Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It is rather interesting to see that in the realm of human rights and the application of international law that is supportive, of course, of human rights, internationally this country is starting to get a whole different visage than what we have seen in the past. I sit on the human rights committee in the Senate.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  May I have a supplementary?

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I was assistant deputy minister for human resources in 1998 when discussions took place about whether Canada should or should not ratify that protocol. The Canadian Armed Forces recruit future officers who are 16 and 17 years old when they enter military college. But they are in no way involved in operations or operational training before the age of 18.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Let me put it in the context. After 9/11, the world power panicked. It was the first time it had actually been attacked in its homeland, and it was found vulnerable--although that's not exactly true, because we attacked it twice and won--in 1775 and 1812. Of course, they came to Canada and burned down Toronto, but I'm from Montreal, so that didn't bother me too much.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In fact, they are operating on a law of their own. It is not even U.S. law, because even the Supreme Court of the United States has attacked the commission and what it does. That commission--the MCA--is also allowed to hold people for an indefinite period of detention, to use evidence obtained by torture, and to hold trial more than once for the same crime.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting me to testify before the subcommittee today on the Omar Khadr case. I have an interest in his case for one very simple reason: Omar Khadr is a child soldier. When he was captured by the Americans and sent first to Bagram and then to Guantanamo, he should, as a child soldier, have been treated according to the international rules set out in the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflicts.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  You know the collegial approach here.