court decreed that it is illegal for the government to hold these people without representation, trial, or any of the rest of what they've been denied. Small step, that!

Re: I Share Your Pain

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

week the Supreme Court decreed that it is illegal for the government to hold these people without representation, trial, or any of the rest of what they've been denied

Shouldn't this be a no-brainer? And yet... they are still there.

But yes, it's a step in the right direction, at least to officially imply that the US government still believes in rule by law.

Re: I Share Your Pain

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Alas for all of us, the US govenment is composed of single individuals, many of whom are total chickenshits.

(Now, there's a fitting Americanism for you!)

Another pathetic example: former White House advisor Karl Rove is still refusing to obey a Congressional subpoena to appear before Congress at hearings to determine the truth behind how we all got tricked into agreeing to go to war in Iraq. How can he do that? Because he has the attitude that he can do that. It all goes back to Ronald Reagan and his allowing the corporate interests to reach in and start to take over our government.

Re: I Share Your Pain

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I didn't really realize till now that they had remade him as an American.

LOL! Yes.

a fitting Americanism for you!

It's so ... rural.

former White House advisor Karl Rove is still refusing to obey a Congressional subpoena to appear before Congress at hearings to determine the truth behind how we all got tricked into agreeing to go to war in Iraq. How can he do that? Because he has the attitude that he can do that.

Above the law, hmm? How is that equality for all? Why isn't he in jail for contempt of court? (or, er, Contempt of Congress?)

Re: I Share Your Pain

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

It's so ... rural.

Funny thing is, it isn't: it's totally urban. It's a take on "chicken."

battery! sorry oops

Re: I Share Your Pain

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it's totally urban. It's a take on "chicken."

Well, yes. And chickens aren't urban! Even if urbanites talk about them!

Re: I Share Your Pain

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Now I'll finish it.

"Chicken" means "cowardly." "Batty" means nuts. Have you ever head "go bat-shit"? Well, this is the same. The expletive tacked onto the end of the conventionally-understood slang term ends up serving as a modifier: think "-issimo."

Chickens run from everything (well, some don't! if you ever meet one like that, run yourself, as being pecked hurts), and so being called a chicken is something even non-rural people grok. But the slang term "chicken" for "cowardly" is the same as calling someone "yellow." Or used to be. Nobody knows that one these days, I guess.

Re: I Share Your Pain

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You see a lot more bats in the city than chickens. Maybe they aren't often visible, but they're there!

I know how chickens behave, even though I'm a city girl. 'Chicken' for cowardly is common, though (I would argue) old-fashioned.

I still maintain that chicken metaphors are rural metaphors.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I see - in comparison with Britain, for example, which has its own nasty
anti-terrorism laws but has come down strongly in terms of defending its
citizens who are in Guantanamo.

It's possibly the most disturbing to be someone whose tax dollars are paying for torture in this way. Things are looking up in terms of court rulings about trials for all these people and so forth, but
1) they shouldn't have been treated with torture to start with
2) they (by our own Constitution) in theory couldn't have been held without charge
3) it's taken the courts YEARS to point out to the Bush administration that what they're doing is illegal, really.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes; it's bad enough that it's happening, but it's downright demoralizing that the Canadian government seems to be willing to let it happen without protest.

We have our own abuses, but they aren't so systematic.