Justice for Omar Khadr.

With today's monumental decision from the US Supreme court, there are a lot of Canadians celebrating. Odd that, you say?

Omar Khadr, a Canadian, has been held in Guantanamo, since he was 15.

Khadr is the only Guantanamo detainee who has faced a judge and who is not boycotting the military tribunals, and has spent six years in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps charged with war crimes and providing support to terrorism after allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a US soldier.In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present during the firefight, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed.

This has been a hot topic in Canada. Many of you probably know that for the last couple of years we have had to suffer with a Right Wing Conservative government that fellatiates the Bush admin at every opportunity.

Some of us here in the Canadian Blogosphere refer to Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative caucus as the Northern franchise of the Republican party.

So, Harper's government has refused to step in here, and previous governments have been complicit in their lack of response, and unwillingness to put themselves anywhere near any kind of line, even a diplomatic one, for Omar Khadr.

But the Harper conservatives reached a new level of absurdity.

As recently as Friday, the Conservative government said it had "sought and received assurances that Mr. Khadr is being treated humanely."

That is a new definition of Humane they have there.....

from heavily redacted documents:

In one untouched passage, Mr. Khadr recalls how, at age 16, he was used as a mop after he'd been cuffed in various contorted positions for at least an hour, and urinated on himself and the floor.

"Military police poured pine oil on the floor and on me. And then, with me lying on my stomach with my hands and feet cuffed together behind me, the military police dragged me back and forth through the mixture of urine and pine oil on the floor."

He says he was refused a shower before being returned to his cell, and denied a change of clothing for two days. The same thing happened again "a few weeks later."

And evidence has come out like this:

It emerged last week that one of Mr. Khadr's main interrogators at the Bagram centre had been involved in the interrogation of another detainee who died there less than five months after the Canadian's arrival.

The interrogator -- identified as Sgt. Joshua Claus of military intelligence -- was later charged along with 14 other U.S. soldiers at Bagram with prisoner abuse, and after pleading guilty to maltreatment and assault, he was sentenced to five months in jail in 2006. Also last week, at a commission hearing in Guantanamo, Lt.-Cmdr. Kuebler made reference to a paragraph in Mr. Khadr's affidavit that appears to suggest interrogators were doing something that aggravated his eye injuries. "Sometimes they would (blacked out) particularly since both my eyes were badly injured."

He is being denied medical treatment:

One of the Foreign Affairs documents details Khadr's many health problems, which result from the battle that led to his capture in Afghanistan.

He has no vision in his left eye and his right eye is deteriorating because of shrapnel embedded in the eye's membrane. Khadr is described as "hyper-sensitive" to light and has requested sunglasses, which have not been provided.

He also has shrapnel in his right shoulder, which is painful when the temperature drops, and suffers from nightmares.

The same document describes how Khadr expressed his appreciation of visits from Canadian officials, whom he says he trusts. And while he said Canada is the best country in the world to live in, he told the Foreign Affairs official that he wondered why Canada was being so quiet about his case.

Just a note: Many of us in Canada haven't been quiet. And I wish we could let him know that. There are many many people who are keeping this alive. But that isolation is part of "breaking" him, isn't it? Romeo Dallaire has spoken most passionately for Mr Khadr.

Over stiff opposition from Conservative MPs, the international human rights subcommittee endorsed a report containing seven recommendations that would unshackle Khadr from U.S. custody, and turn him over to Canadian law enforcement.

It declares a firm belief that Khadr, aged 15 at the time he was wounded and captured in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002, is a child soldier and should not be treated as an adult accused.
The report adds to a growing chorus of calls for the Conservatives to finally weigh in on the American military prosecution of Khadr.

Then there is all the fun'n'games with the US military losing papers, getting rid of Judges who side with the law instead of the kangaroo court, and documents that were destroyed by order of the pentagon.

At the end of the day, we hope that our government will do the right thing, and fight for Mr Khadr's release. But they normally do the wrong thing. So.
But now hope is back alive, that the evidence may finally see the light of day, and that this man, who was only a boy when he was last free, may return home.

Thank you, to those 5 Judges on the Supreme Court of the United States. Thank you more than we can say. I know many American Friends are a lot more proud today.

Final note, from US guards at Gitmo:

Omar Khadr's U.S. guards at Guantanamo Bay describe the Canadian terror suspect as "salvageable," "non-radicalized" and a "good kid," according to internal reports written by Canadian government officials who have visited him at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.