kelownabomberfan

yup good job Jason Boltus. I was just shocked when I saw his picture holding a trophy as I couldn't believe he was still playing football, anywhere.

ok - awesome, you won, if that helps you sleep at night. Meanwhile, all Canadian taxpayers everywhere lost. Tabitha Speer lost a husband. All right, as I said, on to the game tonight. Go Blue! The definition of ‘Child Soldier’ has two parts: ‘Child’ and ‘Soldier’. No, he is not. At least, not according to the UN laws on the matter (or any other law I am aware of which defines who is, and who is not, a ‘soldier’). The UN laws were written in order to protect the innocent civilians who get in the way of a war first, then the protection of legitimate soldiers second. And, they are very clear on who is and who is not a ‘soldier’ (again – basic Wikipedia search provides clear answers – but much more material confirming this is easily available through any major search engine…): Omar Khadr, unfortunately, does not satisfy these qualifications. Not only was he not a part of a recognized military ‘chain of command’, and not wearing any ‘badges’ or ‘distinctive markings’ that could, even remotely, be construed as ‘uniform’ or ‘fixed distinctive marking’: the crime he is accused of having committed is against the laws and customs of war. ( I can expand on this, at length, if asked, in the comments sections.) Therefore, Omar Khadr DOES NOT satisfy the qualifications of having the status of a ‘soldier’. Therefore, he cannot be treated as a ‘soldier’: a ‘Child Soldier’, an ‘adult soldier’, or any other kind of ‘soldier’. This is a more difficult question – but there is a legal answer! Omar Khadr was aged 15 when he was detained by UN troops and when the premeditated murder of a UN non-combatant medic, which he is accused of having committed, occurred. Different people mature at different rates: at 15, some people really are still children while others are quite adult. Both individual maturing rates and cultural influences are important in determining if a 15-year-old is ‘an adult’ or ‘a child’. What does the law say? Omar Khadr straddled two cultures: In Canada, a 15-year old is, legally, a child. Still, 15-year-olds are able to become emancipated, and legally become adults. Under some circumstances, non-emancipated 15-year-olds are charged with crimes as adults – so the ‘legal precedent’ can be applied both ways: it is a bit of a legal ‘gray area’ in Canada. In Islamist culture, a 15-year-old is considered to be an adult, without any reservations. The Khadr family certainly considers 15 years of age to be ‘adult’ – that is the age at which their daughter was given away in marriage! It is obvious that in his own eyes, as well as according to the culture of his family, Omar Khadr is ‘an adult’. And, in our multicultural society, would it not be offensive to dismiss Omar Khadr’s minority cultural view of his status at that time? OK, ok – so, the ‘multiculturalism’ thing is kind of messed up – and we all know it. Let’s look elsewhere: What does the International Human Rights Law have to say on the subject? (The following is a cut-and-paste of what Wikipedia has to say on this: I usually like to paraphrase things, but I could not hope to make it more clear than they had…) Well, that seems rather clear: once a person has reached the age of 15, he/she cannot be considered to be a ‘Child Soldier’ – even though it’s better to recruit people who are over the age of 18…. 15-year-olds are ‘regular soldiers’! Omar Khadr HAD ‘attained the age of fifteen years’ – so he IS, according to international law, ‘regular soldier’! OK – so we are nowhere closer to the answer of what Omar Khadr actually is: but, I have (hopefully) demonstrated that whatever he is, he is NOT a ‘Child Soldier’! I know – the facts of the situation are unlikely to affect the direction of the public debate…. I have no illusions about it. People who point out the laws and the rules are nowhere near as interesting – and nowhere near listened to – as people who play on our emotions… But, we MUST TRY, mustn’t we?

if you think I'm the only one with a confirmation bias here, then I feel sorry for you. Now on to my real confirmation bias, focusing on the game tonight. Hopefully we can get off discussing terrorist scumbags being given giant gobs of taxpayer cash for a few hours and focus on football instead. Speaking of which, imagine what the CFL could do with $10.5 million of taxpayer cash? Wow. Other than just for infrastructure I mean (and I'm so happy to see the level of government support for the CFL in this area).

Explain how he was a child soldier. There we go. Back and forth we go. What a sweet boy.

anyone guess who this guy is? Taken a few days ago.

pot meet kettle. Seriously. Calling Khadr a "child soldier" isn't "facts", it's just people trying to justify a bad decision by a bad government. And that's why Trudeau will lose the next election. #PMScheerherewecome

amen

in this case, nope, I don't. This was a complete and utter joke.

Lol. This is the worst attempt at being the bigger person that I've ever seen.

LOL - that's not what I was doing. Anyway, as I said no one is budging on their views, and it seems that the only "facts" that people want to believe also correspond with their own personal political beliefs. I would encourage people to definitely open their minds, and that includes not just swallowing catch phrases like "child soldier" and "charter rights". This is a terrorist who was fighting against Canadian soldiers, not some guy who was a victim of accidental rendition.

yes this is rapidly falling apart. We have diametrically opposed views that aren't going to change, no matter what is stated or said. It's amazing to me that this discussion once again seems to be falling on political views, instead of on the actual situation. If you take a step back, it's obvious that this was a sickening outcome. A bad person was paid out secretly to deliberately screw over the widow. That to me is inexcusable. As there is no point continuing this discussion with those that seem committed to defending a murdering Taliban scumbag, I'm out.

What hasn't been proven? You are saying that Speer is still alive? Really?

How was Canada supposed to prevent the US from incarcerating a murderer found in Afghanistan? How were they to know he was even "Canadian"? As for the fighting this thing would have resulted in more money, I just will never agree that that is true, and in fact just justification for Trudeau fans to let Justin slide off the hook instead of holding him accountable for a really bad decision.

and sometimes governments should actually take terrorist scumbag murderers to court and let the courts decide what he should be paid for his "charter rights being violated". The Charter works when it is used to defend innocent people unjustly accused. To see it pulled out of people's rectums in this case to defend a murdering scumbag really just shows how laws have to evolve over time, as they may have unintended consequences.

was getting Khadr out of Gitmo asap really an option? He was a terrorist who killed an unarmed medic. Not sure how you just "get him out of Gitmo". He also was the lone survivor of a really bad bunch of Taliban scum. He had information. That information probably saved a lot of lives.

Once again we are in a pissing match, what a surprise. Look, I get it, if Khadr was American and had killed a Canadian, and Trump paid out the terrorist in a deliberate attempt to screw over the widow, we'd all be angry. And Americans should be angry by this. You can justify this anyway you want, and cry about "charters" and "child soldiers" (total BS) and about torture blah blah blah but this just stinks, and isn't just and isn't right.

No, you keep the snark to yourself, whatever the hell that means. This "child soldier" garbage is just BS to try and justify this disgusting payment to a disgusting person by a disgusting government. He wasn't a child soldier. I can buy that he was brain-washed by fundamentalist Islamic scumbags, as that seems to happen almost every day, including causing young men to self-detonate at Ariana Grande concerts, but this was not a child soldier, and this was not a "Canadian" - this was a kid who was born here to terrorist scum using Canada as a country of convenience to launch terror attacks who should never have been allowed into Canada in the first place. "Charter" and "Child Solider" are just affectations used by apologists who don't want to acknowledge reality.

I'd feel a bit more sorry for him if he didn't have so much blood on his hands, and if he hadn't fought against Canada in Afghanistan. What a sweet boy.

You really didn't leave me a choice on that one as you wouldn't answer the question.

Good question. Seems a trifle high.

WINNIPEG, MB – Since the story broke, Justin Trudeau has been lying about the disgusting $10.5 million taxpayer-funded payment to admitted terrorist Omar Khadr. First, Trudeau said there was a “process” that was “ongoing,” even though his government was finalizing the payment. Then, his government tried to blame Stephen Harper, even though rewarding Khadr was a decision entirely made by Trudeau. After that backfired, they’re trying another lie: Saying a past Supreme Court ruling forced them to pay Khadr. That’s false. Supreme Court never gave order to pay Omar Khadr $10.5 million Previous rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada have not included any orders to pay Omar Khadr $10.5 million. The horrible decision to give him that money is entirely the responsibility of the Trudeau government, and nobody else. So why is Trudeau lying once again? He’s seeing the anger of tens of millions of Canadians who are sickened and enraged by this disgusting travesty. He can’t talk his way out of this one with his “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” BS. So he’s desperately trying to spread blame and responsibility everywhere other than where it truly resides: With him. He approved the payment to Khadr. He rewarded a terrorist. And he must face the electoral consequences of betraying our country, our allies, and our values. Justin Trudeau has shown that when the going gets tough, he’ll roll over and cave in to an admitted terrorist rather than stand and fight. Not only has he shown weakness, he also betrayed Tabitha Speer and Layne Morris by giving Khadr the payment before they could fight it in court. Weakness, betrayal, and dishonesty. That’s what Trudeau has shown by giving Omar Khadr $10.5 million of our tax money. Canadians will not forgive, and we will not forget. Sign the Taxpayer.com petition against Trudeau’s $10.5 million Omar Khadr payment Spencer Fernando, MyToba News

It's actually not the better question. As you refuse to answer (why am I not surprised), I'll go with my gut here and say "yes", if the roles were reversed, you'd be extremely pissed off at Trump for doing what Trudeau did to that widow.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-death-lawsuits-nevada.html https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/07/05/us-soldiers-widow-filed-application-to-enforce-134m-claim-weeks-before-khadr-settlement.html

Yes it would be wise to try to deprogram him, otherwise he'll be back lobbing grenades at unarmed US medics or worse, plotting domestic attacks.