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. This distinction is allowed by the protocol where it is defined, established and described.
The Americans and the British have a similar way of allowing the recruitment of officers from secondary schools or from the system.
In general terms, no one is allowed to use young people under the age of 18 in any way whatsoever. When the Canadian government captures prisoners of war or takes prisoners during operations, it is dealing with individuals who are identified as a threat, not just in the classical sense, but also in the complex situation that we see today. Canada is required to follow the international rules that stipulate that children must be separated from adults and that girls must be separated from boys. The trauma suffered by girls is more destructive than that suffered by boys because they have, almost without exception, been raped and kept as slaves. So a completely different rehabilitation process has to take place.
So we are following the letter of the law. This allows us to go to countries like Sierra Leone today, to send our people to help the people there to introduce a new democracy into their armed forces, and to be responsible. We have that credibility. I am convinced that each day that Omar Khadr spends in prison...Internationally, his case has become a major one, and we must be able to prove that we can take responsibility. Parents of children in Afghanistan who have been recruited in some fashion or other know that, if the children end up in Canadian hands, they will be treated as minors. If we lose that credibility because we do not take care of our own people, you can imagine the impact that it could have over there.