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It is difficult to deny that American politics have an immense impact worldwide. Canadians were forced to face this reality when one of our very own was captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay, an American detention camp located on the shore of Cuba. In 2002, at the age of 15, Canadian citizen Omar Khadr was sent to Guantanamo, and has remained there ever since. Considering Khadr's age, this is a unique case in Canadian legal and political history.
He is charged with taking part in various acts of terrorism, the most severe being the accusation that he threw the grenade that killed American Sgt. Christopher Speer. Earlier this year, documents that indicated there was no significant proof that Khadr was the one handling the grenade were accidentally released from the Pentagon. In June, the Canadian government proposed a possible repatriation of Khadr, although talks are still preliminary.
The Canadian government has been urged by several humanitarian groups, including Amnesty International and UNICEF, to bring the only Western citizen remaining in Guantanamo back home.
"After finding out that such foul treatment may not have been warranted, it's extremely disturbing to find out that such a young Canadian citizen has been forced to endure so much," says Salima Kassam, a member of her high school's division of Amnesty International, which actively focused on Omar Khadr's situation this past school year.
"What's even more frustrating is the fact that our government is only just beginning talks to solve this issue when this man has been waiting for help for numerous years."
Aly Kassam is a student at the University of Toronto.
