Thank you very much, Ms. Barbot.
Of course, I'm responding to the translation and not directly to your comments, so please forgive me if I have misunderstood anything.
First, you said something early on about us questioning whether he's a Canadian citizen. I certainly don't question that. That's a matter for Canada to decide.
Secondly, you mentioned at one point that I was speaking on behalf of the U.S. I don't know if that was just a translation issue. I do not speak on behalf of the United States. I speak as somebody who has studied U.S. policy and international law, and I speak, actually, as a loyal subject and a Canadian citizen.
Regarding your two primary questions--one, on the treatment of a child, and two, on why Canada can't bring him back...Canada can bring him back. I'm not here to say that Canada shouldn't bring him back; I am saying there is no legal obligation for Canada to bring him back. Canada needs to make a decision, in an exercise of its diplomatic sovereignty, on whether or not to bring him back. That's for Canada to decide. I'm just here to clarify some issues of international law and some misrepresentations as to the U.S. policy that I've heard in previous testimony.
The other question was whether he is being treated according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, of course, allows for the use of soldiers in combat as of the age of 15. So if it presupposes the use of soldiers at the age of 15 in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, I don't think it's inconsistent, then, to treat those soldiers as soldiers when they are detained.
Secondly, you've heard testimony that the United States has had quite a number of people at Guantanamo Bay between the ages of 15 and 18, and that they've actually segregated most, if not all, other than Mr. Khadr, and treated them differently, consistent with the precatory and hortatory provisions of the optional protocol. I wouldn't say they're binding legal obligations.
The fact that the U.S. has actually treated Omar Khadr differently is reflective of a process whereby the United States has looked at each of the child soldiers before it and made a determination as to the best way of treating each soldier. Every other soldier is being treated in a separate detainment facility. They're all at Camp Iguana. Mr. Khadr is not. Clearly, there was a reason for that.
The Canadian civil justice system, like the U.S. civil justice system, provides for the opportunity to treat juveniles as adults under certain circumstances. I don't see why it would be any different in the military context. It appears the U.S. has decided to do that with respect to Mr. Khadr. If the Canadian government wants to object to that and bring him home, that's absolutely within the power of the Canadian government to do. And I would not object to it doing that. I don't presume to dictate Canadian policy.