But Why Did He Join The Senate?

Most Canadians have some knowledge of former Canadian forces general Romeo Dallaire. He is widely known for having served as Force Commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994 and for trying to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. (More on his story is available from Wikipedia.) The following report from CBC deals with the story of Omar Khadr a Canadian citizen who at the age of fifteen was captured by the Americans after a firefight in Afghanistan and is now being held in Guantanamo Bay. Dallaire, who was appointed to the Canadian senate by former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin in 2005, has called for the repatriation of Khadr in no uncertain terms. Current Liberal leader Stéphane Dion says he disagrees with Dallaire's "choice of words" in his denunciations of the present Conservative government's lack of effort in returning the "child soldier" to Canada and has stated that the Liberal senator should be "disciplined" ... birds of a feather and all that. You'd think after Dallaire's experience in Rwanda the idea of becoming a politician would be a little less than appealing. I hope he quits.

Canada, U.S. acting just as bad as al-Qaida, says ex-general

OTTAWA — Canada and the United States have sunk to the moral equivalent of terrorists in their handling of a young Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay, says Liberal senator and ex-general Romeo Dallaire. Dallaire says the two countries have flouted human rights and international conventions in dealing with Omar Khadr case points out a moral equivalence among Canada, the United States and and are no better than those who don't believe in rights at all. He told a House of Commons committee Tuesday that Khadr is a victim - a child soldier who should be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society and not tried before what he called an illegal court. Canada should be bending over backward to bring him home, said Dallaire, formerly Canada's special UN ambassador for children. Khadr was 15 when he was captured after a fire fight in Afghanistan and has been held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for six years. American authorities now are attempting to try him before a special tribunal. Dallaire, whose troubling experiences during the 1994 Rwanda genocide helped make him an outspoken advocate of human rights, said the Khadral-Qaida. The United States is ignoring its own laws in prosecuting Khadr and Canada is betraying itself by not fighting for Khadr's return home, he said. He said the Americans were acting out of panic after 9/11 and Canada was playing politics and that left them no better than the terrorists .
"The minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties, in order to say that you're doing it to protect yourself and you are going against those rights and conventions, you are no better than the guy who doesn't believe in them at all."