There was some interesting story positioning in the Toronto Star on Monday. The top story on page two was that the federal government will block any attempt to procure bail for prisoner Omar Khadr. The top story on page three was a full width picture of the prime minister being greeted by military personnel at an airbase in Kuwait. Under the picture was the headline: Harper pledges ‘unconditional support’ and a story about his speech to the troops.
What Harper said to the troops was that “By fighting this enemy you are protecting Canadians at home.” Not only was this a grossly inaccurate statement but he was telling it to people who might understand why it is inaccurate but cannot publicly say. Obviously the prime minister and his pathetic defence minister have never had to cower in a hole in the ground while relentless and impersonal enemy aircraft have rained cannon shells, bombs and rockets on them.
What the prime minister is doing is earning all Canadians the enmity of generations of people from Iraq and Syria. He is earning us the distrust of the Muslim world. We are not humanized as the shaved faces of troops on the ground but demonized as the devil incarnate killing indiscriminately from a distance.
Go from that picture to the vengeance that Harper’s government wants to attach to Omar Khadr. This was a child soldier placed on the wrong side of a war by a person he should have been able to trust, his father. He grew to manhood in Guantanamo Bay military prison—reviled and abused and then tried before a courts martial that he could not easily understand nor defend against. While there might be concern about what Omar Khadr has become, there is no excuse for further retribution.
And why does the Harper government play this song? Does it play well to certain segments of their voting base? Is it like the incessant pandering to the Israelis to win votes from Canada’s Jewish population? Does it compare to tweaking the nose of the Russian bear to please Canada’s citizens of Ukrainian descent? Does being down on terrorists and the thugs of the Islamic State’s New Caliphate win votes for Conservatives?
But is not what they are doing helping create internal terrorism in Canada? Does it not incite the mentally ill among us? Does it not incite the terrors of a bin Laden to exact vengeance? Does it not create yet another target? Is it a self-fulfilling program?
Maybe without being conscious of it, the Toronto Star editors, by their story positioning, were trying to tell us something.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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