Two For The Price of One

Two of Canada's best and brightest, young men who are endowed with Canadian citizenship, for whom the future might be anything they might wish it to be, to succeed in any ambitious personal endeavour they would wish to undertake.  And then they are brought, by circumstances, to a trajectory that leads them to reject every value that Canadian citizenship implies.  The rule of law in the country is disdained, the virtues of citizenship and the values and entitlements that accrue from them become irrelevant, and they find their aspirational imperatives in the rejection of the freedoms guaranteed them under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in favour of pursuing an entirely different path.

One of the young men experiences parental guidance that places him on the crooked road to violence in the cause of a fanatical religious belief.  The other bemoans that his parents were 'absent' in his life, and he sought guidance from clerics representing that same religion; clerics who in the absence of guidance from his parents brought him to the same conclusive path that the previous young man was guided toward.  One young man was conveyed to a far-off land to engage in violent jihad, confronting the forces of the West who were imperilling the sovereignty of a Muslim country.  The other preferred to remain where he was, to bring violent jihad directly to the country that gave him haven. 

The young man who was born in Canada pursued the fanatical revenge inherent in violent jihad abroad, in a country torn by war.  Omar Khadr's father ensured he was educated in the pathology of holy war in the name of Islam, and it was in Afghanistan that he put to use the training he had received in bomb-making and the practical, deadly use of the instruments of war and death while in Pakistan. The young man who arrived in Canada as a child from Pakistan and who was educated within the Canadian system, received his radicalization through exposure to religious leaders within Canada and online recruiters to jihad.

For his avowed and proud war crimes ranging from murder, attempted murder, providing material support to terrorism, conspiracy and spying, Omar Khadr now awaits sentencing, secure in the understanding that a plea deal was reached between the authorities in the United States and those in Canada.  He anticipates a sentence of 8 years succeeding those matching years he has already spent at Guantanamo base, one year of which will be served in the United States, upon which time a transfer to Canada will be effected, and he will be able to invoke his right under Canadian law to seek eligibility for parole within a four-year period of incarceration in Canada.

This mature Omar Khadr, a fully-grown male well indoctrinated in the fundamentalist Islamist war ideology with the West is not a chastened child who recognizes the error of his ways and the wrongs his father committed against him by grooming him for terror-war.  He is a man proud of his father's reputation, and determined to follow in his father's footsteps.  He is a young man anxious to return to a country he has no real memory of, but which provides handsomely for his extended family in social services of which he too will avail himself, before once again embarking on his life's larger purpose.

As for the other young man, the one who has just been sentenced for his role as ringleader of the Toronto 18 terror group, he has been granted double credit for the time already spent as an apprehended felon awaiting trial and sentencing.  The trial judge handed down his sentence for plotting to detonate bombs around Toronto, conspiring to attack the prime minister and Parliament, all to avenge fellow Muslims whom Canadian troops were fending off in Afghanistan; protecting ordinary Muslims and offering resistance to Taliban; interpreted otherwise by jihadis, however, like Fahim Ahmad. 

Mr. Ahmad was sentenced by Superior Court Justice Fletcher Dawson to 16 years.  But in Canada 16 years is vastly reduced, with double-credits for time served previously, and throw in eligibility to apply for early parole, and Fahim Ahmad, who enlisted other young men in a conspiracy to bring jihad directly to Canada, who imported firearms, and instructed other eager jihadis in the fine art of terror, may be a free man in just under four years.  The judge offered a soupcon of doubt: "I sincerely hope you change your views and show me that I wasn't wrong", in reducing sentencing time.

Fact is, most of us 'sincerely hope' the judge was not too generous, as well.  "History has shown that amateur terrorists have often succeeded in causing great harm and certainly put many at risk of great harm. Ahmad's activities created a grave risk and substantially heightened the likelihood that devastating acts of terrorists would be carried out in Canada".  Yes, we know that.  Yet, despite that knowledge, it seems to many that these misguided - putting it kindly, the Canadian way - young men, are getting off fairly lightly.

As things stand, at the present time, both Omar Khadr and Fahim Ahmad can anticipate being freed at substantially the same time.  They have much in common.  They may experience the delightful opportunity to forge a true brotherhood bond.  And proceed, at the earliest opportunity, to demonstrate as only men who have been indoctrinated into a deadly ideological pathology of hatred, that they have no intention of being transformed into meek and mild lambs.

Islamist jihad.