(Video) Two exiled Canadians, two different answers

Fascinating series of questions in yesterday's question period between Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a Conservative parliamentary secretary and a Conservative minister. Two questions on two different Canadian citizens abandoned by their country overseas, and two very different answers.



Usually I would give the Conservatives some credit for finally doing the right thing on Abousfian Abdelrazik, and I do, but to have to have done it under the hammer of a court order is beyond pathetic. And the fact they waited until the very last moment, preventing him from using the airline ticket purchased for him by concerned Canadians, is ridiculous. And, frankly, with the way they've dicked Abdelrazik around in the past, I won't believe it until we see him actually on Canadian soil.

I've lost track now of how many times the courts have had to tell the Harper Reformatories that they have a duty to stand-up for all Canadians, including those they don't like or that don't fit their defintion of "real Canadians."

But as long as the Conservatives are deciding to grudingly obey some court orders, how about this one guys?

A Federal Court has ordered Stephen Harper to seek the immediate return of Omar Khadr from the cells of Guantanamo, but the Prime Minister has refused to comply.

Federal Court Justice James O'Reilly ruled today that Canada had denied the Toronto-born captive his constitutional right to a fair trial and violated international law protecting children captured in armed conflict.

"Canada had a duty to protect Mr. Khadr from being subjected to any torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, from being unlawfully detained, and from being locked up for a duration exceeding the shortest appropriate period of time," he wrote.

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