In a revealing new book, The Enemy Within, the Sun’s Ezra Levant brings Omar Khadr’s story back into the public eye. Having completed his U.S. sentence in October 2011, Omar Khadr could return to Canada at any time. He may well be released, thanks to a lenient system that will likely credit him for the time he has served awaiting trial in Guantanamo Bay. With Parliament back in session, Levant brings his razor-sharp perspective to bear on a story that is vital to our notions of citizenship and justice, and to our national security.
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So, what can we expect to happen with Omar Khadr when he inevitably returns to Canada?
Unfortunately, it’s not hard to guess. When Maher Arar came back to Canada after he was released from a prison in Syria, he was hailed as a hero and celebrity. Every anti-war, anti-Western activist with an axe to grind–which includes a large swath of Canada’s mainstream media–turned his homecoming into a triumph. If only they treated our wounded soldiers returning from Afghanistan so warmly.
If Maher Arar became a minor celebrity after his wrangle with the Syrian security system, with a secondary role played by Washington and Ottawa, it’s a virtual lock that Omar Khadr–the leading man in a supposed morality play pitting the Bush administration, perennial bugbear of the left, and its Guantanamo “gulag” against a purportedly naive and pitiable “child soldier” from Canada–is set to become nothing less than a superstar.
Unlike Arar, who enjoyed only a fraction of the sympathy and media coverage, Khadr will be coming home to the built-in fan club that he’s amassed since his capture. Arlette Zinck, the professor at Edmonton’s King’s University College who struck up a tender pen pal relationship with Khadr — “Whenever you are lonesome, remember you have many friends who keep you in their prayers. Each morning at 9 o’clock, I include you in mine,” she wrote to him in Guantanamo, referring to Khadr as “my dear student”–has led the charge in turning her campus into a factory for Khadr groupies.






I Am the 0.00000000143%
2012 Leave a Comment
I am an individual. I am unique. I am the smallest minority. I am one out of seven billion or so. That’s approximately 0.00000000143%. I am approximately the 0.00000000143%, and I am still significant. I matter. I have as much right to exist in this world as anyone else. I have as much right to express my opinion. I have as much right to pursue my interests as anyone else. I have as much right to acquire private property, goods and services in a fair and equitable manner as anyone else. I respect everyone else’s natural rights, and everyone else should respect mine. If I need help, I would appeal to your sense of humanity and generosity to try to convince you to offer your help on a voluntary basis, I would not ask a violent organization to steal from you or coerce you through threats of imprisonment, or worse, into turning your hard earned property over to meet my needs. READ MORE »