Once again, the Conservative government is showing double standard in fighting for the rights of Canadians tried by a foreign government. Omar Khadr - a Canadian citizen born in Canada - was alleged by the US as involving in terrorist acts against the Americans. Huseyin Celil - an refugee seeker whom the Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant against before he became a Canadian - was alleged by China as involving in terrorist acts against the Chinese.
Look at the different reactions of our politicians on the two cases. First of all, on Khadr:
From the Globe and Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he will not seek to bring alleged Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr home from Guatanamo Bay prison despite the unsealing of documents that reveal Canadian officials knew that he was deprived of sleep and forced to change cells every three hours to “make him more amenable and willing to talk.”
Mr. Harper's government has long insisted that it sought and received assurances from the U.S. that Mr. Khadr was being treated humanely, but the documents dating from 2003 and 2004 – when Mr. Khadr was 17 years old – indicate Canadian officials knew of his conditions and mistreatment.
On Thursday, Mr. Harper said Mr. Khadr is accused of serious crimes, and there's no real alternative to the special military hearings he faces – and he has no intention of asking for him to be sent to Canada.
Regardless of the fact that:
Given that the Canadian Federal Court has found the practice to be in violation of international law, the revelation that Mr. Khadr was subjected to the program directly contradicts repeated assurances from Ottawa that the Canadian was treated humanely.
Harper further said:
He argued that the special U.S. military trial that Mr. Khadr faces – in which he does not have the same standard of legal representation and rights he would in an ordinary criminal trial – is the ONLY WAY he could be brought to answer the charges against him (my emphasis).
BUT look at what he said about Celil in 2006:
"I think the government of Canada, when a Canadian citizen is ill-treated and when the rights of a Canadian citizen need to be defended, I think it's always the obligation of the government of Canada to vocally and publicly stand up for that Canadian citizen.
"That is what we will continue to do."
What about Celil?
Celil is an active member of the violent Eastern Turkstan Islamic Movement, a designated terrorist organization according to the UN. (The organization was allegedly linked to Al Queda and the Taliban and is outlawed by the US.) Celil was also wanted by the Interpol before he became a Canadian citizen.
The Globe and Mail has reported (thanks to the link by Mutant Palm):
According to the court documents, Celil joined the East Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), a listed terrorist group active in central Asia, in November 1997 and was appointed as a senior instructor in Kyrgyzstan.
While there, Celil allegedly recruited several people to the ETLO and sent them to terrorist training camps in the Pakistan-controled Kashmir, the documents said.
Celil was also active in another listed terrorist organization, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), for which he helped raise funds, recruit members and organize training, the documents said.
The documents said that in 1997, Celil met ETIM’s former head Hasan Mahsum, who was shot dead by the Pakistan army in 2003, and worked directly under Mahsum’s command.
Celil was a key member pushing for the alliance of the ETIM and ETLO in 1998, the documents said.
The government said “East Turkistan” terrorists had close links with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and were responsible for a series of murder, bombs, hijacking and arson in Xinjiang.
The documents said Huseyin Celil, with the intention of overthrowing the people’s republic and the socialist system, in 1997 provided 80,000 yuan (US$10,256) for the establishment of a new terrorist group, named “Hizbollah”, in the southern Guangdong Province.
The money was used for to purchase guns and provide terrorist training, the documents said.
Suddenly, alleged terrorist Omar Khadr is less a Canadian than another alleged terrorist Huseyin Celil.
Ironically, what China has been doing to Celil might be mimicking the US:
Wade Huntley, an UBC expert on East Asian affairs, said the dispute indicates that China and Canada haven't solved the problem of dual citizenship.
Huntley believed China is mimicking the US. "The Americans have locked up many people of many nationalities in Guantanamo Bay and they refuse them consular services."
Huntley said China is using the same principle as the US in dealing with this case, and barring Canada to involve.
Last week, a Chinese radio phone-in show in Vancouver talked about the Khadr issue. The ultra-right hosts stood unanimously - as always - with the Tories against the suggestion that Canada should seek returning of Khadr. "If this guy was a member of a terrorist group, had committed terrorist acts that directly or indirectly killed thousands in 9/11, then he should be kept in Guantanamo," one caller said.
This caller is absolutely right. If the government he supports believes that Khadr has committed terrorist acts against the Americans and had to be tried there, then why couldn't this government acknowledge that Celil had committed terrorist acts in China and had to be tried there? Don't give me b.s. about the-US-is-a law-abiding-country-and-China-isn't kind of crap. Both the US and Canadian supreme courts have decided that serious human rights abuses have been carrying out in Guantanamo. The Canadian government doesn't have evidence to prove otherwise.
The Toronto Star had an editorial in 2006 when it discussed the Celil case, which had accurately predicted the hypocritical behaviour of the Harper government:
Still, it would be interesting to know what Harper would have done had Uzbekistan extradited alleged terrorist Celil not to China but to the U.S. prison camp at Guantánamo Bay. Which of his principles would have held then?
I'm sure the Tories will be under the heat again when the DVDs of Khadr's CSIS interview is made public this week, can't wait to see the public reaction.
