Best Friends and Enemas

The title is simply click bait though someone once sent me a card that read, “For your birthday, I’m giving you a big bottle of castor oil. . . with friends like me, who needs enemas.

Looking for some serious thought and comments here as I am puzzled. Umair Haque wrote a column, “How bad is American life? Americans don’t even have friends anymore.” The image below is of survey results for USA asking, outside of relatives, how many Best Friends people had. Range from 0 to >10. The numbers dropped considerable between 1990 and 2021.

As I have said before Umair Haque makes Jeremiah sound like Pollyanna so I took his conclusions with several grains of salt. Read it if you like. But I question the definition and the survey question.

How do you define best friends? I divide people into Best Friends, Good Friends, Friends, Acquaintances, People I wish I didn’t know. I have lots of people I consider good friends but where is the divide between good friends and best friends? Things that keep me awake at night.

So, I asked my children, as I have a great deal of respect for their thinking ability. I will edit their answers somewhat.

I think best friends is such a limiting concept because I have “best friends by topic” or by location or by time in my life. I’m sure the numbers dropped as people moved online. I have so many different types of friends I find the labels don’t fit! Friends I talk about work with, friends I talk about philosophical things, friends I call with exciting news, friends I meet for coffee, friends who I can talk to one thing about but not about others, etc.

I would say my list of “good friends” or “good friends who I never see or talk to but still appreciate a great deal” has climbed since my youth. People wander between labels easily too. I like “good friends” as to me it seems like there is more room for people. 

We don’t need “best friends” like when we were 6 anymore. Because our worlds are bigger and more complicated now. For me, I like the saying that friends come in three categories: forever, for a time, for a season. I’m okay with that. 

For me, there are 2 types of best friends. 1.The ones you spend your chosen free time with. 2.Non relatives, non children that you would lay down your life for without a moment’s hesitation. And if any asks me to say who my single best friend is, it's XYZ.

Hmm. An interesting question. I guess I maybe have 5 or 6 BEST friends outside of relatives. I think your division is pretty good, though. Too many people falling into the “people I wish I didn’t know” category these days. I probably have more of those than I do best friends, which maybe says more about me than I would like. 

And I’d say best friends are the people you can be totally yourself around. But only sometimes. Or maybe they’re the people you want to talk to when you’re happy or you’re sad. Or the people who know you the best and still love you anyway. 

Yes! I agree. I would go to ABC for different things than LMN. And they know me in different ways, but they’re both my best friends.

Their comments helped a great deal to get my head around something I never thought much about before. Friendship is a continuum with no fixed dividing lines and many sub titles under my five main headings of “Best Friends, Good Friends, Friends, Acquaintances, and People I wish I didn’t know.”

I have maybe three people I consider best friends or top of the list of good friends. These are people I have known and worked with for many years, who are far smarter than I, each in different areas and from whom I am continually learning and with whom I could spend all my time.

I have dozens of good friends, all for different reasons and the two years I was back in Canada allowed me to renew many of them. There are also Facebook Friends and Blogger Friends, some of whom I consider good friends. Internet makes it easier to stay in contact with friends I know personally and friends I have never met personally.

Acquaintances used to fall into the hundreds when I worked in Sask Ministry of Agriculture. Farmers and ranchers, industry people, through meetings, conferences, farm calls. Walking across Agribition used to take 3 or 4 hours because I stopped and talked to everyone I know. Now, not so much, having been out of the game for 20 years.

People you wish you didn’t know are usually out of your control. You have no choice (sometimes they are relatives 😊😊) usually through work or related business. On FB I have unfollowed or unfriends most of them but being polite sometimes intervenes unless they make racist remarks.

OK, the floor is open to comments.

Putin, Ukraine, and Nord Stream II

Russian aggression towards Ukraine has not changed much in a while so I have not blogged about it. Lies are spread about Ukraine every day on Russian news and on the internet. Cyber warfare keeps our IT people working overtime. Militarily, every day is much the same. Cease-fire agreements are made, and the Russian side continues to attack several times a day along the front line, with Ukrainian casualties of one or two killed and a few more wounded every day. Russia continues to support their proxies with money, munitions, equipment and of course officers and specialists, all the while denying that fact.

A couple of things have happened just recently that may signify a change for the worse. In April, Putin massed 100,000 troops and heavy equipment along the Ukrainian border complete with full operative logistical support. Most of them are still there. Then last month Russia has (illegally) threatened with bombing any “enemy” ship passing within their (illegally claimed) 12 mile limits around Crimea.

And finally, Putin self-published a 5000 word paper On the Historic Unity of the Russian and Ukrainian People in which he attempts to tell Ukrainians that their statehood is an accident, their resistance to Russian aggression futile and their fate as a people inextricably tied to Russia’s. His conclusions are questionable and the whole thing has nothing to do with history as a modern academic discipline.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is obsessed with pretending that Ukraine does not exist and that Ukrainians have no independent agency. Putin presents the Soviet Union as the savior of Ukrainian reunification. “In 1939, lands that had previously been seized by Poland were returned to the USSR. Their main part was given to Soviet Ukraine.” Putin shamelessly concludes that “contemporary Ukraine was fully created by the Soviet epoch.” And declares Russia always treated Ukraine “with great love.”

Putin has long expressed sympathy for the Russian Empire and his new article vividly manifests this worldview. He sees Russian Federation, not as a new state that emerged after the collapse of the USSR, but as a direct continuation of the Russian Empire. Putin interprets the nation not as a civil phenomenon, but as an ethno-religious community. This imperial mentality is incompatible with modern international law and is dangerous for all of Russia’s neighbours. The President of Russia calls today’s Ukraine “our historical territory” although it would be more correct if the Ukrainians called the region of Muscovy “ours”, since initially it was ruled by the Kyiv princes.

Putin can’t deal with two peoples who are similar in many respects but who want to live separately. And he is prepared to use force to achieve full domination of Ukraine as he did in Crimea and is doing in the Donbass. From the point of view of the West, his actions are those of an aggressor; but from Putin’s point of view, what he has done is an internal matter because they are already properly Russian. Putin considers present-day Ukraine ‘the anti-Russia,’ that is as simply “one more Western project the struggle against which is what he supposes is his mission handed down to him by the Moscow princes.”

To put Putin’s conclusions in perspective, imagine Boris Johnson declaring that the Great English nation includes the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, based on their common history. It is as accurate historically as Trump’s 1776 report. This linked article is a hilarious satirical take off on Putin’s approach according to which anyone except the Ukrainians formed the nation in Ukraine by applying the Putinist approach to Russia.

Ukraine is taking Putin’s paper seriously as it is almost a declaration of war. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the former Prime Minister of Ukraine said, “Putin’s mission is to restore the greatness of the Russian empire.” Ukrainians overwhelmingly believe that they are a different nation and want to continue building their national state and overwhelmingly want to escape the historic domination, occupation, colonial exploitation and repression by Russia. Putin’s own stance now appears to be hardening. If he acts upon the precepts he enunciates in his essay, it could transform the East-West confrontation into something much nastier and more foreboding.

The second major item with a bearing on Ukraine’s future and perhaps more dangerous to the country’s future as an independent state are Russian pipelines encircling the former East Bloc countries under the influence of the USSR, in particular Ukraine. Nord Stream II, the pipeline under the Baltic Sea linking Russia directly with Germany will double the volume of Nord Stream I to a total of 110 bcm/y. TurkStream pipeline starts from Russia’s Krasnodar region, crossing the Black Sea to the receiving terminal in Turkey. It consists of two lines with a capacity of 15 bcm/y each. The first line is already in operation, delivering 15 bcm/y of gas to Turkey for its internal needs.  The second line is designed to run from Turkey to Bulgaria, across Serbia to Hungary and Slovakia.

Gas Pipelines from Russia to Europe

Nord Stream II (NS2) for years has been a source of friction within Europe and between Europe and America. Germany supports it very strongly. Ukraine sees it as “a noose around its neck.” USA says it puts too much power in Russian hands. Putin says America just wants to sell LNG to Europe.

Gazprom has reduced supply to Europe to a contractual minimum through existing pipelines across Ukraine, driving prices up and reducing Europe’s ability to replenish stockpiles which are currently at 50%. Gazprom says that when NS2 goes on stream there will be lots of gas for Europe. That is rather compelling evidence that Gazprom, which wholly owns NS2, will try to force the hand of Gazprom to ensure that it is not just completed, but that it also receives all European Union (EU) regulatory clearances rapidly. Failure to do so will ensure that Europe and Ukraine will freeze in the dark this coming winter.

Gazprom has several times in the past decades used gas supplies as political weapons. One expert identified approximately forty politically motivated Russian energy cutoffs between 1991 and 2004. From 2014 to 2015, Russia attempted to cut off Slovakian, Hungarian, and Polish supplies in order to forestall contracted Russian gas being resold to Ukraine via reverse flow.

 

However, the 2009 crisis resulted in a new EU law that the pipelines and the suppler must be independent of each other, that the pipelines can be used by supply competitors and that there must be tariff price transparency. Gazprom will fight this tooth and nail as it challenges their monopolist position.

A new pipeline will not increase supply, it will simply divert it from one pipeline to another. Reduce gas flow through Ukraine and its pipelines become uneconomic and then scrap. Then EU loses a significant energy security hedge that stems from the huge capacity of the Ukrainian transit network, which has 146 bcm of pipeline capacity and 32 bcm of storage capacity. This sort of capacity makes it possible to meet peak demand, manage atypical supply surges, and support the intermittent availability of renewable power.

And the effect of the loss of that route, in addition to the flooding of the west to east interconnectors, is to make it much more difficult for competitors to enter the gas market in the region, effectively splitting the Northwest European market from the Central and Eastern European market

Nord Stream 2, therefore, is likely to have a very problematic journey through the EU’s energy liberalization regulatory clearance regime, and Gazprom is making that journey more problematic by seeking to manipulate gas supplies to ensure it obtains all the necessary clearances to operate the pipeline. The Kremlin by attempting to blackmail Europe, is inadvertently in the process of triggering an existential threat to the European Union which will force the EU institutions and member states to robustly oppose it.

In the course of this conflict, the operation and functioning of Nord Stream 2—and who supplies gas to the European market—will become secondary issues to that of sustaining the EU’s legal order, the entire basis upon which the EU operates. The Kremlin’s public willingness to manipulate the supply of gas and send the price spiraling upward in order to force its pet energy project through the EU’s legal machinery will lose Moscow the support of most of its remaining allies. It also opens up the prospect of EU action, supported by the United States, to seek to remove Gazprom as a major supplier in Central and Eastern Europe, and limit the amount of gas EU states as a whole take from Gazprom.

So where is America in all this? At the June 16, 2021, Geneva Summit with Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden told President Putin, that we need to have some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by.” The “rules of the road” were legislated by two global wars. They are the predicate for international relations in all respects, including cooperation on climate change, arms control, COVID-19, and cyber as sought by Biden. Rule #1 is territorial integrity and inviolability of borders, yet Biden did not place Russia’s de-occupation front and center . . . or anywhere. Instead of requiring reinstatement of the rule, Biden simply repeated “unwavering commitment” to Ukraine. 

Everyone gravely intoned Putin’s lecture that the resolution of “the conflict” must be in accord with Minsk agreements. America (and Europe) is in lockstep with Russia’s ukase that Ukraine must surrender key aspects of its national sovereignty under the coercive fraud of Minsk. Russia, a rogue state, uses Minsk to displace the United Nations Charter, Helsinki Accords, and all else that constitutes the “rules-based international order.”

As of yesterday (July 21), Biden and Merkel have settled their disagreements over NS2. Germany will invest in Ukraine’s green technology infrastructure, and Berlin and Washington will work together on initiatives to mitigate Russia’s energy dominance in Europe. The decision drew immediate criticism from Russia hawks in Congress as well as Ukraine and Poland. However, “the Biden administration by contrast recognizes that the United States has more important foreign policy problems than a faraway pipeline, not the least of which is the geopolitical competition with China. Those problems require a strong alliance with partners like Germany.”

Under the terms of the deal, the U.S. and Germany committed to countering any Russian attempt to use the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a political weapon. And, they agreed to support Ukraine and Poland, both of which are bypassed by the project and fear Russia's intentions, by funding alternative energy and development projects.

The two sides committed to supporting a $1 billion fund for Ukraine to diversify its energy sources, of which Germany will provide an initial $175 million grant and appoint a special envoy to help Ukraine negotiate an extension of its transit contact with Russia up to 10 years. Germany also guaranteed that it would reimburse Ukraine for gas transit fees it will lose from being bypassed by Nord Stream 2 until 2024, with a possible 10-year extension. Germany also agreed to press for sanctions in the event Russia attempts to use its energy clout as a weapon against Ukraine, according to the joint statement signed by Washington and Berlin

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would never use gas and oil as levers of political pressure. But last month Putin warned that Ukraine would have to show “good will” if it wanted gas transit to continue. 

How this plays out remains to be seen. Russian agreements are worthless and apparently so are agreements to defend the borders of Ukraine for giving up nuclear weapons. I wouldn’t give a plugged nickel for all the promises from Germany and Biden either. But if Ukraine falls, given Putin’s mission to reconstitute the former Soviet Union as the Russian Empire, eastern and central European countries should be worried. So should the rest of the “free world”.

Hot Weather, Gardens, and Flowers

 We are having our own heat wave these past couple of weeks with temps around 30Cto 35C. This week all forecast to be 35C. Not as hot as 40C which is forecast for Saskatchewan or the kind of unworldly temperatures that the South Western States Pacific North West are enduring but hot enough for us. We do not take the heat like we used to. 

The garden is coming off so Tanya goes out early and picks or pulls whatever is ready. We have dug and frozen about 25% of the carrots and beets. No idea what we will do with the rest. The peas are long done and plants pulled. The beans are nearly done. I shell peas and snap and cut beans as my meagre contribution. When she askes, I help dig carrots and beets, and haul plants and tops to the compost pile.

One of several pails ready to blanche

Cucumbers are coming in by the bucket and Tanya has made a dozen or more jars of dill pickles. She makes two kinds. One with vinegar and one that ferments. The latter is not sealed, just covered, and sits in brine for about a week or so, then the brine is boiled up and the jar sealed. The big ones are eaten or given away. We have enough pickles for us so I am sure she will start giving away small cucs, too.

Tomatoes are ripening faster than we can eat them. They will be frozen for soups or made into juice and canned. Corn will be ready in a day or two. Had my first feed of not quite ready fresh corn two days ago. Wonderful feeling to have butter dripping off my elbows. 

Vegetable marrow and zucchini are overwhelming us. Tanya tries to pick them small but they are getting away on us. We eat them prepared two different ways. Sliced, dipped in flour and fried in light oil, then topped with crushed garlic and a dab or mayonnaise. (She has a dish of flour sitting on the counter as she cooks them every day. Yesterday, Bonya jumped onto the counter to supervise and floured his big hairy tail). The second way is cut up small and stir fried in sautéed onions and grated carrots with tomatoes chopped up and added last.  

These days we are eating vegetables from our garden as much as we can. Keeps cooking to a minimum. Tanya made a vat of soup and a vat of stew and a vat of plov. If the kitchen is going to be hot, cook lots. All boxed in plastic happiness and put in the freezer to be doled out as needed and heated in the microwave. Mostly we eat vegetables.

Lucky does not do heat well either. He is always too hot. The other dogs we used to clip short and they were ok as they had shade. We have been bringing Lucky in the house when it hits 30C or more. AC downstairs and upstairs keeps the main floor cool. He is pretty good though he still thinks everything he can reach is a toy. He is much quieter with Tanya downstairs and me upstairs. If I go downstairs he wants to play, though sometimes if I sit on the couch he will lie down beside me. One day he lay down with his head on my lap, got my thumb in his mouth and went to sleep. He likes to hold our hands gently (for him) in his mouth as a sign of affection.

A squeaky toy and a tennis ball (for now)

Sound asleep

Snoring away. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Tanya's flowers are looking good in spite of the heat. She has lilies blooming throughout the flower garden. Roses are still going strong too. She never has blank spots in the flower bed all season long.

Enough for this week. Stay cool and hydrated, everyone.

I Gotta Quit Reading the News

 I should stick to WaPo, NYT, and Heather Cox Richardson all of which I subscribe to. But oh, no. I also read The Hartmann Report,  Jeet Heer from The Time of Monsters,  Greg Olear from PREVAIL, all of which are free if you don't want to comment. Then there is Umair Haque from Medium.com which I subscribe to as there are several articles on it that I might read. And the Daily Beast which can flood my inbox with newsletters if I sign up for all of them. 

Now, Thom Hartmann, Jeet Heer, Greg Olear and Umair Haque make Jeremiah sound like Pollyanna when it comes to the survival of the American Project. And it does discourage me. 

So today, I will post about my dog Lucky again. He lives outside in a pen about 10x50 meters with a room in our outbuilding and a doghouse in the room to shelter in when it is cold or thundering. There is no place to hide from the heat though it has not been much above 30C. We bring him in the house if it gets too hot. Think 40 kg out of control two year old to whom everything is a toy. We are all three of us learning.

He does not like dry dog food so Tanya makes him special meals with porridge, ground chicken, cheap liver pate and several times a week boiled chicken livers. He is her baby too. She goes out to feed him at 7:00 am and 7:00 pm. He would rather play but eventually will come around to eat if she hand feeds him. Sometimes I will go out to feed him and spend time with him, though walking him is usually my thing. 

Last night and tonight, I went with Tanya and we both sat with and entertained him. I took him a new tennis ball and made him the happiest mutt I ever saw. He would not let go of it. He held it in the side of his mouth even when he was barking loudly at the neighbour's dog down the street. He would hide it in the weeds and then look for it. We only managed to throw it a few times as his idea of fun is for us to chase him to get the ball. 

He finally came and lay on the weeds where we were sitting, just out of Tanya's reach. He would not get up to eat. She would lean forward with a handful of food and he would reach and take it. When the dish was empty he stretched his neck to see if there was more but was too lazy to get up. 

Tonight Tanya got the ball a few more times and would bounce it. Lucky figured he could catch it in the air but he is no infielder. 

I can still bark loud!

Where did I hide it?

Daring us to reach for the ball 

What did you say?

Too lazy to move but will not let go of the ball

My newest favourite toy

Looking Back Four Years Today

 Today, July 1st, is Canada Day. Not much to celebrate as the Country begins to come to grips with what the colonists and settlers did to our Indigenous people with the residential schools. They knew about it and told us but we wouldn't listen. The "discovery" of hundreds of unmarked graves on the sites of former residential schools has forced us to listen. It is one thing to weep for the innocent lives lost but another, more important, is to understand the lives of survivors that were destroyed and for which they and their children and children's children are still suffering. 

Tanya and I both have our second Pfizer shots as of this week. We could have waited longer than the minimum days between but best to grab it when the vaccine is available. We get our official certificate next week. When we drove into town, I could count on one hand the number of people on the street wearing masks. In the supermarket more people wore masks but again, I could count on one hand the number wearing them correctly over nose and mouth. Made me think of the guy who survived Chernobyl. He watch the movie and counted nine errors on one hand.

Saturday, July 1st, 2017, my world changed. As Churchy LaFemme would say, Friday the 13th come on a Saturday this month. At 1:30 in the morning, a diverticula on my large intestine burst. Apparently I had Diverticulosis and never knew it. Most people with that condition will never know unless something goes wrong. I never had a baby or a kidney stone but my pain had to be right up there. At 5:00 am I went into hospital in Zhovti Vody and they had no idea what was wrong. That afternoon, I went by ambulance to Dnipro on a morphine drip to survive. Andrey had to speak to the mayor so the city would use the good ambulance instead of the Spanish Civil War left over. 

Mechnikov Hospital is the main hospital in Dnipro and was full of wounded soldiers from the front of the war against Russia. The doctors there had no idea what was wrong with me either and poked and prodded my swollen belly for three days before they decided they better operate. They cleaned me out, slapped an ostomy bag on me, filled my with IV antibiotics and sent me to a room to die. They told Tanya I would probably not make the weekend. As I was lying there too weak to lift a finger, I figured that as long as nothing went south, I would make it. Morphine was my friend.

My girls got there Friday 7th. Tanya found a flat for the four of them about 30 minutes by bus from the hospital. They were busy. Hospitals have no staff and not much else either. Too much money disappears between budget allotment and where it is needed. Nurses administer meds. Period. Family has to do everything else. Including buying meds. The nurse would give a list to Tanya in the morning and sometimes it would take two people half a day going to different drug stores to find everything. 

I was there a month, then back to Zhovti Vody hospital and eventually to the house. Once I could walk we flew to Regina. Two years and three surgeries later we flew home to Ukraine. 

I am so thankful for Tanya who was the best nurse ever, Dr Vishul in Regina (who trained at Mechnikov Hospital, my family who looked after me so well and friends and all who contributed to Go-Fund-Me which paid for all my costs in Ukraine and flights home. I am glad to be alive. 

Growing old is not for the faint of heart. Now I have caught the NILE virus.

The NILE Virus, type C
We are still battling the COVID-19 and the next thing is here already.  Virologists have identified a new Nile virus - type C.  It appears to target those who were born between 1930 & 1970.
Symptoms: Causes you
1.       To send the same message twice.
2.       To send a blank message.
3.       To send a message to the wrong person.
4.       To send it back to the person who sent it to you.
5.       To forget to attach the attachment.
6.       To hit SEND before you've finished.
7.       To hit DELETE instead of SEND.
8.       To SEND when you should DELETE.
It is called the C-NILE virus!
And if you cannot admit to doing the above, you have obviously caught the mutated strain — the D-NILE virus.

Omar Khadr and $10 million

 Western Canadian Conservatives love to hate Justin Trudeau. Partly because they hated his father and partly because he is a Liberal. They have tagged him as “soft on Muslims” and “favouring introduction of Sharia Law in Canada”. It is safe to say, paraphrasing John Stuart Mill, that not all Conservatives are racist bigots, but all racist bigots are Conservatives. They need someone to hate, preferable a readily identifiable minority. Their racism and bigotry have led to a rise in hate crimes against Muslims.

One of the accusations against Justin Trudeau is that he “gave $10 million of taxpayer money to a Muslim Terrorist”. This “Fox News headline” has been repeated often enough that some people actually believe it. The facts around this 10% truth are conveniently ignored though the information is out there. This post will attempt to clarify the situation.

Omar Khadr was born in Toronto to immigrant parents from Egypt and Pakistan. His father, Ahmed Khadr worked for charitable organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he became friendly with Osama bin Laden. In 2002, after 9/11 and the subsequent American invasion, Omar’s father sent him to Afghanistan to act as a translator. Later that year, a badly wounded 15 year old Omar was captured by American troops as the only survivor of a group of al-Qaeda in a major firefight. He was accused of throwing a grenade that killed one American soldier. He was taken to the hospital at Bagram Air Base and when he recovered, at age 16, he was sent to the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The Canadian government initially opposed Khadr's transfer to Guantanamo Bay. It also urged the US to take into account his juvenile status. The Americans ignored Canada's requests. For reasons that remain unclear, attitudes in Ottawa then hardened, and the Liberal government under Jean Chrétien began playing down Khadr’s age. A number of factors led to a polarization of opinion about Omar Khadr, not the least of which was that male family members were heavily involved with al-Qaeda and his mother and sister, in 2004, spoke to CBC in favourable terms about al-Qaeda and unfavourable terms about the Canadian government.

The only thing Omar Khadr had in his favour were his youth and the fact he was not in Afghanistan of his own volition. Amnesty International and several Canadian NGOs took his case to the courts to have him repatriated to Canada and eventually freed. The Liberal government was not interested, and a majority of Canadians opposed it but said he should at least be treated as a child soldier.

Canadian Intelligence (CSIS) got American permission to interrogate Khadr in 2003 and again in 2004, if they shared information with the Americans. His captors softened Khadr up for interrogation by depriving him of sleep for several days prior. His problems only increased under Harper’s “tough on terrorism’” Conservative government, fighting in court every move to repatriate Khadr.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada forced CSIS to turn over the video tapes of the interrogations which caused a huge outcry among Canadians. In 2010, Wikileaks (still the good guys in those days) release emails from the Canadian government and CISIS indicating they did NOT want Khadr repatriated. In 2010, the Supreme Court again ruled against the Canadian Government, declaring that: CSIS agents who participated in the interrogations "offended the most basic Canadian standards of detained youth suspects." The court barred Canadian officials from any further such questioning, but refused to demand Khadr's repatriation.

Khadr and all Guantanamo captive were tried by military commission, based on military courts-martial. However, human-rights and legal groups — even the United States Supreme Court — criticized the commissions for lack of due process and for criminalizing conduct retroactively. The commissions made no distinction between youths and adults, and their rules allowed for indefinite detention even after an acquittal.

In October 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty before a military commission to five war crimes, in exchange for a further eight-year sentence. He signed a lengthy stipulation of facts in which he admitted killing Sgt. Christopher Speer, trying to kill Sgt. Layne Morris, and to being a member of al-Qaeda. He would later say that the guilty plea, urged on him by his lawyers, was the only way for him to be returned to Canada. The US would have had the power to keep him at Guantanamo even if he had been acquitted. (Some of you may remember David Milgaard who spent 22 years in prison for a murder he did not commit because he refused to acknowledge his guilt or he would have been out on 12.)

He was eventually transferred to Canada in 2012 to maximum security prison, eventually in Aberta. Harper’s conservatives used his guilty plea to beat anyone who took up Khadr’s case. “Omar Khadr pled guilty to very serious crimes. It is very important that we continue to vigorously defend against any attempts in court to lessen his punishment for these heinous acts.”

In 2013 Alberta Courts sided with the federal government that that the eight-year sentence handed him by the US military commission could not be interpreted under the International Transfer of Offenders Act as a youth sentence but that Khadr should be treated as an adult offender. The case went to the Supreme Court which took 30 minutes to throw out the federal governments arguments and confirm Khadr’s youth status under Canadian Law. In 2015 he was released on bail, wearing a tracking device.

Harper continued to spout the “convicted, confessed terrorist” line. Khadr appealed his conviction by the American Military Commission on the legal grounds that the offenses were declared war crimes retroactively. A similar case is currently before American courts and Khadr’s case will not be heard until after it is decided.

Khadr also sued the Canadian government beginning in 2004, for violating his constitutional rights when its agents interrogated him in Guantanamo. In 2014, it was amended to $20-million and included the allegation that Canada had conspired with the US to breach Khadr's constitutional rights. In 2017, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau settled the Khadr lawsuit by apologizing to Khadr and compensating him for what Liberal cabinet ministers described as the "wrongdoing of Canadian officials…a Canadian citizen's Charter rights were violated; as a result, the government of Canada was required to provide a remedy." Compensation was reported as $10.5 million CAD which was better than spending millions defending the case and losing anyhow. In 2019 an Alberta judge ruled that Omar Khadr’s sentence was complete and he was free to go.

The feces immediately hit the fan, led by Scheer’s Conservatives, and was unequally distributed. The “taxpayers’ money” and “convicted, confessed terrorist” meme worthy of Fox News circulated widely.

The above is more or less a factually summary of what should be generally agreed on.

Now the question arises, “What if Omar Khadr was not guilty of anything the Americans accused him of doing?”

Other than a coerced confession, there is little evidence against him. Under Canadian jurisdiction there would not have been enough evidence to lay a charge much less get a conviction. Had the Canadian Government insisted on transparency, due process, and rule of law in an open court, the result would have been a defeat for the American government. But they sacrificed principle to political expediency. Khadr pleaded guilty for the opportunity to return to Canada. It was successful in that regard but was turned into a personal tragedy because he “pleaded guilty to murder”.

This was no small firefight, but an all out assault on a 100 to 120 foot square compound. On July 27. 2002, more than 100 American troops pounded the compound with cannon and mortar fire; fighter jets and helicopters dropped multiple 500 lb bombs. When they assumed everyone was dead, the Americans approached the compound. A grenade killed an American Sergeant and Omar Khadr was captured alive.

There are several versions of events all of which cannot be true.

1.    The assault team entered, encountered enemy fire, including a thrown grenade. They killed the shooter who also threw the grenade. They then captured Khadr, who did not throw the grenade (Report by Maj. Randy Watt, senior U.S. officer at battle, July 28, 2002);
2. The assault team entered, encountered enemy fire and a witness identified as OC-1 saw a grenade thrown over a wall. Because of the timing of the shooting and grenade, he did not believe one person could have done both. OC-1 killed the shooter. He then found Khadr seated and facing away from the assault team and shot him in the back. According to OC-1, Khadr was the only person who could have killed Speer (Statement by witness OC-1, dated March 17, 2004, almost two years after the event);
3. The assault team entered, encountered enemy fire, including a thrown grenade. They shot and captured Khadr, who was the only survivor in the compound during the exchange. Being the only survivor, Khadr must have killed Speer (false public position of U.S. military until 2008, as per CBC report);
4. The assault team entered, encountered enemy fire and saw a grenade thrown over a wall. They killed the shooter and two Delta Force members confronted Khadr, who was armed and stood facing them. They shot him in the chest (per summary of statements, originally reported by Michelle Shephard in the Toronto Star);
5. The assault team entered, encountered enemy fire, and saw a grenade thrown over a wall. Soldiers outside the compound were also throwing grenades in response to the firefight. U.S. forces first killed the shooter, then shot and captured Khadr (per Los Angeles Times report of statement evidence). This opens the possibility that friendly fire accidentally killed Speer;
6. The assault team entered, encountered and returned enemy fire and killed the shooter. Omar Khadr, positioned behind a crumbling wall, then threw a grenade at a group of soldiers who were talking. He did not consider them a threat to his safety, but just planned to kill as many Americans as he could (U.S. government stipulation of facts, 2010, paragraphs 41-43, agreed to by Khadr in his guilty plea);
7.  Classified photographs taken at the scene and obtained in 2009 by the Toronto Star:

 

Photo 1 shows the dead shooter and Omar Khadr buried under a pile of rubble. Photo 2 (enhanced) shows the rubble cleared away and Khadr lying with a bullet hole in his back. According to the Star, military documents indicate that "a soldier stood on top of Khadr's body before realizing someone was buried." Obviously an already wounded Khadr did not have time to throw the grenade and then cover himself in debris in a few seconds. OC-1’s statement cannot be true. He most likely killed the shooter and then finding the buried Khadr, shot him in the back.

The prosecutor’s case rests almost entirely on a coerced confession which is easily obtained from young people especially under duress and willing to confess to end the pain. Khadr had already confessed that Maher Arar (more on him later) had stayed at terrorist safe houses in Afghanistan when he had never been to the country.

The only report consistent with the photographs is that of Major Randy Watt, the day after the firefight. That it was altered after the fact to fit the official story is not inconsistent with the American Military (see Pat Tillman). Any competent defense lawyer could easily have destroyed the prosecution’s argument. 

And Canada should have been on side. It was Canada’s job to raise hell about the railroading of a Canadian teen based on a lousy case. It was Canada's job to raise hell about the torture of a Canadian kid in U.S. custody. Instead, we presumed he was guilty. He was tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion without a trial. The few who defended him were sneered at as bleeding heart terrorist lovers.

Khadr's guilty plea bought his freedom, but at a heavy price. For that freedom Khadr traded, perhaps forever, the chance to clear his name and turn public scrutiny on those who abused him, who doctored records, who changed their stories.

As part of his plea deal, Khadr agreed to a statement of facts admitting to killing Sgt. Speer, and promised never to seek forensic review of the evidence which might one day prove his innocence. He also agreed to permit the U.S. government to destroy all evidence following sentencing. Which means to me that the Americans knew it was all lies in the first place.

As a teenager Omar Khadr was betrayed and exploited by every adult who owed him a duty of care, including his father who conscripted him into a terrorist group, and his mother who let it happen. Then he was abandoned by the one government that should have protected his right to a fair trial. Khadr's passport out should have been the birthright he was born with—his Canadian citizenship.

Travel Destinations of Interest

 This is a poor excuse for a blog post. Copy and paste with upgrades, from my friend, John, Kansas answer to Sam Elliot. I have the background work done on two posts for some time; one to annoy the Right and one to annoy the Left. I just don't have the concentration to write them up yet. I'm tired all the time. My days and nights are confused. Go to bed at midnight and maybe sleep by 4:00. I don't want to turn on the AC and If I open the window the sandflies devour me. They mainly live on flower nectar but the females need blood to reproduce. Tanya provides the blossoms and I provide the blood.

The kitchen garden is growing wonderfully well. Lettuce and onions we have had for a while, also a small dish of strawberries every day. Tomatoes are forming and small vegetable marrows too. Tanya picked a few young pea pods which sure tasted good. The garden soil is black clay, holds moisture well but hardens on top quickly in the sun. Tanya has been breaking up the surface with a hoe. When one gets dull, she switches to a sharp one. I sharpened six for her today and even that little bit of work tired me out. 

It rained enough today to cool things down so I will take Lucky out in an hour. Neither of us take heat well. A month after we have had our second shots, I am going into town at noon and hit every little bar, coffee shop and café if it takes two days. We have several new ones I have never been to, including an Irish Pub. 

I have been in many places in my life, but I've never been in Cahoots. Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport; you have to be driven there. I have made several trips there, thanks to my friends and family. I live close so it's a short drive, more3 of a putt actually.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go and I try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm getting older.

One of my favourite places to be is in Suspense! It really gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my age I need all the stimuli I can get.

Sometimes I think I am in Vincible but life shows me I am not.

When I was young, I never was in Fertile and have four kids to prove it.

People keep telling me I'm in Denial but I'm positive I've never been there before.

I have been in Deepsh** many times; the older I get, the easier it is to get there.

Sigh, I may have been in Continent, but never far from salt water. My travel agent says I’m on the frequent fliers list. Surgery will do that to you sometimes.