Question: Is anything sacred with Stephen Harper?

This Khadr boy’s entire future is at stake and these Con politicos are worried about whether seeking his return from Gitmo will be perceived as a policy flip-flop or not.......funny, that didn’t get in the way of Harper’s raiding of seniors nest eggs to the tune of $35 billion. With zero justification.

Question: Is anything sacred with Stephen Harper?

Just what exactly is sacred with the Harper cons, apart from Big Lifecos, the CCCE and Bush league George.

We certainly know that Harper has no love for justice.......except when it comes to his own frivolous lawsuits

Gloves come off in Khadr fight

Dallaire lashes out at Harper for not intervening in detainee's case, says Canada's reputation at stake
Jul 17, 2008 04:30 AM

Michelle shephard
national security reporter
Toronto Star

A battle over the fate of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr is brewing between two Ottawa heavyweights.

In one corner is Liberal Senator Roméo Dallaire, who says the Toronto captive's case has become personal, and he argues that Canada's reputation is at stake.

His opponent is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has vowed that his government's hands-off stance will continue until Khadr is tried for war crimes in Guantanamo. Harper has reportedly faced dissent within the party – Conservative MPs who don't feel sympathy for the Khadr case but who support intervention if it will make the issue go away.

Dallaire calls the Guantanamo trial an abuse of law. Harper regards it as the best legal option.

"I do not believe this is the Harper government. I certainly don't believe it's the Canadian government. I believe it is purely the Prime Minister – his individual perspective," Dallaire said yesterday in an interview with the Toronto Star. "He's the leader of the party and it is his imprint, not anybody else's."

Harper declined an interview request, but his director of communications accused Dallaire of grandstanding and questioned why the senator had remained quiet on the Khadr case during the years his party was in power.

"It is revisionism and hypocrisy on the part of the Liberal senator and others in the Liberal party that are saying that a different path should be taken now," Kory Teneycke told the Star.

"Now at the 11th hour, they're having second thoughts and I think there are those who would say it's a flip-flop."

Khadr's trial is set to begin in three months and his lawyers are desperately trying to avoid going before a military commission where Khadr faces five war crimes, including murder for the death of U.S. soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer.

Dallaire believes Canada's reputation will be sullied if government support for the war crimes prosecution of a minor continues. That position could affect the influence Canada has internationally in fighting future civil rights cases, he alleges.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured in 2002 by U.S. forces after a firefight in Afghanistan. The Pentagon alleges he threw a grenade that mortally wounded Speer.

If the trial goes forward, the case will be the first modern-day war crimes prosecution of someone younger than 18 at the time of his alleged crimes. Prosecutors have said that Khadr's age could be taken into account during sentencing, but not for his prosecution.

Dallaire worries that once the trial is underway, there will be little chance for Harper to intervene.

"I think that once you're in actual trial, even though it's an illegal trial, it becomes very messy for politicians to start fiddling within the judicial process ...," he said.

But Teneycke said this week's release of a videotape depicting Khadr's interrogation in 2003 by Canadian officials at Guantanamo, where the then 16-year-old is seen weeping and asking for help, does not change the government's position. Nor will any future revelations made by Khadr's lawyers, he added.

"Trying people through the court of public opinion is no way for politicians to act. (Harper) feels, as any responsible leader feels, that politicians are not judges and that due process should be followed and there shouldn't be a separate process for high-profile cases."