Thoughts on Omar Khadr

I understand both the objection to not lobbying for the return of Omar Khadr and the reluctance to try to get him back.

His family's open hostility towards non-Muslims and Canadians generally makes me think of why crimes like treason have a place in modern times. I think it is not crazy at all to recognize that if we had a country of people with those views we would have no country at all, and moreover it would be like losing our minds to blindly say free speech applies in an absolutist way and all hostility and hatred for principles such as equal treatment of people regardless of group affiliation shouldn't matter.

To cut to the chase though I think what is a more modern concern is that a gut reason Canadians would be opposed to Khadr returning is that he is the paragon of the citizen of convenience. He symbolizes odious views and embodies values inimical to Canadian virtue - why should we go to bat for him? Well one counterpoint is that while this incarnation is modern, the Japanese internment is an example of how the "other" within the whole, or the whole in the sense of the euphemistic multicultural mosaic, is exposed and revealed to be the fantasy which to an extent it is. But still this is different in degree and substance from mass internment. I don't lose sleep over this kid being in Gitmo. Feel free to try to convince me otherwise.