Samantha Ostrov, Staff Contributor
Dalhousie Students stopped by Ondaatje Hall on Nov. 19 to send the message to Prime Minister Stephen Harper: they won’t accept unjust treatment of Canadian citizens.
Six students arranged the justice rally on behalf of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen that has been detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp since 2002 on grounds of war crimes and terrorism. After Khadr plead guilty in October, the Canadian government informally agreed to a plea deal allowing him to return home in a year to finish his sentence.
“We’re here to really urge our government to follow through on this plea deal,” said Rhian Williams, one of the rally organizers. Introducing the principles behind the rally, Williams stressed that it was for Canadian citizens who recognized the violation of Khadr’s rights. “This is our government showing us our rights can be ignored.”
Khadr was arrested and detained at the age of 15 for his involvement in a firefight in Afghanistan that led to the death of a US solider. The UN has argued that under international law, Khadr is considered to have been a child soldier at the time of his detainment, and should therefore be released and rehabilitated.
The postcards provided at the rally included a pre-written letter to Prime Minister Harper urging the government to recognize its violations of Khadr’s rights. “Given his age at the time of his detention,” they read, “Omar should have been afforded the special protections to which children are entitled under US, Canadian and international law.”
These rights violations were the principle behind the event, and demonstrate a “dangerous precedent” by the government on how it treats child soldiers, said Shelley Whitman, Dal professor and deputy director of the Child Soldiers Initiative.
“If we have international legal instruments that are signed by us, ratified by us and even created by us, then we need to ensure that we apply those equally.”
The students who organized the rally are in a course taught by Whitman about children and war. They “came to me almost with tears in their eyes saying ‘we’re so frustrated,’” Whitman says. “They wanted an outlet for being able to express their disappointment and I felt that it was an important thing to encourage.”
“It’s not like we are an organized group that has a mandate,” says Emma Moore, also an organizer. “We’re not a collective, we’re just a couple students who felt really passionately about one topic.”
Moore says that regardless of peoples’ opinions of Khadr himself, the principles behind the rally should be important to them. “A lot of people might not care about child soldiers and issues around the world, but everyone in Canada should care about their rights.” Moore hopes that the rally will spread awareness and show the government that “a lot of people are displeased.”
The event “hit all the good points,” says Dal student Waleed Kadray. Particularly that “a precedent is set that all child soldiers are under the risk of being charged with war crimes.”
Kadray believes that the rally was effective, but could be more effective with more force behind it. He says that the postcards were a good way to “show that there’s pressure being put on the government, particularly by students, who make up an important demographic in Canadian society.” He also believes that Dal students can, and should, benefit from events like this. “There are injustices that happen every day that we don’t see, and I think they need to be addressed.”
Moore agrees that as a large group of eligible voters, students should be communicating with their government.
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