Madam Speaker, I can only speculate about what might have happened under the former American administration had the Canadian government taken those kinds of positions. We know very clearly where George W. Bush stood as president on these matters. None of the prisoners there would have been repatriated at all, I am pretty sure, under his regime.
However, the member is quite right. It is alarming to me that a minister of state, a parliamentary secretary and a chair of a committee dealing with this matter all parrot the same line in saying that there are serious charges and they must go forward.
They never once mention human rights. They never once mention the issue of a child soldier, a 15-year-old. They never once mention the fact that this Canadian citizen was tortured and that we should defend that Canadian citizen's rights.
The whole premise, even in the most recent interview that the foreign affairs minister gave, is that he is abdicating his responsibilities to Canadians here and Canadians abroad.
It is not just Omar Khadr. It is all Canadian citizens who find themselves alleged to have committed a crime. They could be imprisoned. They could be tortured. They could be denied their rights. The precedent that has been set now is that the foreign affairs minister says we are going to duck. We are not going to defend Canadian citizens abroad.