Wednesday, April 14, 2004

Things people who are screaming "Revoke the Khadrs' citizenship!" need to keep in mind:

1. Each individual's deeds or misdeeds must be considered, not their family members'. The individuals who have committed misdeeds should face the appropriate consequences, of course, but each family member must be evaluated on their own merits. No one's rights can be revoked because of someone else's actions, even if that someone else does happen to be a blood relative. How would you like to be held responsible for your father's actions and political convictions?

2. At least one, possibly more, of the children are underage. This means that they are obligated to live wherever their parents do. This means that it is not their fault that they lived in an Al-Qaeda facility, any more that it is your fault that you lived in Moncton or Moose Jaw or Prince Rupert when you were a kid.

3. There is nothing unlawful about dissing Canada. There is nothing unlawful about hating Canada. It only becomes unlawful if the words or thoughts are turned into actions. No matter how much a person hates Canada, and no matter how much they profess this publicly, that is still no basis for revoking citizenship.

These are basic rights to which all Canadian citizens are entitled. Even those that we find unpleasant and would rather not have in our country. Now, I'm not saying it wouldn't be prudent for someone to do a bit of investigating and make sure they have caught all the unlawful acts that these individuals might have committed. But if we run around calling for citizenships to be revoked for people who are legally innocent just because of something that their relatives did, and if we forget the basic concept of "innocent until proven guilty", then we are no better than the oppressive countries that my grandparents, and many other people and many other people's ancestors, fled to come here. Rights are for everyone, regardless of who their daddy is.

On a side note, with all this talk of revoking citizenship, I have not found any evidence that the Khadrs hold any other citizenship, but I'm pretty sure you can't leave a person with zero citizenship. Has anyone seen any mention of other citizenship in print, and care to share a link?

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