Canadian Immigration Blawg

Updated: Justice for Khadr

My own views on Omar Khadr have been evolving over time.

I think that they've now crystallized: Omar Khadr should be returned to face justice in Canada - or face justice before a proper court in the US (their federal courts system).

Having watched an episode of CTVs "Verdict" with Paula Todd (November 2007) - Dennis Edney (my old mentor from Edmonton) made an especially eloquent statement - that the military tribunal commission set up in Guantanamo is not good enough for adjudicating an American, or British (or Australian) individuals charged with being 'unlawful enemy combatants' - and so, why should it be sufficient for a Canadian?

The Canadian Bar Association has joined the voices of Amnesty International et al. in calling for the repatriation of Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay. PDF of the CBA's letter to Prime Minister Harper here.

While my personal opinion is that Omar Khadr has no one to blame for his particular situation but himself (and probably his terrorist inclined family), I have to admit (with some difficulty) that the matter involves fundamental justice, notwithstanding the (strange) indifference I may feel to the individual involved.

it is a deep concern  that Khadr has been held without trial for 5 years (my guess is that a young offender convicted of murder in Canada would probably be out within 5 years). There does not appear to be an explanation of the delay - there should be little problems in the way of arranging a trial - given the apparent evidence against him.

If the Bush-Military tribunal system is not up to the task, then the US should (following the suggestion of Colin Powell) try Khadr within it's federal courts system - or send him here.

The CBA (and Amnesty) have also pointed out that Omar Khadr was a minor at the time of the commission of the offence(s).

I'll say this - the Khadr family has not helped themselves in this regard.They have probably abdicated any rights they may have had to call upon the sympathies of Canadians (given the provocative actions and statements by  family members). Maha Khadr has appealed to the Canadian public in her interview with CTV's The Verdict (CTV article here.) to little avail.

The Globe and Mail reports that CBS News has now broadcast "shocking new footage" of Omar Khadr when he was 15:

CBS News has broadcast shocking new footage of a Canadian terrorism suspect allegedly building bomb timers and planting land mines while he was a 15-year-old militant hoping to take on American soldiers in Afghanistan.

The footage, some of it shot on a night-vision camera by alleged al-Qaeda fighters before it was seized by U.S. forces after a deadly raid, leaves a more sinister impression of Omar Khadr than the widely circulated photo of him as a boy benignly smiling at the camera.

Nonetheless, we are now faced with a situation where someone - a Canadian citizen - has been denied due process. If the US cannot provide Khadr with proper due process (under the military tribunal system or its federal courts system), Canada is obligated to offer repatriation and try Khadr here.

Kudos to Dennis for his continued efforts.

** Here's an email exchange between the National Post Editorial Board and some interesting comments by readers (14 March 2008):

Jonathan Kay
The more I learn about Omar Khadr, the more I am uncomfortable with the way he is being treated by the United States. As despicable as his cause was, he was essentially a brainwashed adolescent with a psycho jihadi father — a child soldier worthy of as much pity as contempt.
...

Daniel Goldbloom
There are several problem’s with Khadr’s case:
...

3) All other Western governments have successfully repatriated their Guantanamo-held nationals. Why is a Canadian the last Western citizen in Guantanamo? Brenda Martin has been in a Mexican jail for two years, and her incarceration has prompted an intervention by a former Canadian prime minister. Omar Khadr has been in an American prison for three times as long. It’s long past time for Canada to demand Khadr’s repatriation, or at the very least, apply serious diplomatic pressure to ensure that his trial is as fair and open as possible.
...

Lorne Gunter
Khadr deserves a fair trial, not a free-pass release. And I think the Guantanamo prisoners are getting that now. It is, after all, a U.S. Navy lawyer who is raising the concerns about Khadr’s initial guilt and his treatment since his arrest, not some Amnesty or Red Cross-paid human rights lawyer out to make a name for himself.
...

An article by Clive Baldwin titled: A Child on Trial at Guantanamo is clearly sympathetic to Khadr and makes special note of his status as a minor:

But during the course of the morning, the defense also raised another vital issue: the fact that Khadr was 15 at the time of his alleged offense, and therefore, to all intents and purposes, was a child soldier. The discussion reverts to international law, and in particular the Optional Protocol to the Child Rights Convention, an international human rights treaty to which the United States is a party, which prohibits the use of child soldiers. The treaty also requires states to rehabilitate child soldiers who come into their custody. The defense says this means that the United States should treat Khadr (who, according to the evidence published by the government, was forced by his family into Al Qaeda at the age of 10), as a victim, not seek to punish him. They also say that in setting up the military commission, Congress could not have intended it to be used against persons who were children at the time of their offense.

...

But there is another country I would expect to be at the heart of the discussion about Khadr, given the importance of his case for the way that child soldiers will be treated. That country is probably the leading country in the world in taking up the issue of the protection of child soldiers, and was the first to ratify the Optional Protocol. That country is Canada, which also happens to be the country of Khadr's citizenship. But whilst every other Western country has now requested the return of their citizens from Guantanamo, Canada has not. While Canada remains silent, Omar Khadr, a Canadian, faces trial in Guantanamo Bay as a child soldier.

More new information has come to light. An article in the National Post indicates that the 'Court' has heard evidence that Khadr was about to be executed on the battlefield - and that another insurgent was still alive (casting doubt on the official version of Khadr's guilt) before he was killed (contrary to the perhaps oxymoronic Laws of War) by a US Private:

To the defence team, the officer describes in his diary how he saw R not only kill, but possibly execute, the second al-Qaeda suspect. The officer also admits to being on the verge of ordering "R," who is identified as being an army private, to effectively execute Khadr.

Since such acts would contravene the laws of war, the defence suggests the officer and the private had reason to later tell -- or surrender to a request to tell -- a different story about what happened during the firefight.

The altered battle report coincidentally reflects two versions of what may have happened. It was written by the then on-scene commander, who has been identified before the war crimes commission that will eventually try Khadr only as Lt.-Col. W.

...

"The officer's candid admissions in his diary about the circumstances under which the first combatant was killed and under which Mr. Khadr was captured -- rather than executed -- suggest that participants in the firefight may have possessed motive to fabricate parts of their account," the defence team writes.

...

Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler has suggested W's altered battle report may be part of a government bid to "manufacture" a story pointing to Khadr's guilt, and wants to ask him why he made changes to it in a way that makes the second version appear it was written as an original.

...

...

...

The early version of the battle report shows W wrote that a U.S operative had killed the person who threw the hand grenade. That suggests Khadr was not the attacker.

But in the altered version, W wrote the U.S. operative merely "engaged" the thrower, suggesting Khadr may have been culpable.

Updated: Segregation/Balkanization vs. The Canadian Mosaic

Just read a great article in the Toronto Star discussing Trevor Phillips, the 'controversial' leader of Britain's Commission on Equality and Human Rights - who believes 'too much tolerance of diversity' could lead to the [diasaster] of segregation:

Phillips thinks it's [multiculturalism] become a counterproductive ideology, at least in the UK. If the aim was to soften differences and promote shared views and values, that's not how multiculturalism has played out. "What started as a straightforward recognition of diversity," he says, "has become a system which prizes racial and ethnic difference above all other values, and there lies the problem."

I must say that I'm quite intrigued with Phillips' view of integration vs. multiculturalism.

Another interesting article by Scott Young.

He argues that the official policy of multiculturalism - that immigrants/minorities can retain their cultural heritage is coming at the expense of integration, resulting in the 'balkanization' of Canada:

Unfortunately, attempting to reveal the perils of segregation is usually buried in simplistic accusations of racism (Remember Bruce Allen?) Canadians revel in the romanticism of Trudeau's multiculturalism, but fail to realize its role in creating ethnic ghettoes.

Jack Granatstein stated: "The [Canadian] state should spend its limited funds on helping newcomers adapt to Canadian society by teaching them the basic knowledge, the symbols, and the ideas that literate, culturally aware Canadians understand . . . . To do anything else condemns immigrants to isolation, to low-paying jobs, to the expanding ghetto of the ill-paid and uneducated."

Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, recently lamented that social capital is weakest where diversity is strongest. He noted that while "the task of becoming comfortable with diversity will not be easy or quick . . . it will be speeded by our collective efforts and in the end well worth the effort."

Putnam cited real benefits of diversity, including higher creative capacities and more rapid economic growth. Diversity is a good thing, but immigrants and Canadians naively fear that integration equals the loss of their individual heritages.

That fear has paralysed Canadian social growth.

Until we acknowledge that our self-imposed mosaic is not a perfect system, we'll never construct a mature, cohesive national identity.

Without a national identity, it remains extraordinarily presumptuous for us to claim to be the world's first modern multicultural society.

Another article, on MSNBC, indicates similar concerns regarding the lack of singular identity and resultant vulnerability to Islamic fundamentalism in the multicultural United Kingdom:

...multicultural Britain is an easy target for attacks by militant Islamists because its aims, values and political identity are divided.

...

The [July 2005] attacks sparked a debate on whether Britain’s policy of avoiding imposing a single British identity and instead promoting a multicultural society had led to segregation of ethnic minorities.

...

“Islamist terrorism is where people tend to begin. The United Kingdom presents itself as a target, as a fragmenting, post-Christian society, increasingly divided about interpretations of its history, about its national aims, its values and in its political identity,” the RUSI report said.

“That fragmentation is worsened by the firm self-image of those elements within it who refuse to integrate.”

Are the concerns voiced 'across the pond' a foreshadow of strife in Canada?

Is Canada vulnerable to Islamic (or other) implacable fundamentalist ideology because of our weak (or nonexistent) national identity. Are we a greater or more susceptible target to such radical groups because of our official policy of multiculturalism? What role has or will Canada's immigration policy play in this developing issue?

These difficult questions need to be address given our similarities to the United Kingdom; our reliance on immigration; and the fact that we are importing hatred and conflict along with our new citizens and permanent residents.   

Sigh...Canada tackles immigration reform

Canada's Conservative government will introduce a measure to address the massive immigration backlog (currently at 850,000+ and resulting in an average processing time of 4 years):

National Post article.

The article also excerpts a Fraser Institute 2005 report indicating that immigrants are essentially a drain on the economy:

A report by the Fraser Institute in 2005 suggested that only 23% of immigrants are net fiscal contributors to Canada at a cost to the taxpayer every year of more than $18-billion (although 60% of immigrants are from the "economic class," fewer than half that number pass the points test -- the remainder are spouses and children).

Also - see this Canadian Press Report.

Attempts to reform Canada's immigration system is usually something that I applaud - and the Conservatives do have a point - the immigrant backlog is something they largely inherited from the Liberals who utterly failed to address the widening cracks already visible in the system. However, rather than cause hardship to Canadian families, why not apply triage principles to current files? There are a number of applicants that are either clearly qualified (or clearly not qualified) to immigrate to Canada - a determination should be made on these applications quickly, and at an earlier stage. Also ... the immigration fees paid by immigrants are actually bringing in more revenue than it costs to administer the program - if that's the case, it makes sense to use the funds to provide for more resources (more visa officers) to serve the immigrants. Given the state of technology and CIC's case management system, it should be entirely possible for CIC to coordinate resources to assist the beleagured visa posts of India, China and the Philippines (given the reality of scanning, email and the internet, there should be no problem for a visa officer sitting in a High Commision in a country in Europe to render a decision on a poor immigrant's file that has been gathering dust in New Delhi for 60+ months).

Bill Gates on US immigration reform

Interesting article discussing Bill Gates' recent appearance before the Congressional House Science Committee:

The toughest sell was the position of Gates, and others in high tech industries, that Congress raise the current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas, nonimmigrant visas that allow employers to hire foreign nationals with specific skills. The program also allows another 20,000 visas for foreign nationals receiving masters or doctoral degrees from U.S. universities.

Current limits, he said have led to a “serious disruption” in the flow of talented science, technology, engineering and math graduates to U.S. companies. Gates said Microsoft and other firms have been forced to locate staff in countries more open to skilled foreign workers . Last year, Microsoft was unable to obtain H-1B visas for one-third of the qualified foreign-born job candidates it wanted to hire.

Indeed, Canada was one of the countries "more open to skilled foreign workers" as indicated in this Global News Article:

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it will open a software development center in Vancouver, giving it a place to employ skilled workers snagged by U.S. immigration quotas.

It may signal the start of a new hiring trend, with other U.S. high-tech firms following in Microsoft's footsteps to Canada, where lawyers say it is easier for foreign nationals to obtain work credentials.

U.S. businesses want Congress to lift quotas on the number of visas the government issues to skilled professionals such as the software engineers that Microsoft employs. But as recently as last week lawmakers rejected legislation that would have addressed their concerns. Canada doesn't impose quotas on the number of visas it issues each year.

Microsoft said it plans to open the Vancouver facility by the end of the year. It will initially have about 200 workers, and employ about 900 within a couple years.

'Canada's luster lost' (for Europeans anyway)

Interesting article from the Warsaw Business Journal that discusses the drop in European immigration to Canada, and the loss of Canada's 'luster':

...

During the past five years, European immigration to Canada has dwindled, even as overall immigration to Canada has been on the rise. According to a Statistics Canada survey, Canada is now home to its largest population of new Canadians in 75 years, with 1.1 million newcomers arriving between 2001 and 2006.

Of these, Europeans accounted for just 16.1 percent of newcomers, far fewer than those from Asian and Middle Eastern countries and down from 60 percent 30 years ago. The decline in the number of Poles relocating to Canada reflects the steady decline in European immigration to the country.

...

Canada's luster lost

...

...

A second factor affecting the trend is the increasing pull from within Europe. Following the European Union's enlargement in 2004, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Ireland have all opened their borders to Polish workers.

A third factor is migrants' desires to remain close to their families. Since Canada is such a great distance from Poland, many find it too far to travel. By contrast, travel within Europe has become cheap and convenient. Poles no longer need to go halfway around the globe when they can fly to the UK and find a job that fits their skills.

Canadian Live in Caregivers - Also known as Nannies...

Great article in the National Post on the trials and tribulations for Filipina nannies who leave their own families 10,000 km behind to care for someone else children.

Excerpt:

It's a bleak January morning in a Don Mills cafe when Elena Bautista explains why she left her husband and young daughters in the Philippines five years ago to look after someone else's children in Canada.

"I came here for the future of my kids," says Bautista. "It's for a greener pasture."

Bautista is one of tens of thousands of Filipina nannies who have come to Canada in search of a decent salary and a better life. Like many of the nannies, she hopes her family will one day be able to follow her to Canada. But there's a deep personal cost to her plans.

...Eight million Filipinos work overseas today, lured from home by developed world wages. Ten per cent of the country's population is abroad. They send back an estimated US$16-billion each year -- remittances are one of the most fruitful sectors of the Filipino economy and account for about 10% of the national gross domestic product.

More than 6,000 Filipinas arrive in Canada under the federal government's live-in caregiver program. They make up more than one in five female immigrants to Canada and more than nine out of 10 of the live-in caregiver program's participants.

...

Pratt's research suggests there is a very high school drop-out rate among Filipino kids who come to Canada. There is a "profound sense of family dislocation" because of the length of time mothers are separated from their children -- as long as eight years in some cases. When the children arrive, the mothers frequently work long hours or have multiple jobs, making it more difficult to re-establish family connections. Their children also feel obligated to leave school and get out into the workforce as early as possible to help make ends meet.

Unfortunately, Arcelie Laoagan's quest for a greener pasture ended with her murder in this city; hopefully her dream to bring her family to Canada will not die with her.