Event Date
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Description
A panel discussion
Omar Khadr is Canadian-born citizen of our country. He was 15 years old when captured by US coalition forces in Afghanistan in 2002. He was, by definition, a child soldier as defined under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the optional protocol of this Convention pertaining to the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. His status as a child soldier has never been acknowledged by any Canadian government of the day nor by the US Military Commissions. To add insult to injury, Canada is the only western nation that has not repatriated its citizen from Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Despite a 2008 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that Omar Khadr's rights have been violated under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and recent Federal Court and Federal Appeal Court decisions urging our government to seek Omar's repatriation, our present government is appealing the Federal Courts decision to the Supreme Court of Canada on November 13, 2009. Omar's case will be reviewed by the US government on November 17,2009. The fear is that he will be transferred to US soil, tried in a US federal court, and be convicted as a 'terrorist'.
What is becoming increasingly evident is that Omar's situation isreflective of recent situations that many Canadians have faced when they travel abroad. This raises concerns that any of us could face similar problems should we become involved in serious difficulties outside the borders of Canada.
Panelists
Dennis Edney, Canadian defence attorney based in Edmonton, Alberta is one of two Canadian attorneys representing Omar Khadr. He has practised law in Alberta for almost two decades and is well- known as a lawyer who speaks publicly on legal matters, including the rule of law as it relates to the war on terror.
Nathalie Des Rosiers is the current General Counsel for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) . Nathalie has held a number of positions within the legal community including Acting Vice President - Governance of the University of Ottawa; Dean of the Civil Law Section of the University of Ottawa's Faculty of Law (2004 -2008); President of the Law Commission of Canada ( 2000 - 2004) law clerk to Supreme Court of Canada Justice Julien Chouinard (1982 -1983). Nathalie is the recipient of many honors including the Medal of the Law Society of Upper Canada (1999) and has authored numerous articles.
Linda McKay-Panos is Executive Director of the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre affiliated with the University of Calgary. Early in her career, Linda taught Language Arts and Social Studies with the Calgary Board of Education before returning to university to pursue a Law Degree. Linda practiced law for a time before joining the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre in 1992. Currently, she is President of the Alberta Association for Multicultural Education and Past President of the Public Legal Education Network of Alberta. Linda has authored many publications and is the 2005 recipient of an Alberta Centennial Medal and the 2001 recipient of the Suzanne Mah Award
Sharon Pollock is Canada's best known woman playwright whose plays are produced nationally and internationally. Sharon lives in Calgary and has had a long and illustrious career in the theatre, not only as a playwright, but also as an actor and director. In her own words, throughout her career she has been "engaged in an internal and eternal questioning of what is, what isn't and why in the increasingly complex world around me and within me." Sharon has had a varied career including positions as the Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary, Theatre New Brunswick, and the Garry Theatre in Calgary ; Head of the Playwrights' Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts; instructor in playwriting at the University of Alberta. Sharon has received numerous awards for her plays including the Governor General's Award for Blood Relations and Doc; the Canada Australian Literary Award (1987);a Japan Foundation Award (1995); the Nellie Drama Award (1981) and a Golden Sheaf Award for her television writing.
This event has been organized by a group of concerned Calgarians. It is co-sponsored by the Dr. Irma Parhad Programmes and the Consortium for Peace Studies at the University of Calgary.
We gratefully acknowledge the Calgary chapters of Amnesty International, Project Ploughshares and Council of Canadians for partnering with us.