Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
The following is excerpted from the Hill Times interview with Janice Williamson, author of Omar Khadr, Oh Canada.
There needs to be a “more open” and “just conversation” about human rights, especially in the context of Omar Khadr’s case, says University of Alberta literary professor Janice Williamson.
“I see the Omar Khadr case and others like his case since 9/11 as a mark of the ways in which civil society can break down,” Prof. Williamson told The Hill Times recently when she was in Ottawa to discuss Omar Khadr, Oh Canada, a book she edited. “I teach Joy Kogawa’s Obasan. In the Second World War, we have the internment of the Japanese. I’m in a trans-racial family. My daughter is Chinese. I know that in another moment in history her life would’ve been very different here in Canada due to the Exclusion Act, the head tax. I see some of what’s going on around Omar Khadr in terms of an issue of the framing of Muslims after 9/11.”
Omar Khadr, who was captured by the U.S. military forces and held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002, under a plea agreement in 2009 pled guilty to accusations that he killed a U.S. sergeant and four other charges of murder, conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and spying. He was 15 years old when he was arrested, and the international community, including some prominent Canadians such as Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, have said that he should have been treated as a child soldier rather than an enemy combatant.
(…)
In your introduction, you wrote, “If the gravity of violence and suffering makes us avert our eyes, this anthology reminds us of our responsibility to not look away. Collective stories of human rights abuses demand our attention.” First, why do you think the Canadian government never considered Omar Khadr’s case as a human rights abuse, and second, why do you think human rights issues don’t grab the attention it needs?
“That’s a very haunting question. If I knew the answer to that, I would’ve written a very short poem. But I think that the case of human rights and the Canadian public, one of the issues is the kind of fatigue that people have. It is almost a kind of fog of war, fog of 9/11 that people when they hear the word Guantanamo, they become quite anxious and frightened and their ability to discern things, I think is reduced.
“The other problem is that Canada is the only country that didn’t repatriate its citizens and because he’s been there for such a long time, I think there’s kind of an accumulation of guilt that’s misplaced that’s sort of projected onto him. …
“Actually I think that the government at this particular moment, should be lauded because they are saying that Omar Khadr is going to be transferred back to Canada. The first time he was eligible to be transferred back to Canada, in fact, after his plea bargain was just a matter of a week or so ago because the U.S. government had to state they wanted to transfer him.
“They weren’t allowed to challenge it, but there was this 30-day waiting period and now it’s in the hands of the Canadian government and [Public Safety Minister] Vic Toews has to agree to the transfer. But both Vic Toews and [Citizenship and Immigration Minister] Jason Kenney just recently said that they will abide by the law and the law says he should be transferred back to Canada.”
Further reading: A wake-up call on Omar Khadr in the Edmonton Journal
To learn more about Omar Khard, Oh Canada or to order online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP Publicist Jacqui Davis.
Repatriate and rehabilitate Omar Khadr. Please sign my petition on Change.org and encourage others to also sign.
http://www.change.org/petitions/government-of-canada-repatriate-toronto-born-omar-khadr-to-canada-and-rehabilitate-him-2?share_id=OaGgLiInix
Thank you,
Afroze Ali