Sympathy for Khadr?

By the time Omar Khadr is released from prison in eight years, he will have spent half of his life in prison for crimes committed when he was 16 years old at the urging of his father. Should we feel bad for him?

Reaction to Omar Khadr’s guilty plea this morning will continue to roll in over the coming weeks, especially when it becomes clear what exactly the terms of his deal prosecutors is. It’s believed however that despite international observers calling for him to be rehabilitated as a former child soldier, he will serve 8 years in prison, seven of them here in Canada.

Yesterday, before Khadr pleaded guilty to crimes he committed at 16, his lawyer Dennis Edney rued the lack of support his client’s received from his fellow Canadians. Edney told the press that “People show empathy (but after) the fact, nothing happens. I feel, not only the Canadian government, but the Canadian people have let down a citizen, a most vulnerable citizen."

But according to the Globe and Mail’s Norman Spector, it’s mainly been the media, not the Canadian people, expressing empathy. “In contrast to the feelings of most Canadians, the sympathy for Omar Khadr among journalists … has been palpable over the past several years. Even those who’ve not disputed that he might be guilty … have tended to place responsibility at the feet of his father, Ahmed Said Khadr.” But according to Spector, Canadians’ sympathy for Ahmed Khadr was so high in 1996 that it forced Jean Chretien to secure his release from Pakistan where he was being held on terrorism charges. He used that freedom to train his son as a terrorist, so Spector suggests we be guarded in our sympathy for Omar, if we have any at all.

Macleans.ca blogger John Geddes wonders exactly under what treaty Khadr will be brought back to Canada from the U.S. Admittedly not a legal scholar, Geddes says the only relevant document he can find doesn’t apply to military convictions and “the whole point of setting up the dubious tribunals system at Guantanamo was to make sure Khadr (was) tried in some sort of military judicial setting.” Along with the grab bag of assorted methods the U.S. government has tried terror suspects, this seems like more proof that prosecutors are making it up as they go along.