Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am a little confused by your evidence. At the start, you said that you had come to tell us why Omar Khadr should not be brought back to Canada to stand trial. All the arguments you raised told us, first, if I understood correctly, that he is not a Canadian citizen, or that the treatment he has received at Guantanamo exceeds the minimum requirements. This is a military prison. The laws that apply there are not those of a civil society.
However you approach the matter, Omar Khadr was clearly 15 years old when it happened. Given that, and given also that both the United States and Canada have signed the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, do you really feel that the treatment that Omar Khadr has received in Guantanamo is in accordance with that convention? It provides for rehabilitation, reintegration and getting him back on his feet, if I may call it that, because the proper term escapes me?
I am also a little confused to hear you hold up the United States as a model of justice; though it does not practice torture at home, it sends people to countries that do.
In that context, I would really like you to clearly explain to us why we cannot bring Khadr back here to stand trial. Once again, we are not saying that he is right or that he has done nothing. That is not the point. The point is that Canada has a tradition of looking after its citizens wherever they may be and whatever the mistakes they may have made. In this particular case, we are talking about a child, and we feel that he should be brought back to this country.