Podcast appearances and mentions of Omar Khadr

rWotD Episode 2840: Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi Welcome to Random Wiki of the Day, your journey through Wikipedia’s vast and varied content, one random article at a time.The random article for Tuesday, 11 February 2025 is Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi.Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi (February 1978 - June 1, 2009) was a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba.Al Hanashi's Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 78.The Department of Defense reports that Al Hanashi was born in February 1978,in Abyan, Yemen.On June 2, 2009, the Department of Defense reported that a 31-year-old Yemeni captive named "Muhammed Ahmad Abdallah Salih" committed suicide late on June 1, 2009.Camp officials did not allow journalists who were at the camp for Omar Khadr's Guantanamo military commission to report news of his death until they left Guantanamo.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:30 UTC on Tuesday, 11 February 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh Al Hanashi on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm long-form Ruth.

In this episode, Sydney Stewart is joined by Principal analyst on our Middle East, North Africa and Turkey desk, Noam Ostfeld and his fellow analyst Omar Khadr, who walk us through recent developments in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Noam starts us off by explaining the situation between Israel, Lebanese Hezbollah and Hamas after a recent ceasefire was put in place. Omar then walks us through the recent escalations in Syria, laying out the different actors and the progress of the opposition offensive on multiple fronts.   If you enjoyed the episode, please give us a like and subscribe for new episodes! You can also contact us with any questions or feedback: info@sibylline.co.uk  Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sibyllineltd/?hl=en  Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sibylline-ltd/ For more information visit our website: www.sibylline.co.uk   #GeopoliticsPodcast #RefinedInsight #Podcast #Risk #RiskIntelligence #GeopoliticalPodcasts #Israel #Syria   Music: Stock Media provided by @Boscorelli / Pond5

Meta may have won out in its battle against the Trudeau government's Online News Act, according to a new study by the Media Ecosystem Observatory. Plus, convicted terrorist Omar Khadr's appeal to drop war crime convictions and reverse a guilty plea for crimes he committed when he was 15 years old was shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court. And instances of antisemitism stemming from anti-Israel protests across Canada have prompted a petition aiming to outlaw popular slogans heard at anti-Israel rallies as hate speech. Tune into The Daily Brief with Cosmin Dzsurdzsa and Noah Jarvis! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canadian journalist Nora Loreto reads the latest headlines for Tuesday, May 21, 2024.TRNN has partnered with Loreto to syndicate and share her daily news digest with our audience. Tune in every morning to the TRNN podcast feed to hear the latest important news stories from Canada and around the world.Find more headlines from Nora at Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast feed.Help us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer.Sign up for our newsletterLike us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterDonate to support this podcastReferenced articles:Story 1 - SIRT investigating after " officer-involved shooting: in Regina. Story 2 - Unexploded incendiary devices found at site of future EV battery site. Story 3 - Omar Khadr denied an appeal with the US Supreme Court. Story 4 - Top Iranian officials die in helicopter crash in region blanketed in thick fog.Story 5 - The ICC issues arrest warrant for leadership of both Hamas and Israel, will allow events of Oct. 7 and the genocide of Gaza to be examined in court. Story 6 - Julian Assange wins the right to appeal his extradition to the US.

Story 1 - SIRT investigating after " officer-involved shooting: in Regina. Story 2 - Unexploded incindiary devices found at site of future EV battery site. Story 3 - Omar Khadr denied an appeal with the US Supreme Court. Story 4 - Top Iranian officials die in helicopter crash in region blanketed in thick fog.Story 5 - The ICC issues arrest warrant for leadership of both Hamas and Israel, will allow events of Oct. 7 and the genocide of Gaza to be examined in court. Story 6 - Julian Assange wins the right to appeal his extradition to the US. Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break. This week, I start with a few words about the 7th anniversary of the deaths that lead to the establishment of the Desmond Inquiry, and where that process currently stands. I congratulate Dr. Margo Watt on her new book on forensic psychology, and encourage non-academic readers to give it a look. Dennis Edney, long time lawyer for Omar Khadr, died this week at age 77. I remember Mr. Edney, an award winning lawyer for his pro bono work. The RCMP has closed it's case on the fires that raged on the outskirts of Halifax last summer. Residents are upset with the manner in which they found out this information. A teacher from the Annapolis Valley has been cleared of sexual assault charges which arose in 2019. Judging by the court decision, the case never should have gone on for as long as it did. Bill C-48, the bail reform legislation, is in force, and has brought some significant changes to how bail hearings will unfold for those charged with weapons or intimate partner violence offences. The Conservative Party has been denied full standing for a second time in the Foreign Interference Inquiry. I discuss what that means, and what we can expect from the Inquiry. Finally, I look south to the machinations involving former President Trump. The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that he is not eligible to be on the Presidential ballot in that State. I summarize why they have said that, and what I expect will happen when the case reaches the Supreme Court of the United States.

Pour le dernier épisode avant la pause estivale, nous recevons une nouvelle fois Frédéric Bérard avec qui nous nous entretenons d'Omar Khadr. Emprisonné à Guantanamo suite aux événements du 11 septembre 2001, Khadr n'était encore qu'un adolescent. Pourquoi l'avoir emprisonné dans cette prison qui n'a rien d'ordinaire? A-t-il été victime de l'acharnement des gouvernements canadien et américain? Maintenant libéré, peut-il obtenir réparation? Nous en discutons avec notre invité. Bonne écoute et surtout bon été! Merci à nos partenaires!Constructions Rivard - https://www.constructionsrivard.com/Miel Abitémis - https://www.mielabitemis.com/Devenez membre Patreon en vous rendant au https://www.patreon.com/sltdh et profitez de dizaines d'heures de contenu exclusif!Procurez-vous votre marchandise aux couleurs de SLTDH en vous rendant au https://www.teepublic.com/user/sltdh?fbclid=IwAR2iZT54ghl6ziSCVoWc8Jy0eWnRLRRuz-KE1hFqh8nIG562O8rTpzO1o1gRejoignez-nous sur Twitch : https://www.twitch.tv/sltdhAbonnez-vous à notre chaîne YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2y8ecp5-KYF6y51rqi6hlQUne présentation des Éditions Dernier Mot: https://editionsderniermot.com/

Omar Khadr v. United States

Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies, and gentlemen — and the rest of you — in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favourite Rebels. I'm your host, David Menzies. In the name of climate change, the Dutch government has declared war on its farmers. And guess what: the farmers and their supporters are fighting back. Lewis Brackpool joins me for the latest news from the Netherlands. And why does the CBC think it needs to be a guardian angel for terrorist and murderer Omar Khadr? First they invite this creep on a talk show, then the network refuses to hand over records about the booking to Rebel News. But guess what? Canada's information commissioner has ruled against CBC. Sheila Gun Reid has all the details. And letters; we get your letters; we get your letters every minute of every day. And I'll share some of your hilarious responses regarding our new Justin Trudeau/Fidel Castro T-shirts – which are flying off the shelves these days, by the way. Those are your Rebels, now let's round them up…

L'actualité vue par Geneviève :l'actualité sous la loupe de Geneviève. Marie-Philip Poulin, la grande joueuse de hockey, sinon la meilleure au monde, en entrevue sur son nouveau rôle au sein du Canadien de Montréal, Frédéric Bérard qui séjourne à Guantanamo pour un projet de livre sur l'affaire Omar Khadr et Alice Lacroix, organisatrice de la manifestation "Libérez les seins”.  La rencontre Gibeault-Pettersen avec Nicole Gibeault, juge à la retraite : procès Rochefort, l'adorateur de Marc Lépine, se poursuit depuis lundi, procès d'un Néerlandais accusé de harcèlement sur Internet débute dans l'ouest canadien, un prêtre pédophile libéré et les séquelles de la violence conjugale: son corps est devenu une «zone sinistrée».  Entrevue avec Marie-Philip Poulin, joueuse de hockey au niveau élite et nouvelle consultante au développement des joueurs au Canadien de Montréal :  son nouveau rôle au sein du Canadien de Montréal  Chronique édito de Carl Marchand : le maire de Sorel-Tracy destitué et hommage à Pettersen. Entrevue avec Frédéric Bérard, Docteur en droit, auteur et chroniqueur : Il veut compléter son projet de livre qui analyse l'histoire d'Omar Khadr et le rôle du gouvernement de Stephen Harper dans cette affaire. La rencontre Lefebvre-Leclerc avec les analystes politiques Elsie Lefebvre et Marc-André Leclerc : des moments difficiles pour le Parti Québécois, ça bouge chez les conservateurs et le coût de la crise sanitaire au Québec. Chronique de Luc Laliberté, spécialiste de la politique américaine : Matthew McConaughey et les armes à feu: originaire d'Uvalde, il a pris la parole à la Maison-Blanche, partisan des armes et Texans, son message était émouvant et il pourrait porter, New York resserre le contrôle des armes et il s'agit déjà d'un État où il y a moins de fusillades, on s'apprête à souligner les 50 ans du Watergate et un scandale géré d'une manière bien différente de l'assaut du 6 janvier et des magouilles de Trump. Segment LCN : la poursuite d'un milliard de dollars de gymnastes américaines. Chronique de Gabrielle Caron, humoriste, auteure et animatrice du balado “J'ai fait un humain” à QUB radio : un divorce pour une cause de nouille. Entrevue avec Alice Lacroix, organisatrice : elle nous parle de la manifestation "libérez les seins”.  La rencontre Stréliski-Cyr avec les humoristes Léa Stréliski et Mathieu Cyr : les changements climatiques, Mathieu de retour de Finlande et un médicament miracle contre le cancer colorectal. Chronique culturelle d'Anaïs Guertin-Lacroix : édition spéciale de La fureur au Festival juste pour rire, Brad Pitt accuse Angelina Jolie d'«intentions malfaisantes» avec la vente de leur domaine viticole. Une production QUB Radio.  Juin 2022.         Pour de l'information concernant l'utilisation de vos données personnelles - https://omnystudio.com/policies/listener/fr

L'actualité vue par Geneviève :l'actualité sous la loupe de Geneviève. Marie-Philip Poulin, la grande joueuse de hockey, sinon la meilleure au monde, en entrevue sur son nouveau rôle au sein du Canadien de Montréal, Frédéric Bérard qui séjourne à Guantanamo pour un projet de livre sur l'affaire Omar Khadr et Alice Lacroix, organisatrice de la manifestation "Libérez les seins”.  Pour de l'information concernant l'utilisation de vos données personnelles - https://omnystudio.com/policies/listener/fr

Le corps d'un patient mort a été laissé plus de deux heures dans l'entrée des ambulances de l'Hôpital Honoré-Mercier de Saint-Hyacinthe. Marie Ménard se trouve devant le bureau de passeport depuis 6h00 du matin. Pierre Curzi quittait, il y a 11 ans, les rangs du Parti Québécois. Que pense-t-il de l'adhésion de Bernard Drainville et Caroline St-Hilaire aux rangs de la CAQ? En pleine rédaction d'un ouvrage sur Omar Khadr, Frédéric Bérard est actuellement au camp de détention de Guantanamo. Voir https://www.cogecomedia.com/vie-privee/fr/ pour notre politique de vie privée

Please note this episode deals with sexuality and sexual violence and may not be suitable for all listeners. Some material may be triggering. If you do find yourself triggered or having difficulty, please contact your local rape crisis center. If you need assistance locating support, please use RAINN.org in the US and Ending Violence in Canada to locate supportive services.Kerry: We're talking about Tamari’s book, Appealing Because He is Appalling. And it's all about the idea of Black masculinity, colonialism, and erotic racism. And this is a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. Because it's very much about how we perceive ourselves sexually, and how these ties really affect how we are showing up in these colonial spaces. How has the systematic racism, colonialism, you know, all the isms affected us, and in particular, a very forgotten piece of this space, which is the Black man. Black men have been railroaded into one real vice where, where there, I've always looked at it like we we see them, you know, in this sinister space as one product, or we see them as an infallible space and another end of that product. Like it's almost nonexistent. There's no space in between. And Tamari, I really want us to get a moment to, to unpack all of it, because there is a lot here and so much stuff that I had no idea about. And I'm sure we'll we'll get to talking. I'm sure we will. Let's get dive in.Tamari:Yes.  No, thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. And Patti again. Is this our second conversation? I think it's our second?Patty: Yeah, at least second, maybe third.  We’re old friends now.Tamari:Yeah. We often do not speak about Black men and disabilities, you know, to talk about police violence, without talking about the disabling of Black men, either psychologically or physically. We're just missing a huge part of that conversation. But not just the the disabilities that arises from being incarcerated or interaction with the police. But the brilliant thing about the paper that Leroy and I wrote, and I wrote is that we take this back to slavery. And slavery was the production of disabilities. And if you look at the nature of resistance and rebellions, from slavery onward, very often you're talking about individuals that were disabled.So if you go to Haiti, you found that Boukman and others who were the founding figures of the Haitian Revolution, those people were all physically disabled, they had either limbs that were dismembered, or some other such thing. Harriet Tubman, right, she took a piece of metal to the head and had convulsions, all her life. So disabilities is a major part of Black resistance and rebellion.And if you know, I mean, I think we can get get to this, again, is to talk about Emmett Till, and disabilities. That is a really important piece of disabilities history that not a lot of people know. And Leroy introduced me to it. And I did a bit of research on that. And it's just absolutely amazing that this young boy had a speech impediment. So he had like a speaking disability and his mother in Chicago taught him in order to form his words, he should whistle. So that led to, uh, I forget the name of the guy that led the charge. I think his last name was Bryant in thinking that this little boy was whistling at his wife and his wife knew that that was not the case. And upon her deathbed admitted that it was all concocted. So disabilities is a major part of resistance. But it's also produced by anti-Blackness and the particular targeting of Black men.So about me. So I'm a professor of sociology at Brock University. been there since 2006. And my areas of specialization and interest are Blackness and anti-Blackness in Western and Asiatic cultures. I do not separate the west from the east because it's all Asia people talk about the European continent. All the continents begin with “A” except for North and South America which are joined by an isthmus.Patty: Yeah, I saw Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, I was listening to a panel she was on and she referred to the Asian peninsula of Europe.Tamari:That's what it is. There's no Eurasia, it's Asia..Kerry: I just love that. That is a drop of knowledge. Now, you know,Keep going, Tamari, with, with, with this interest of yours being, you know, Blackness, anti-Blackness and understanding, I really want to hold space. First off, for the topic matter that we're going to be discussing tonight. I really recognize I mean, we've we've gathered before, and I really recognize, you know, how our Black men especially, are not necessarily honored, nor do we lend voice for what their experience dealing with a colonial system can be. And I really would love for us.  One we're honoring you. I'm I also want to just acknowledge the the bravery or the the fact that you're speaking out and giving us some context, because I think that it's unusual in some of the ways that we've we've been told about Black men, you know, and and what there are, and I really want you to give us some of that. What, when we talk about this book, what was your thought process and putting it together and compiling it? What is it about?Tamari:You know, so my main thought processes was that I went through my undergraduate years, taking courses in feminism, and women's history. And my my second published essay was a critique of first wave feminism in Canada. Talking about, looking at the first wave feminists in Canada, they were really anti-immigrant. They're really hated Chinese people. They were eugenicists. They hated mixed race unions and couples, and they particularly hated Black men and white women. And they were all about this Nordic Anglo keeping Canada white. And if anybody's going to get the vote, it should be them, it should be them because they're the models of civilization.So I went through studying this stuff. And then I kept thinking about my experiences growing up in Toronto. And as a young adult, going to nightclubs and something just didn't sit right with me. Because, you know, I had experiences where I have to wonder what explained it.Like if, you know, I gave one instance in the introduction, where walk into a club, downtown Toronto, was about 22 years old. And, you know, young white woman, looking my age walks directly in front of me, like, and I you know, I couldn't get up, get away from her because she's like, walking right in front of me, right? So I just walk into the club, like, what's going on here, right? She just walks right in front of me, looks me in the eyes, and clutches my testicles, and my penis, and squints and then gives me that look, and then lightly squeezes and then walks off and what what the f**k just happened? Like, this doesn't make any sense, right? So of course, my night was ruined.But as an undergraduate student, I'm thinking, Okay, this doesn't fit with the narrative that men are the ones that dominate women, men are the ones that objectify women, it just didn't fit in my experience. And the more brothers that I spoke to, the more I kept hearing the same thing. But there was nothing in the literature that would help me to explain what this was.And so I actually intended to write my dissertation on this very topic. And so I approached a white feminist scholar who does at when I was a student at OISE, whose specialization is gender, sexuality. So I thought, Okay, this is this is someone that I could work with, who can help me process like, what theory can explain my experience and experiences of other Black men? So I sat down with this person who I hoped would have been my supervisor. And I explained my my interest in this topic. And this white woman just looked at me and busted out laughing and said, Now you know how we feel. Like oh, s**t, okay.So there's no way that I can write a dissertation that would deconstruct this phenomenon, because I will be basically assailing feminist theory. Right so it that idea never left me. And so when I just went I was  theorising you know how to go about doing this book, I thought, You know what, I'm not going to do a sole authored book, I put out a call for papers, I reached out to people around the world. And this was starting in about 2013, 2014. And so the book has been, this particular book in this formation has been in progress that long, because I knew from my readings that these dynamics were taking place elsewhere around the world and across time, and that in some situations, it had like really national significance and importance.Like in Japan, which was a country basically occupied by the United States, from like, 1853, when Admiral Perry went into Tokyo Bay with his Black ship, right, this Black ship, and his bodyguard were like these African American guys that were six foot five, ebony Black, super muscular. And the Japanese were like, you know, five foot three. And so they're looking up with these giants. Who were the body guards for Admiral Perry, and it's like, oh, s**t, if this little white guy is commanding these big negros, then we better listen to him.So Blackness became this weaponization, to help the Japanese to understand that you should submit now or else we're going to set these guys after you. Right? So Black masculinity in Japan has this interesting history of being the symbolic front edge of US domination and conquest in the country that got really ramped up and amplified with the, with the with the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, and then the occupation of Japan thereafter.So I really thought that I needed not to write a sole authored book, but to bring in other people from different regions of the world, so that we can understand what the dynamics are, how they look differently, how they look similar. And just to have a better understanding of what this issue is that we're dealing with, where we just like lack the capacity to see Black men as fully human beings.Patty: The one thing that I was really into that really intrigued me was the discussions about queerness, and about anti queer beliefs and attitudes throughout the Caribbean, because I see a lot of parallels with how that takes place. How that has taken place in Indigenous communities as well. So can you because I think you contributed to one of those essays as well.Tamari:So those were two two separate essays. One is by Kumar McIntosh. And he was addressing the issue of anti queer representations in newspaper cartoons in Jamaica. And he did a really nice deconstruction of how that anti queer representation fits in with respectability politics and this kind of light skinned politics. And this the colonial narrative that gay men or gayness is somehow antithetical to what it means to be Jamaican. Right. So he does a really nice paper in deconstructing how class bias is part of the colonial logic and mentality that leads to that sort of representation.And what I really like about his paper is that he does not go down that rabbit hole of mass constructing all homophobia and all anti queer politics in Jamaica, somehow inherent to the culture and pervasive to the people. Because, I can tell you that in my experience, when I like so for example, there's a JA Rogers right, the one of the most famous Jamaican historians ever who was like one of the leading figures in the Harlem Renaissance. He's got like a bunch of books, race of class, recent race, not race and class. I forgot the other part of the title is a three volume set. It'll come to me in a minute because actually cite him. In one of his books, I think volume two or three, he talks about homosexuality in Jamaica, and he's writing about this in 1943. And what he ended up saying is that when the British ships, the British warships come to dock in the harbor, the pharmacies sell out of unguents. And like I read this a long time ago, and then I reread it incredibly impressive. For the book, and I didn't know what the hell an unguent was, it’s gel basically. Right?So Jay Rogers is writing about this in 1943. Right, that it was same sex relationships was just a fundamental part of the culture as it is everywhere else. But there's, something happened. Post 1945 Post 1980, post IMF Post World Bank really eviscerating the economic life of Jamaica. Right. And so we have lost the capacity to look at gender and sexuality politics, outside of economics. But when you factor in economics, when you factor in the history of buck breaking in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean, that homophobia takes on a particular valence and a narrative, that it has different meanings and practices on the ground.When you look at Dancehall culture, transgender gay men, they are a big part of Dancehall culture. So how does it come to be that in Dancehall culture, you have an acceptance of homosexuality, but in formal politics and its articulation, you have a different narrative. And I don't think that the Western narrative of framing Jamaica as a homophobic space is in fact, accurate and a really useful analysis in articulation of what gender and sexuality politics looks like in Jamaica. So I think Kumar's chapter does a wonderful job of deconstructing that homophobia and that queer/anti queer politics, without castigating the totality of Jamaican culture.The other paper by Zizwe Poe, um not Zizwe Poe. Sorry. That's their, that's the father.I keep getting the father and son mixed up (Watufani M. Poe). So his paper looks at queer politics in Cuba, and in Brazil, just about the time of 1888. And shortly after, when slavery was abolished in the Spanish Dominions was 1888, rather than 1865 in the US, and 1833, in the British dominions, so think about that. 1888. That's just like, so someone alive in Brazil now has a grandmother, or grandfather, who was directly enslaved.So he writes this wonderful analysis of literature and some of the first novels that were based on same sex relationships between African and European males. But he also does another wonderful piece of work of looking at the Inquisition. And a lot of what was involved in the Inquisition was these records about aberrant sexual behavior. So, he does an amazing chapter deconstructing all of this. And I think his core point is that this idea that same sex male relationships is somehow anathema to Blackness, really does not understand Black history and African history. And this is like a raging debate where some people are saying, Africa didn't have homosexuality. And other people are saying, well, when you look at the archaeological evidence, the narratives from the first the Spanish, the Jesuits and others, it's very clear that they were same sex relationships and that there were transgendered males who were core parts of their communities.So when you look at the historical evidence, and you look at the narratives from the enslaved Africans in the Americas, it makes it very clear that homosexuality was a fundamental norm, a regular part of relationships. But at the same time, his work demonstrates that African males were definitely sexually assaulted by slave masters and other white males. And this is one of those aspects of slavery that is only not, I'm sorry, that is only now beginning to get it's just do in terms of research.Kerry: For me as we're we're unpacking this, there's, there's this sense of like heaviness that I feel because I recognize, you know, I have Black sons. My father is a Black man, and you know, this doing them this justice of holding the space. And speaking about this, you know, I when I was reading through the book Tamari what really touched me it was a triggering moment because you mentioned it in the foreword, you know, it's in the forward where you talk about this sense or this, the the the statistics about Black men and sexual assault, and we have so not put those two pieces together. And I really want us to dive into that. Tell us what the truth of that matter is? How are how is that showing up? As well in the way Black men are, are, are showing up just how are they in conjunction to this reality against these numbers? I don't even want to go there. I'm gonna let you do it.Tamari:So the thanks for asking that question. So I'll just give like a little bit of these statistics from Canada. In the city of Toronto, right. Black men are 4% of the population. But of all complaints of sexual assault against the police, to the Special Investigations Unit, they represent 25% of all complaints. Right?I will, I will, I was asked to be on a supervisory committee for a student. That was her thesis was looking at strip searching in the prisons. And I thought, yeah, great, I have no problem being on this committee, I could be very useful. And at a certain point, I had to say to the supervisor and the student that look, I have to withdraw from this committee, because I just can't process this notion that's being constructed, this narrative, that somehow strip searching of women in prisons is somehow much more egregious, harmful and devastating to them than it is to males. I showed the student that 80% of all strip searching that occurs across the province of Ontario, with the bulk of it being done in Toronto, 80% of all persons strip searched by the cops are males. But when you look at the report from this, this this agency in Toronto, they don't actually say any percent of males are strip searched, they say 20 to 25% of females are strip searched. So you have to do the math. Right. So even at that level, those people that are compiling the data, simply refuse to see that 75 to 80% of all persons strip searched are males, and therefore they're not obligated to do any further research and inquiry in terms of what the impacts are. Right.Now, when you when you, the data out of the United States, right, is that and we don't we don't have this data in Canada, the data out of the United States is that there are as many men raped in prison, as there are women in free society that are raped. Prisons are a rape factory. It is probably no less the case in Canada. Prison is also rape factory for women. We tend not to think and when you read Angela Davis's work, for example, in her book on prison abolition, right? She talks about sexual violence in the prison, but make no mention that males are predominantly the victims of rape in prisons. But she also doesn't talk about women as being raped by other women in prison. So whether you're talking about males or females, prisons, are rape factories, no matter which way you cut it, right.And I think one of the the points that I tried to make in my introduction, and in that preface is that to some extent, we really need to take a step back from sharply linking these essential categories of male and female with privilege and victimization, vis a vis, sexual violence, right, it really disables our capacity to see that there's a way in which sexual violence works, that disables our capacity to understand that the rates of intimate partner violence and sexual assault is higher among same sex relationships, meaning, lesbian, gay and trans.So where then do we go, if we can have a rational conversation about power, because we're too busy fixating on what the genitalia of the people are to presume that they either are, should be punished more frequently? Because they're males, or that they're more victims because they're females and require special treatment? Right. So this is not to disavow the violence to women, but it's to say that we need to shift the dial like something is happening And we're losing the capacity to have meaningful conversations that help us to understand what sexual violence looks like, and how it functions in the lives of males.Because we're only, researchers are only now beginning to gather the data, and it's principally in the United States. And what they're saying is that we have missed this significantly, in terms of the impact on young boys that are sexually assaulted, and males that are sexually assaulted both by males and females.Kerry: I really enjoy this line of conversation, because what comes up for me when I hear these stories is how, how much, you know, you know, men, and Black men in particular, are just simply, you know, not even in the picture, you know, this sense of once again, the erasure around how we have allowed Black men to show up. And then let's think about the how that picture that erasure is affecting the ways that our Black men are interrelating, are being, you know, judged in society in a particular way. Because normally, we don't see Black men as being, you know, the victims of the assault. And yet, there's this, you know, huge picture of them being the person who offers the assault. And I really want us to break that down, because that goes into some things. And Patty, I know you had something to offer to that.Patty: Well, because I mean, early on in the book, you make the point about, you know, there is no universal manhood, masculinity and, you know, universal men versus universal women. You know, and I've heard that in, you know, from a number of Indigenous feminists as well, you know, rejecting this universal womanhood. You know, so this idea of the, when we talk about like this universal womanhood and this universal manhood, we're not able to talk about these other things. And you know, you also make the point you know about we know that men get sexually assaulted we joke about them in prison, don't pick up the soap you say, right, how often to cops threaten person that they're interrogating, or whatever with “Yeah, you're gonna go to jail, and you're gonna get raped? And how are you going to like that?” And it's like, Dude, I stole Skittles, like, why are you doing this? You know, like Mariame Kaba uses that language too, “How do you be a, you know, call yourself an advocate against sexual violence and then send people to rape factories,” right? How do you? How do you do that? How so we know that men are sexually victimized and Black and Indigenous and making up the bulk of the prison population in Canada. And yet, we still call the cops on them. How is that not sexual violence,Tamari:it's hard not to understand it that way when you frame it that way. And that's because you're rethinking the narrative. And you know, as Patty, as you were relaying that, that perspective, I was thinking about Omar Khadr. Like this was a 16 year old boy in Guantanamo Bay, and the CIA interrogators in order to get this child soldier, a child, who should never had been incarcerated, to get him to confess, they said to him, we're going to put you into a US prison with four big Black men and you know what they're going to do to you.So even at that level, the idea that rape is an instrument of control in prisons is one thing. But to use this as a means of threatening a child, to say that a Black man, this is how we’re going to punish you, if you don't confess. That just shows the extent to which of phenomena called sociogenic.This myth of the Black man as a rapist is so pervasive in the culture that we need to begin to clearly name what I'm calling the Black phallic fantastic, which is the idea that Black men are hypersexual, they've never seen a and typically it's, you know, heterosexual. So they've never seen a woman that they would not want to sleep with. And especially if it's a white woman, oh my god, right? They're hyper sexual. They always want sex. Second, they're priapic they have large penises. Oh, everybody knows that. It's just like this thing. That's a part of the culture. I've had Black women complain to me that their white female work friends ask them if it's true. And how would they know? Because they have Black sons. So white women are asking Black women if it's true, a white woman who might be have a spouse who was a Black man or any other woman, other women what women would ask them, Is it true? RightSo we demean, and we discipline men for having locker room talk. But we know that white women and other women do this. Right? So that's the priapic myth. And the other is that well, we're prone to rape. If, if the accusation is made, it's reverse onus that dude has to prove that he didn't do it. This is just how pervasive these these three aspects of what I'm calling the Black phallic fantastic are and it's mobilized in different ways throughout the culture at different levels.And right now, I'm just about to launch my, my research project for a book, that my next book, calling it sex tropes in trauma, the intimate lives of Black men, and I want to understand how do these tropes affect you? Right, because I've been talking to enough Black men to be disturbed by what by what I'm told, that's for some of them, their quote, unquote, first experience is being 5, 7, 8, 12, 16, years old, right, and being introduced to sex, very often by older girls, and grown women. But the older these guys get, the more they frame it as an experience. So they don't even have a language, to name having their sexual sovereignty, their autonomy removed from them, while as youngsters.And what I'm what I want to get at is, like, how has this affected your life, if you have had any of these experiences, whether it's with the tropes, or with actually having your autonomy being taken from you, because we don't have a language for it. And I think that's one of my, that's my mission, really, with this next book, is to help to develop a language. And I think this will lead Black men to be able to live more full lives with higher quality, intimate relationships, if they can deconstruct these tropes and the trauma with their partners.Kerry: Oh, okay, Tamari, I have you just sent chills down my, to my very core, I am really, really resonating deeply with so many of the things that you said, one being that I work very closely with Black men, with couples. And it has been my experience as well, that that this this sense of the Black man, or, you know, having these very early sexual experiences, and somehow, as you said, it is created to, you know, we know that when we go through trauma, we, we have different levels of acceptance of what that traumatic event is, and, and depending on how you react, you may freeze, or you numb out and then I believe that it's reinforced by our societal norms that tell our men that, you know, they're allowed to have these sexual conquests. And yet, I too, have noticed at an alarming rate that I see are Black men are having these experiences as young as five, the median age that I have seen is around 12, 13. That seems to be a median age. And the how that has shown up is a lot of these same people end up in my chair afterwards.And I find that there's been this, there's been several disconnections in the way that the perceptions of sexuality, this idea of even being able to associate the trauma, I do a lot of work around just even opening that door to recognize that there might have been, you know, what, do you know at 12. You don't know these things at 12, curiosity maybe, but what do you know?  You know, it's speaking that language and giving them that language.I think it's such a powerful space, because so many of us and, and in particular, Black men don't. And I it's funny, I'm really interested and working on developing a course myself a system to offer some of the healing spaces that we need to around it. And it is novel, allowing even to connect into that emotional space that allows men to feel safe enough to even be able to acknowledge it is is some work that definitely is needed. And I am just commending you if this is you know that that's the next step for you. As you taking this further what.How is, when we talk about this. How is Black men? How are Black men sitting in it? Do you know what I mean? Like we know that we have the you know, you have the Black phallic fantastic. Can you dive in and explain that just a little bit more like break that down? Because I really want people to understand and hear this. Like, when you mentioned this theory, I went, Wow, this is it. This is it. Can you really break it down for us?TamariOkay, so thanks for the question. So, what I've done is I've taken the three major sexual stereotypes about Black men, because Fanon, Baldwin, who are the core theorists that are used in this book, all of their work deals with those three tropes or stereotypes. Others do it also, right, Chester Himes, Calvin Harrington, others do it. But there's something about the way in which James Baldwin was so persistent and so pervasive. And he was a cultural critic/psycho analyst who took these sexual stereotypes that are in the ether in the popular culture. And he brought it down to the level of daily practice. And he often used his own experience. And Fanon took it from the vantage point of the psychoanalyst’s couch. Right, who would psychoanalyze Western culture. And of course, the problem with Fanon is that he never applied his own theories to himself, whereas Baldwin did.So there's a whole space and a gap in Fanon’s articulation of these tropes, right? That not even those who focus on his work, have paid close enough attention to, to see that Black Skin/White Masks, for all else that it was, it was an autobiography. Fanon was making self, making sense of himself as a colonized man, who could not get out of the space of colonization. Right? So this, he was literally working a lot of this stuff out through his patience. And this is what came through in Black Skin, White Masks, but I don't think a lot of his experts, those people who specialized in his work have paid close enough attention to that.So what I did was I took these three tropes, the hypersexuality, right? Because you know, this presumption that well, Black men always love sex, and you say sex, you think Black man, you think big penis, you think Black men. You think rapist, you think Black men. And this is what was core to the work of Baldwin throughout much of his body of work, and also Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks. And what they were getting at was, how do we deconstruct this, so that Black men can be seen as human beings and live human lives, and that others will not depend on defining who they are by imposing those sorts of tropes on Black men so that they can see themselves as innocent.So what I did was, I said, Look, how far does this go back? And you got to go back to Greece and Rome. And people some people might say, oh, Tamari, you're taking it way too far. Well, okay. Well, you go to some of the Roman baths in North Africa. And you look on the, you look at the frescoes or reproduce some of those in the book, where did those come from? That was Romans reproducing those narratives of priapism as applied to Black men. But here's the twist. Priapism on the African significant signified barbarism. On a Roman is signified responsible use of power.Because for the Romans, the penis was an instrument. The phallus was an instrument of power. The bigger the better. On an African or barbarian it connoted savagery, and sexual irresponsibility. This was part of how Rome envisioned African men because it also served as a symbol of fertility. So kind of like the the lawn jockeys, you know, holding up the candle, right? You rub the head for good luck on your way out of your house. Okay, those symbols, those frescoes of African males that were priapic, those were meant to connote fertility, but it also meant to connote barbarism on the African. Those things function together.You go back a little further with Galen, the Greco Roman physician, he said that there's certain things that are unique to Africans, right. One of them is their large penises, and that they're hilarious. What what where would he get that idea from the Greeks and the Romans had a conception of moral geography where you were geographically that signified your moral qualities and characteristics, Mediterranean - Middle Earth. Those were the people that were rational, balanced, reasoned, they had equilibrium. People in the south or oversexed, people in the North, the Nordics, people, they said that they were frigid, and stupid. So all these Nordic people taking Greece and Rome as their inheritance. The Greeks and the Romans despise them. Right?So when you go now to like the, the, the 17th, and the 18th and 19th century in Europe, who were they reading? They were reading Plato, of course, but they were also reading Theadorus of Sicily. They're reading all these other Greco Roman, Greek and Roman philosophers, geographers, that located race, with geography with moral characteristics, and they always associated hypersexuality, rape propensity, and large penises with Africans.Kerry: And, and what that brings up, interestingly enough, where I went with that is into the Middle Eastern slave trade. It's not something that we very often discuss, but the fact that, you know, the, you know, the Middle East, or moving into that part of the world that they were having, you know, they were slaving enslaving Africans for about 500 years before the Middle Passage started, you know, and we also don't talk about that in that realm of the slave trade, that element of creating eunuchs. So so many of our Black men were actually castrated. And so I think that's very interesting to note that, you know, this idea of power when you when you bring up this the sense of the Greco, the Greco Roman era, considering penis size, being about power, I find it very interesting that the very first thing that would happen when they enslaved our people or Black men, that the first thing that went was the penis.Tamari:So that's an interesting observation and let me add a bit more to that. Right. When you look at the enslavement of African people, by Arabs, mostly and to a lesser extent, what we now call India. One of the interesting things is that is the demographics, the Trans Saharan and the Trans Indian Ocean enslavement of African people, two out of every three African taken was a female. The other 1/3 were males. And they were chiefly used in military service, but also in the bureaucracy as eunuchs. The Khalif of Baghdad in the 10th century, he had something like 10,000 or 11,000 eunuchs in his bureaucracy. 4000 were white males from Eastern Europe, the other 7000 were African males. There was a tendency to prefer eunuchs who were Africans because they will be castrated. And in the Turkish Empire in Turkey itself, like in Ottoman Turkey. The the the royal bureaucracy was literally like virtually all staffed by African males. And many Turks don't know the extent to which Africans were not only in the military, but predominated in the palace, right and among the upper classes, but we, the most Turks don't know this because they could not sexually reproduce. Ah, and so the castration centers were in Egypt, right, one of the main centers was in Egypt, in Alexandria, and in Spain.Kerry: Wow. See, once again, I had no idea. Thank you for that piece of information.Tamari:So they also had it was a it was, it was it was an art and a science. So clean shaved were those who had the both the penis and testicles cut off. And shaved were only those who had just just a testicles cut off. The mortality rate for those that were clean shaved was extraordinarily high. And in some cases, the surgical procedure amounted to no more than a stone crushing the genitals of 12, 13, 14, and 15 year old boys. Right, this was the level of barbarism and brutality, that was meted out to African males during the Saharan and the East Indian slave trade. So if those males were not used in the military, and they were, if they were used in the bureaucracy, they were very, very often castrated, the mortality rate depending on the type of the procedure was not high. And absolute disregard for the survival of the males was not a concern, because it was cheaper to replace them than to grow them.Patty: We often think about, you know, kind of the history of Blackness beginning with the transatlantic slave trade. But really, Africa and Europe aren't that far apart. You know, they're not that far apart. I'm like, you know, you talk about the, these tropes going back, you know, to Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and further further back, because this is not a huge geography that we're talking about, and trade routes and relationships, and wherever, wherever Black slavery went, you know, or Afrocentric, slavery went, That's they weren't all eunuchs, as like, you say, were in the military. So they form communities that remain to this day, like in the case of, of the Siddih in India, and we forget that we get so kind of locked in our own little world, that, you know, we forget that there have been Black people in England for a very long time. You know, there have been Black people in France and Spain and, you know, kind of throughout, you know, those places for a very long time, and not always enslaved. Not, you know, you know, that's also kind of a very narrow picture that we have. And, and that's what carries forward in our current thinking about Blackness, as we only have this kind of very small, very skewed perspective of, you know, of what it is. So that's, I mean, that's something else that I really appreciated about your book is the large, global and historical context of it, that makes us see just how much bigger it is, which shows just really how absurd our current view is. And the current limitations of the way we think about Black men and Blackness in general. It's, it's ridiculous, it’s so tightly controlled this narrative, this, you know, white supremacy, white supremacist, colonial narrative, but it's ridiculous. It doesn't, it doesn't hold. The center does not hold.Kerry: right. I love that so much, Patty, because it's true. For me, when I was reading this book, at the same way, same thing for you, even as a Black person, like just the expansiveness of this body of work, like you really do touch from so many different spaces. And it really brought home, how we, as Black people, and in particular, are Black men whose voice doesn't get heard. They are not a monolith. They are, you know, have different experiences have had, um. Even though there are commonalities, which you know, I think you're drawing in, but the there are these differences in the way that we have had those experiences. However, we don't give the voice to our men to speak it. And as you said, that language hasn't even been developed. So, you know, Tamari, I just want to really commend you for you know, doing this, to me, it's groundbreaking work. I know, we I know, there have been others that have come before, you've quoted some of my you know, I call them my hallowed babas you know, Dr. Diap, and, and others that you've quoted. But I really recognize how with there's so much more to go. And I I'm, I'm we're at our hour, so that's kind of why I'm like, Man, I feel like we've only just like we just we just did like 10 pages in like that's, that's what it feels like. And there's so much more to cover. I really would love for us to come back even to break down like this, the sense of queerness and how that has shown up that there's just so much disabilities and how that has shown up in We got to have you back Tamari?Tamari:Well, I would, I would definitely say thank you. And I would, I would definitely bring my colleagues with me that contributed to the book, because they have to speak to the work from their own perspective, because the work than they did was just absolutely brilliant,Patty: Like for myself as an Indigenous woman, and thinking about the men in our communities, and, you know, kind of their experiences, because, you know, our men are also hyper sexualized, and, you know, on the cover of, you know, those bodice ripping romance novels and, you know, and kind of, you know, play that, you know, portrayed as the, you know, the savage, and, you know, always in a loincloth with a rippling chest, right, like, it's, I don't know, like, it's always in that way, we talk about the hyper sexualization of the men and the women in two very different ways, right, like the woman is always seen as the victim. And the man is always seen as the predator. And we don't see that by framing our men in this way. And we do it ourselves. You know, because we buy into that stuff, right? Like, we've heard it from the time we were little, you know, but, you know, that is in itself a form of sexual violence, because we're putting them in this box, that is not helpful, and is not I mean,I could just go in so many in so many ways about this, but we just had our sisters in spirit event yesterday. And the woman who and one of the women who organized it, who spoke at the beginning, she said, I know, it's called Sisters in Spirit, and we're here for our Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. But we're also here for our two spirited people and for our men, and for all of those who are experiencing sexual violence and murder and going missing. This was not only for us, this is for all of us, because these things are pervasive in our communities, and whiteness, patriarchy, colonialism. That's the problem. That's the problem, not each other. And we are here together.So thank you so much for this book, I'm gonna be unpacking this for a while.Tamari:Patty, if you can, if you could encourage any First Nations, male to do an MA or PhD on exactly that issue that you mentioned, it is a, it's screaming to be done. The issue of the hyper sexualization of First Nation males, it's across the 19th century, into the 20th century, it is still pervasive, it's with us. But again, we don't have a language for it, because that work is really, I think I've read just a little bit of it. There's something out there. But I don't think to the extent that people have caught on to really do that research.Patty: Well, I think we're very comfortable with the idea of women as victims, we're very comfortable with that. And we're willing to throw lots of money at it and special days and everything, the idea of our men being victims, we're not that comfortable with thatKerry: I and I, you just hit the nail on the head. And I think what is so powerful about this is when we talk about the ways that we are dissecting colonialism, we are offering up medicines, I think this is an imperative part, until we allow a space for, you know, our men to be able to shine, to be able to stand up to be able to voice and bring power to their voice in their vulnerability. Because what I think we've excluded from men is that sense of their vulnerability and the ability to be safe, to be heard. So as we develop the language as we create these truths, we as we have these conversations, this is one of the ways that we tear apart this system as it stands because it joins us. It allows us to feel it allows us to create healing. And I'm so, so grateful to know you Tamari. This is great work you're doing. I really appreciate youTamari:my sisters. I want to thank you both, Patty and Kerry, this is wonderful. Thank you. I look forward to being back.Patty:We'll see you again. Bye bye.Kerry: We're doing this again. Thank you both. Bye. Good night. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit medicinefortheresistance.substack.com

Convicted terrorist Omar Khadr got a standing ovation at Dalhousie University after a talk in which he professed his support for open borders and didn't have to answer any challenging questions. True North's Andrew Lawton was there and breaks down what happened in this on-location edition of The Andrew Lawton Show. Rebel Commander Ezra Levant joins to talk about Khadr's refusal for denounce terrorism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew talks about the media's whitewashing of Omar Khadr's past and Dalhousie University's refusal to say whether or not it is paying Khadr for his keynote speech there. Also, updates on the Conservative leadership race and a discussion with Prof. Rainer Knopff from the Fraser Institute about the constitutional hurdles standing between Alberta and a better equalization deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gordon Stuckless, the Maple Leaf Gardens sexual predator is out of jail just months after the convicted serial sexual abuser of young boys had his prison sentence increased by the Ontario Superior Court and was slated to spend almost a decade in prison for his crimes which took place over three decades.  How does this happen?  The Trudeau government no longer is focused on eliminating mandatory minimum sentencing..and Global News last year found out nearly 800 criminal cases have been thrown out after a Supreme Court deadline of 18 months for provincial court trials and 30 months for superior court trials were not met. and: Omar Khadr loses a court appeal in the United States.                Guest: Scott Newark.  Fmr Alberta prosecutor, fmr exec dir, Canadian Police Association and past-president of the Ontario Office for Victims of Crime. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this edition of Counterpoint, Alex is joined by: Andy Stinton – Small Business Man & Michael Diamond - Upstream Strategy Group Topics include: The terrorist attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, Omar Khadr being treated as a celebrity on the CBC radio show ''Toute Le Monde En Parle, and the Canadian revenue Agency writing off more than $133 million in taxes.

It's one thing to see Omar Khadr is a victim of his upbringing, it's another thing to elevate him to a star status he does not deserve. That's exactly what the CBC did on Easter Sunday inviting the convicted terrorist to be a star guest on their French Canadian radio show, Toute Le Monde En Parle.

The Saturday edition of the Best of Libby Znaimer

Libby speaks with former policy advisor and crown prosecutor Scott Newark and Security and Terrorism expert Ross McLean

John speaks with Global News Radio Legal Expert Joseph Neuberger about a pair of the day's big legal stories. 

On this edition of Counterpoint, Alex is joined by: Stephen LeDrew – Lawyer, broadcaster and former President of the Liberal Party of Canada. & Mike Van Soelen – Managing Principal at Navigator, a public relations and crisis communications organization. Topics include: Global News obtaining a letter sent by Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston MPP, Randy Hillier, several countries banning the Boeing 737 plane, Omar Khadr spending $3 million of his settlement on a strip mall in Edmonton and more.

The Roy Green Show Podcast - A Globe and Mail story declares anonymous sources revealed the Prime Minister's Office attempted to interfere with the duties of former federal Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould, by pressuring her to intervene with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and halt criminal prosecution of Montreal-based international engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, in favour of some type of remediation. Our first guest, Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer, is demanding a parliamentary emergency meeting over the Trudeau/SNC-Lavalin allegation. And later Roy speaks with David Butt, Criminal lawyer and former prosecutor, about the available options that would permit Jody Wison-Raybould to answer the questions about any suggested interference. Meanwhile, Democracy Watch has released a letter to federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, insisting he delegate any investigation to a provincial ethics commissioner because Dion, in their words, was “chosen” by the Trudeau cabinet without consultation with opposition parties as required by the Parliament of Canada Act. Duff Conacher, the co-founder of Democracy Watch and adjunct professor of law and political science at the University of Ottaway, joins the show. Serial killer Bruce McArthur and Quebec City mosque mass killer Alexandre Bissonnette were sentenced yesterday. Both pleaded guilty, yet McArthur received no consecutive sentences, and Bissonnette's consecutive sentences were altered. McArthur will be eligible to request parole at age 91 and Bissonnette who was sentenced to life, will nevertheless be eligible for parole in 40 years at age 69. Many are asking, Why were there no clear-cut consecutive life sentences? Scott Newark joins the show to discuss these two cases, as well as that of Clinton Gayle. Gayle was convicted of first degree murder in the 1994 killing of Toronto police officer Todd Baylis and of attempted murder of Baylis' partner Constable Mike Leone.  The murder trial judge declared Gayle killed Officer Baylis in "execution style" with a shot from short range. Gayle becomes eligible for parole in June of this year.  There is a petition and national drive underway to keep him in prison for life. Scott Newark also weighs in on the news that Omar Khadr wants an Alberta youth court to declare his sentence to be expired. More incidents of wearing blackface are becoming public, following the allegation that Governor of Virginia Ralph Northam wore blackface in a law school yearbook. Governor Northam denies he is featured in the photograph but admitted to wearing blackface once while dressed as Michael Jackson for a dance competition. Today it's Canadian comedian Mark Rowswell, a.k.a. Dashan, who on admitted on Twitter that he wore blackface with his friends in high school while impersonating the band The Temptations. Rowswell says his drama teacher at the time suggested there was nothing wrong with the students wearing blackface. Guests: Andrew Scheer. Leader. Conservative Party of Canada. David Butt, Criminal lawyer in Toronto and former prosecutor Duff Conacher, Co-founder Democracy Watch, Adjunct profess of law and political science with the University of Ottawa. Scott Newark, former Alberta prosecutor, former executive director the Canadian Police Association, as well as the Ontario Office for Victims of Crime, now adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University. Ron Miller of Lynchburg, Virginia.  African American and dean of the Helms School of Government at Liberty University. Author of 'SELLOUT: Musings from Uncle Tom's Porch' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alex is joined byJohn Mraz and Bill Hutchison. Topics include: Ford government announces long overdue changes to autism funding. Mayor John Tory wants a review of snow removal operations following last week's storm. B'nai Brith issuing a tweet saying; Our investigation has revealed that Martin Masse, a senior advisor to PPC leader @MaximeBernier, defended Nazi sympathizers, made misogynistic statements about “femi-fascists” and said #Zionism is a “fancy justification for killing Palestinians.”. Come hell or high water, Omar Khadr is going to get his freedom. Nathalie Lemieux applauded Quebec Premier François Legault's opposition to designating an anti-Islamophobia day in Quebec, and said fear of Islam is a problem invented by Justin Trudeau's federal Liberals. 

As we reach the end of 2018, what is most needed from Canada's justice system? Scott Newark weighs in. Meanwhile Omar Khadr's request for changes to his bail conditions has been denied. And Dellen Millard is now sentenced to 75 years in prison before obtaining parole opportunity. But will Millard be treated more gently by Correctional Service Canada and the national parole board once the heat dies down a little? And how many Canadians are aware Millard will be eligible for a security downgrade in just two years? And Scott provides his insight on the situation with China and Huwawei. Subscribe to the Roy Green Show Podcast anywhere you find your favourite podcasts. Guest: Scott Newark, former Alberta Crown prosecutor, professor at SFU, former senior policy advisor to a federal Minister for Public Safety, former executive director for the Canadian Police Association See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Roy Green Show Podcast - Next Tuesday new federal legislation will allow police to demand a breath sample from a motorist even if there is no suspicion of drinking and driving. Is this a violation of constitutional rights? The Canadian Civil Liberties Association worries the legislation will be discriminatory toward minorities. Our guest Richard Lawhern, Ph.D. Director of Research with the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain, says “There are several provable falsehoods in” in a new article from U of T magazine, ‘How The Medical System is Trying to Wean Patients Off Opioids.' Most blatantly false is the stated position that physicians over-prescribing to their patients is in any way even related to significant elevation risk for opioid addiction or mortality. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Energy East will never proceed because “there is no support for a pipeline through Quebec.” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe joins the show, to remind Trudeau that he is Prime Minister all Canada's Provinces and Territories, not just Quebec. Omar Khadr is seeking changes in his bail conditions. Why didn't Khadr's lawyers appeal for full parole in 2015? Scott Newark says that Khadr was eligible for it at the time. Then, Scott Newark takes on Michael Rafferty's transference to a medium security prison. Guests: Ari Goldkind, Toronto Criminal Lawyer Michael Bryant, Executive Director and general counsel with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Former Ontario Attorney General Richard Lawhern, Ph.D. Director of Research with the Alliance for the Treatment of Intractable Pain Scott Moe, Premier of Saskatchewan Scott Newark, Professor with Simon Fraser University, national security expert (post 9/11 advisor to federal and Ontario governments), and former senior policy advisor to a federal Minister for Public Safety See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Loren Lieberman is in the studio tonight for the Brightest Conversation in Hamilton. He and Scott are ready to discsuss and debate everything from buyouts of public service worker jobs, to the most delicious smelling Christmas gift of all. Guest: Loren Lieberman

A multi-million dollar check, signed by the Canadian government, and an apology to boot. On top of being transferred out of one of the world's most infamous military prisons, this is what convicted terrorist, Omar Khadr, has received from the federal government. Despite all of this, Khadr was back in front of a judge recently, asking for changes to his bail conditions that include a Canadian passport as well as permission to speak to his sister. It seems freedom and financial security isn't enough and knowing our Prime Minister, he will likely see it the exact same way.

Alex is joined by Lorne Honickman, Global News Radio Legal Expert, for this edition of Case and Point. Topics include: Tori Stafford's family is outraged over the transfer of Michael Rafferty, Omar Khadr is seeking a Canadian passport as well as permission to speak to his sister, and the argument is being made that embattled Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, is a potential flight risk.

Mark Steyn International bestselling author, Host of The Mark Steyn Show talks about the Omar Khadr, the yellow vests, and sings "Baby its' cold outside"

Accidentally Distributed Classified Documents Weaken Case Against Canadian Detainee at Guantanamo Lawyers for Canadian citizen Omar Khadr today called on US military prosecutors to drop all charges against their client. The move comes after an unusual mix-up resulted in the distribution of top-secret documents to courtroom reporters attending Khadr's hearing. Stefan Cristoff has more. The US military has been holding the Canadian citizen at Guantanamo Bay since his capture in Afghanistan 5 years ago. Khadr is accused of killing a US soldier after throwing a hand grenade during a firefight. The documents accidentally leaked yesterday include an interview with a US agent who was at the scene of the battle. Sameer Zuberi is with the Canada Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR Canada: (clip) “The latest revelations is that, Omar Khadr was shot twice in the back and that would indicate that he was not a combatant possibly in this fire-fight.” The anonymous agent whose interview appears in the document also says he did not witness Khadr throw the grenade and that – contrary to previous claims – Khadr was not the only person alive at the time US forces stormed the building. For Free Speech Radio News this is Stefan Christoff. /// listen to reports produced for Free Speech Radio News between 2002 - 2012, the flagship Pacifica radio daily news program, these reports were produced in Montreal, but also in Beirut, Lebanon. putting these reports up for archiving purposes, they address numerous grassroots struggles for justice and against oppression, particularly looking at struggles surrounding migrant justice, also indigenous movements for land and rights, while also struggles against colonialist wars today & the persisting impacts of wars past. thank you for listening ! stefan @spirodon

Imprisoned terrorists in the U.S. are suing the Bureau of Prisons and in the U.K. terrorists are not being imprisoned in so-called "Separation Centres" built for them because the British government fears the imprisoned terrorists will sue for human rights violations. Scott Newark says Canada is doing much better at dealing with these issues. Guest:  Scott Newark, former Alberta crown prosecutor and national security advisor, adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University where his courses include these issues (Photo: Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listen as Brian responds to Trudeau's budget and his admission that the national security advisor is blaming India for his invitation to a terrorist at dinner. On the show, Bloomberg Ottawa Bureau Chief Theo Argitis on what is in the budget, COnservative MP Pierre Poilievre with reaction and lawyer Solomon Friedman tries to convince Brian that he is wrong to be upset the Omar Khadr's lawyer just got appointed to be a judge.

Vince Gasparro, former aid to Paul Martin and our own Tasha kheiriddin on the CounterPoint this evening to discuss Omar Khadr payments, minimum wage and more. Have a listen...

A Hamilton heckler gets a finger wagging from a prime minister who is all act. And the crowds just eat it up. They shouldn't. Politicians give canned answers. And no one is better at it then Mr. Trudeau. He loves to work crowds. He's good at it. With sleeves rolled up. Tie loose. He will feel your pain, whatever it may be. And he will make you swoon. And if you interrupt him with a challenge. He'll turn into a teacher scolding a naughty student. So he was prepared for when Leigh Stewy disrupted his act.Stewy is politically active. She went to this Hamilton Town hall, because that's what political activists do. Especially when a PM comes to town on a campaign stop we are paying for. You go. You yell. You try to cut through the predictable noise, with the hope that for once, a politician will, be honest. Stewy says she knew he wasn't coming to her section so she stood up. And while she is being cast as a disruptor, and you may not like her approach, she pressed on important issues. Ethics violations, Clinton foundation, eugenics, open borders and Omar Khadr. Mr Trudeau only answered one. Omar Khadr. And it was the same answer we've heard time and again. Trudeau who feigned outrage, got a rousing round of applause. It pained him to fork over 10 million dollars in a secret deal because government failed a convicted terrorist. Except, his answer was spin. His government didn't have to pay Mr Khadr. They could have fought it. Could have let the courts decide. Trudeau, claims it was a cost saving decision, but with deficits ballooning to 28 billion. That doesn't sell. He said Khadr may or may not have killed an American soldier. He did. He killed Christopher Speer. And it wasn't just any government- It was the Liberal government,that turned its back on Khadr. Even so. Trudeau could have delayed. He didn't. He paid. And did it secretly. And then apologized. And polling shows, Stewy is not alone in her anger. 71 percent of the country agree with her. Either way the Liberal friendly crowd. Ate. It. Up. Activists always show up to political events. This time it was Stewy, who says she is bi-partisan, having views on both the right and the left. These “town halls” are sold as an impromptu one on one with Canadians. Be assured, they are very contrived and controlled campaign sessions. Carefully selected Liberal friendly cities to help rehab Trudeau's tarnished brand. So once in a while it's refreshing to hear from someone who doesn't buy his act. And frankly, what have we've learned so far? Not much. Even if asked, Trudeau won't answer for breaking ethics laws. He won't answer why we gave millions to the Clinton foundation which is accused of fraud. He won't answer to First nations group angered by failed promises. He won't answer how and when ISIS fighters got back into Canada and where are they now. Are they on a no fly list? What you will get are man of the people progressive platitudes. So ask what you want but the talking point will be the same. It will be up to the Ottawa reporters to challenge him , and forced him to re-order his thoughts..

During question period, Justin Trudeau told parliament that he's personally outraged over being forced to pay out $10.5 million to Omar Khadr. What exactly is he angry about? (Photo: Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Roy asks callers if they know why Trudeau said he was "outraged" about the Omar Khadr payout. (Photo: Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Roy Green Show Podcast   The German election is happening this weekend. The biggest issue is refugees, with more than a million refugee claimants in Germany. Guest: Jeremy Hexham, PhD student at the University of Calgary, specializing in political communication and currently working as a volunteer for a Christian Democratic Union (Angela Merkel's party) candidate in Berlin - The World Health Organization declares that the world is running out of antibiotics. They say too few effective antibiotics are being developed to effectively combat multi drug-resistant infections. Guest: Jason Tetro, Canadian microbiologist and author of “The Germ Code” and “The Germ Files” - Farmers in Canada are challenging Justin Trudeau's tax changes and are demanding fairness, particularly when they try to sell their farm to children or other immediate family members. Guests: Megz Reynolds, Saskatchewan farmer and blogger whose message to Trudeau on Twitter and YouTube has gone viral Senator Denise Batters, Saskatchewan senator for the Conservative Party of Cana - "What is the Trudeau government trying to hide in the government's secret Trudeau/Khadr deal"?  Senator Denise Batters held the Liberals' feet to the fire in parliament over the $10.5 million payout to Omar Khadr.   Guest: Senator Denise Batters See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When the vitriol started to fly over Omar Khadr's $10.5 million settlement and apology from the government, Michelle Shephard got frustrated with just how much people were getting the basic facts wrong. As national security reporter for the Toronto Star, author of the book Guantanamo's Child and co-director of the documentary of the same name, she's been the top reporter on Khadr's story for the past 15 years. She speaks to guest host Omar Mouallem about how Khadr's public image has evolved over the years and what the media and the public continues to get wrong about the story.Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caryn Lieberman is a reporter with Global News was in court today covering the case and joins the John Oakley Show to explain in detail how the judge came to his decision.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer joins the John Oakley Show and blasted the $10 million payout to Omar Khadr calling it “disgusting” and sending a “terrible message” to Canada's men and women in uniform.

Canadian journalist Brian Lilley joins the program to tell the tragic story of American solider Christopher Speer, as well as the horrific rise of his killer, Canadian-born Al-Qaeda terrorist (and now multi-millionaire) Omar Khadr. Listen to Pat & Stu for FREE on TheBlaze Radio Network from 5p-7p ET, Mon. through Fri. www.theblaze.com/radioTwitter: @PatandStuFacebook: PatandStu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Conservative MP Tony Clement joins the Oakley show to express his displeasure with the pay out to Omar Khadr.

G20, and Omar Khadr take up the majority of 'topics' today. Nathanial-Erskine Smith, Michael Giles and Peter Shurman on the panel!

Nelson Wiseman, Professor of Political Science and Director of Canadian Studies Program – explains why the courts found in Omar Khadr's favour and why the government settled the lawsuit

CanadianImmigrationPodcast.com Mark Holthe: I'm here with my good friend and colleague, Raj Sharma. Raj, thanks for joining me. Raj Sharma: My pleasure. Mark Holthe: We're testing this out with our digital recorder here. I usually do these interviews via Skype call, but I've got high hopes that the audio is going to be great regardless. Thanks for putting up with me, Raj, and happy to have you with us. Today, Raj has agreed to come in and talk a little bit about criminal inadmissibility and some of the consequences that can flow when people get themselves into trouble here in Canada, but before we get into that I want to take a moment to share a little bit of background on Raj, and where he's come from professionally, and where he's at. Raj Sharma's a lawyer and founding partner of Stewart Sharma Harsanyi, one of Western Canada's largest dedicated immigration law firms. He received his masters of law from Osgoode Hall and is a former refugee protection officer with the Immigration and Refugee Board. Now, I'll get to the question of how you got into immigration and I'm going to go out on a limb and think that that probably influenced it a little bit. Raj Sharma: That's right. Mark Holthe: With over a hundred reported decisions, Raj has indicated to me, he frequently appears before all divisions, as well as the Federal Court, the court of appeal, and has also appeared before every level of court in Alberta. Raj regularly speaks on immigration matters in the media, and he's been a panelist and speaker at the CBA National Immigration Conference in 2014 and '15. He also writes a lot on immigration, multiculturalism, and diversity. Recently he was the recipient of the Legal Aid of Alberta's Access to Justice award and has been recognized as well as one of Calgary's Top 40 Under 40. Raj is an extremely accomplished individual and I know that he won't plug himself, so I'll do that for him, but whenever I have a difficult case with respect to enforcement, or appeal work, or anything like that I send it to him and his firm. Once again, thanks for joining, Raj. Raj Sharma: Thanks, Mark. I'm East Indian, or as I like to describe ourselves as brown, so no matter how accomplished I am, obviously given that I'm not a doctor I'm probably a disappointment to my parents. Mark Holthe: Well, we'll have to get your parents on to come back and I'm almost positive with everything that you've done, at least within our industry and how you've distinguished yourself, that there wouldn't be a parent on this planet that wouldn't be proud of you. Enough of the feel good stuff, fill us in. How did you get into immigration? Raj Sharma: I never intended to get into immigration law. I did my JD at the University of Alberta. While I was there, I didn't take any immigration courses, immigration just wasn't even on my radar. I summered at a large law firm here in Calgary, Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer. I didn't like the large law firm milieu so to speak. Then I spent some time with Dennis Edney, who's now the lawyer for Omar Khadr. Then I also clerked up the Alberta Court of Appeal and ended up doing my articles with the federal department of justice. I think I had at that point an understanding that I would be somewhat closer to a barrister or a litigator than I would be in terms a solicitor. There was one case that I handled and my mentor at that time at the federal Department of Justice was Glennys Bembridge, who is now a Federal Court justice with a different last name, but there was one case and it involved a family, they're doctors, and their son had autism. I was the articling student, so I had to put together the affidavit and supporting the officer's finding of medical inadmissibility. I found that really, really interesting, but I kept saying to my mentor at that why can't we just consent on this file, the family's really deserving, and ultimately I think that the family did get relief. After that, I'd met my wife at Winnipeg at a wedding ... Mark Holthe: I'm going to jump in. Raj Sharma: Yes. Mark Holthe: You said, "Why can't we just consent to this?" What was his response? Raj Sharma: It was a strange response. The response was just like, "Oh, we just have to ..." Mark Holthe: Carry it through. Raj Sharma: It was more like it was like, "Oh, the client instructions ..." I'm like, "What client? We're the government." I was explained that different departments are actually clients of the department of justice. I found that very odd because I don't think that's true. I think that a client/solicitor relationship doesn't encapsulate departments of government being clients of each other. I found that odd. In any way, I'd met my wife in Winnipeg at a wedding, my cousin's wedding. She was in Calgary, born and raised in Calgary, so I needed a way to get to Calgary somehow, so I was applying for jobs in Calgary and I got this called up to do this test or examination at the Immigration Refugee Board. I was offered this position to become a refugee protection officer. That's where in fact I met my partner, Bjorn Harsanyi, so we both started off as refugee protection officers, hearings officers in 2002. Mark Holthe: Obviously that makes a pretty nice background for sliding over to the other side. It gives you an opportunity at least having worked on the other side to get a better understanding of how the government operates, how the department operates, a little bit more inside to the minds of what goes through a decision maker on that side. I have to assume that that helped you as you moved over to the other side with your advocacy on behalf of clients. Raj Sharma: I think so and I think that, and again there's this tradition of this entrepreneurial tradition within my community, and of course my second and third languages also helped, there was a burgeoning South Asian community in Calgary at that time. Really, it was timing, and so Calgary's just really good to me. I'd moved to Calgary at about the right time and I went into private practice at about the right time, right before Calgary took off, so to speak. 2004 I started my practice, late 2004 I started my practice. At that time, just trying to take whatever you can get, so again, I wasn't really centered in immigration. Then there was this legal aid file, this three hour legal aid file for criminal inadmissibility. It involved a foreign national in Canada accused or there was an allegation of weapons, and gun smuggling, and weapons trafficking. At that point I thought, "Well, this is a foregone conclusion." I looked at the IRPA and I said, "Well, this is just, there's no way out here," but my partner at that time pushed me a little bit and so I looked at it, I looked at it again. I put in far more hours than the three hours allotted to me, and low and behold I was able to succeed. I think that was the first time that I was in the media, that was the first time I was on TV or the newspapers, at least when it came to my legal practice. It was after that that my practice in immigration took off because it was after that that I joined Caron & Partners and then again after I left Caron & Partners there was another Vietnamese fellow, [another] fork in the road. There was another Vietnamese client, Jackie Tran, and that file I took on in 2009. Both of these cases probably had something to do with the direction of my practice. Mark Holthe: Yeah, that makes perfect sense because I think for most of us business immigration lawyers, I guess that's how I classify myself, when there's a sticky situation I get uncomfortable pretty quick. I have a tendency to try to take the path of easiest and least resistance with my clients. If there's push back from the government, I tend to try and say, "Do we need to refile? Do we need to rethink our strategy?" Sometimes it's faster to just accept the stupid decision that you get from an officer and then just try to satisfy whatever they want, and refile, and get it approved, but there's a number of situations where people get themselves into a corner where they really don't have a nice, easy solution other than taking the government on. Raj Sharma: I think .. it depends on what you're facing. Now, in your case you have to solve a sort of business problem. Prior to 2009, before Tran, I was actually doing hundreds of LMIA's, or LMO's that they were called at the time, so I was representing major corporations, I was getting fat, I was just doing pure solicitor work, and I think again timing came to my rescue because once I got into the Tran file, which necessitated three different Federal Court applications, [emergency] stay application, IAD, ID, and right about that same time the economy in Calgary sort of collapsed, so to speak. If you're a one trick pony, that is you're only doing one aspect of immigration, you could be susceptible to that sort of change. I was very lucky in the sense of I did quite a bit of solicitor business work, but given that strong litigation year we were able to just basically switch our practices over to a litigation aspect. In business [immigration], you're tasked with making sure that the business runs smoothly. Where it's an individual facing loss of status, it's a zero sum game. In business there may be not, it's not a zero sum game, but in someone facing removal or deportation to a country that they haven't been in since they were a kid, it's a zero sum game which is you win or you lose, so at that point you start bringing out all the arrows in your quiver and you're doing whatever you can for your client because it is, for them to some degree, it's life or death in the sense of it's a death of a relationship, it's a death of your relationship to Canada, and it's a death of your status in this country. Mark Holthe: Let's shift to the topic at hand. I think a lot of our listeners, this isn't something that they're very familiar with because I think genuinely people try to avoid committing crimes in Canada and getting themselves removed. Raj Sharma: Right, and we know for a fact that immigrants or first generation Canadians have a lower crime rate than native born Canadians, so you're absolutely right. Most of your listeners and our clients, most of them, the vast majority enjoy a lower criminal rate or criminality than Canadians would. Mark Holthe: Yes, absolutely. As those that are listening in here, as I introduced when I started the podcast here, the interview with Raj Sharma, I indicated that we're going to be talking a little bit about criminal inadmissibility, so Raj, can you give us a little bit of an introduction? When we talk about criminal inadmissibility, how does that play into this world of immigration? Raj Sharma: Immigration is about, and notwithstanding whatever we hear these days from Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton, there are no such thing as truly open borders. A country will always dictate who enters and who remains, so there was a case that went to the supreme court of Canada involving a woman actually -- most of the cases I deal with actually do involve men -- but Medovarski involved a woman and Medovarski reaffirmed that concept that non-citizens do not have an unqualified right to enter or remain inside of Canada. When we look at criminality, the threshold for removing non-citizens from Canada is spelled out in intricate detail in the Immigration Refugee Protection Act and there is a bifurcation, i.e., it's somewhat harder to remove permanent residents from Canada and quite a bit easier to remove foreign nationals from Canada. When we talk about foreign nationals, we're talking about students and those here on work permits or those that are visitors in Canada. When we talk about permanent residence, obviously those are individuals that have applied for permanent residency, they're not citizens yet, and so we have a paradigm, a very detailed framework that deals with non-citizens that get in trouble with the law. Mark Holthe: When we talk about getting in trouble with the law, does the Immigration Act or the government, do they view certain crimes more seriously than others? How is that distinction set up? Raj Sharma: No, and maybe they should. That would have been a proper starting point. Maybe you should have been involved in this sort of legislation of these laws, but unfortunately the distinction of the severity of a crime is based on the maximum term of imprisonment or the actual incarceral or term that's imposed. When we talk about prison or incarceral term, we're including conditional sentences or sentences to be served in the community, so the distinction is not between the type of offense, someone that's convicted of a white collar offense such as fraud could face removal just as easily or perhaps more easily than someone accused or charged with simple assault. Mark Holthe: Even if an offense, let's say it's a hybrid offense, so it could proceed summarily or via indictment, the person that is sentenced to ten years imprisonment for that offense versus someone that's sentenced to six months under the eyes of the lovely immigration authorities, it's irrelevant. Raj Sharma: That's right, and it also doesn't take into account your length of time in Canada, so you could be a permanent resident and you could be here since you were two or three, and you could be [here] thirty years, and you could have an issue. Of course, this is the fragility of the human condition, we all make mistakes, so it doesn't take into account the length of time that you're in Canada…, nor does it take into account the nature of the offense, whether it's violent or whether it's non-violent. It's a blunt instrument unfortunately, Section 36 in particularly. Mark Holthe: If you have an individual that's committed a crime in Canada it's pretty clear we know what the offense is, we know what the conviction was, there's not a lot of debate about it, but what happens if someone wants to enter Canada or comes to Canada and has a conviction that occurred over seas or in another country, how does Canada treat those? Raj Sharma: Those things get complicated really quickly because different countries have different legal systems and different countries have different standards in terms of the ... You could have a situation [if] you're from China. Now, China has a 99.9% conviction rate. Mark Holthe: Wow, maybe I won't ask too many questions as to how that justice system plays out for those people accused, but ... Raj Sharma: I mean, so when we start making equivalent, or making offenses, or acts that individuals have done outside of Canada, and we have to somehow try and make them equivalent to offenses in Canada, those things get tricky really, really quickly. That's one subset of what we do.[But] I just keep getting reminded, even this morning, had a client applied on the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, skilled individual, excellent English, everything's fantastic, no criminal record whatsoever, applied on the ANP, got the nomination, applied for the PR forms to [CPC] Sydney. We got the passport request two days ago, three days ago, problem. Last week after a birthday party or someone's party, one in the morning, [he's] charged with impaired driving. Those are the sort of simple, understandable criminality because I think some politicians paint criminals as this broad brush, but criminals are no different than [you or I], it's just there's one incorrect decision. I think impaired driving is like that, this is impaired driving, could result in no jail time whatsoever, probably will result in a fine if he ever gets convicted, and a driving suspension. Won't spend a day in jail, but that's a hybrid offense and that [a conviction] makes him [as a foreign national] inadmissible. That's where I feel a lot of sympathy because you're seeing literally in front of you the end of a dream and you're seeing a person that for all other purposes would be an ideal addition to Canada's multicultural fabric. It's not really the media, it's not my cases that hit the news or the front pages that really give a proper idea of my practice. It really is those guys that are within an inch of permanent residency and we wouldn't consider them to be criminals, but of course they've made a grievous and horrendous error by drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car. Mark Holthe: Let's carry that through, I think that would be interesting. An individual who is in that type of a situation, this happens to them. What can they expect? Raj Sharma: Number one, if they come to me my first response to them, and there may be some sort of false hope, or some sort of strange fever dream that they're existing under, or they may get some sort of strange advice from someone, or a friend, or a cousin, and there may be a suggestion as to just somehow let it ride out and CIC may not figure this out. My first advice to them is that if they want my assistance, that we will be disclosing the charge and the encounter with the police immediately. That's the first thing that should happen and once they agree to these sort of terms, then we can start figuring out a solution. Now, the solution of course, and I kind of outlined that earlier today in my speech here, which is now start looking into conviction options or post conviction options. These conviction options, number one, beat out the charge in trial, because the system is binary, because it's a zero sum game, we can't now ... I think criminal lawyers and immigration lawyers that dabble in criminal law, there's no options now. You actually have to go and try to beat this out, you got to find, even if your client is factually guilty, you got to find a way to make him legally not guilty because if he's not guilty, that doesn't lead to any criminal consequences. If it's an offense, a domestic violence type of situation, and a peace bond is in the offering, take a peace bond. A peace bond doesn't have any criminal consequences either. There may be possibilities for some offenses for absolute or conditional discharges, take it, take it. That bird in the hand, we can safeguard that immigration at that point. In terms of a DUI, we're really looking to these curative discharges now and that's one option as well. Mark Holthe: Maybe you can explain what that is. What is a curative discharge? Raj Sharma: Curative discharge involves a process by which there is a guilt or there is factual guilt and there's again…. A curative discharge we've used where there's indication of alcoholism [as a] medical condition. If we can establish that, then the judge may see fit to grant a curative discharge. If that happens, then there is no criminal record that could waylay an immigration application or application for permanent residence. That's not to say, by the way, that that won't lead to other issues, i.e., you may still need a waiver to get into the US, but the curative discharge is something that we explore for impaired driving, and conditional, and absolute where ever possible [for other offences]. Now, bear in mind there's a whole host of offenses that result in mandatory minimum sentences and so we can't do any number of these things for those types of offenses, but those are some of the arrows in our quiver in terms of post conviction. Where ever possible, if you are facing a charge, either you're a permanent resident or a foreign national, try to get immigration lawyer involved alongside your criminal lawyer. There may be options to get positive sentencing remarks or positive remarks that are spoken into the record. Those transcripts can come in handy. If you are convicted, if you are sentenced, it's important that the client demonstrate remorse, and rehabilitation, engage in programming, and try to turn that life around. If we can demonstrate that, there are some options, which is that that initiating document to establish criminal inadmissibility, the Section 44 report, there is a scope for the officer not to write that report. Again, when I started down this journey I didn't realize the scope of discretion that's in the act. There is significant discretion. An officer may choose not to write a report against a permanent resident or foreign national and that may be the first, and maybe the last, real line of defense for a lot of these individuals. We've seen that happen, we've seen permanent residents, I've represented permanent residents, young guys, a technical armed robbery, four years plus sentence ... Mark Holthe: A technical armed robbery. Raj Sharma: A technical armed robbery... Mark Holthe: I love this terminology, technical versus a real, is there any distinction there? Raj Sharma: Let me tell you and you tell me whether that terminology or that splitting of hairs is appropriate. A guy got fired from a job at a liquor store, was angry, young guy, and decides to rob the liquor store as some sort of payback, buys a gun that is not operational, just this old, rusted out gun. There's no bullets in it, it's inoperable. Goes into the store, people see the gun, so they flee, so he goes to the cashier, he tries to open the cash box, is unable to do so, and runs out without stealing anything. Misfortune added to his idiocy, there's an off duty police officer who immediately arrests him outside the liquor store, so this guy goes through this process and his criminal lawyer after wasting tens of thousands of dollars of his money, pleads him guilty to an offense that includes a mandatory minimum sentence. At that point, and I met the judge actually afterwards and the judge said, "Hey, I wonder why that lawyer did that because if the lawyer challenged that on a charter ground of cruel and unusual punishment, that that mandatory minimum sentence in this case offends the Charter, I would have granted it to him." This lawyer tells this guy and his family, "That's it, game over, you will be deported," but of course that's not actually the end of it. [So] I do stand by my characterization of that as a technical armed robbery because this guy, he's more of an idiot than he was a criminal. This family went through a lot, this family, his sister in fact, who lived with was married, [her] husband had some mental issues, and she was attacked actually. The police attended and in fact that man was actually brought down by the CPS, so the family went through a lot. We put all this together, put the sentencing transcripts in, the judge, they got a really compassionate judge who said a lot of things into that record. [The client] was out on bail for four years, and upgraded himself, and it really was an ill advised decision. Ultimately, we had an understanding officer. She ended up interviewing him over the telephone, I think, at the Remand institution, and [she ultimately] decided not to write the report. Mark Holthe: I guess that's the beauty of this is the discretion that's laced into the immigration process. Raj Sharma: They won't lightly do it, but if you've got the goods .. it can be done. We had another case, we had another individual originally from Hong Kong, came over as a kid, got into some gambling issues, and then got into selling drugs to pay off some of those debts. Served his time, was a model prisoner, and his entire family was here, we set out everything. In this case we asked the Report not to be written, it was written. We challenged the Report at the Federal Court, we received approval or leave on one, it went back, and ultimately a Minister's Delegate decided to issue a warning letter. That's drug trafficking [involving a “hard” drug] and that was again significant, so these things can be done for the right individual. You will have people that have turned their lives around and you can see, you can tell. There's no faking this because it's a year's long journey. If you've got it, you've got it, and thankfully our officers, what I've seen is that we have fair individuals, open minded individuals, and that's not to say that I haven't lost on something that I think I should have won, I have, but even that decision, at least that individual had an open mind. I think our [CBSA/CIC] officers by and large are open minded individuals. Again, this may be the last line of defense for a lot of these individuals because there may not be an appeal to the ID anymore because the atrociously entitled Fast Removal of Foreign Criminals Act has amended the IRPA, so permanent residents that have been sentenced to more than six months, including conditional sentences, don't have an appeal to the IAD anymore. Whatever they've got, they've got to address that Section 44 report, that procedural fairness process, maybe Federal Court, maybe a TRP, maybe an H&C, a humanitarian and compassion application, but without that IAD backup, options are limited. Mark Holthe: That's really interesting because like I said, from my perspective, someone who does not do a lot of that type of work, very little in fact, I see walls, absolute walls sometimes for people that I can't see past, whereas individuals such as yourself who have a little bit of a broader perspective, and have actually gone and looked behind the wall have realized that sometimes there's ways through. The message that I got, especially, and just to clarify for the listeners, Raj and I are just meeting at the Canadian Bar Association Office here in Calgary after Raj gave a presentation [to the CBA Immigration Subsection] on this similar topic. One of the messages that came through loud and clear is that maybe people give up too easy, especially counsel, us. I put us under the bus in many circumstances because sometimes we're just too willing to roll over. We need to take a serious look at what the possibilities, are and not be afraid to question and challenge an allegation that's being made against our clients. Even in circumstances where based on a clear reading of the law there's a certain outcome that's supposed to flow doesn't necessarily mean there isn't discretion to go around that and that there isn't some compassion laced into the system. Raj Sharma: I learned this relatively recently. I went to visit my eighty-five, ninety years old grandmother in Edmonton. I didn't learn until much later -- my grandfather died, so my grandmother came over with my youngest uncle to Canada to her children here. None of us kids actually knew that our uncle was actually her sister's son. Her sister had died, so she had taken my uncle in. I guess his dad wasn't interested in caring for him, so I learned this later that Uncle is not actually our uncle, he's actually my mom's cousin. …I knew that there was some immigration issues that he was going through early on when he came, so my grandmother explained it to me, because there was no adoption papers and because my grandmother I think is incapable of lying, she's very straight out that we have no adoption papers, but he has nowhere else to be other than with me. They battled for like three or four years to try and get my uncle to be here. Ultimately CIC indicated, "Well, he can't be here, there's no adoption papers, we have no consent from his guardian, or his biological father, or whatever the case may be." We're from this small mining town in BC and the family was helped by an immigration lawyer out of Vancouver. Ultimately my uncle got what was then called a minister's permit, which is now we call a TRP, a temporary resident permit. When I learned that I was, "Well, I guess that's what I do." So I [do] think people minimize or perhaps don't understand the scope of discretion that's available. There are roadblocks, there's hurdles, [but] there's very few problems without an absolute solution. That being said, if you are unmitigated, incorrigible criminal, no officer's going to give you the benefit of whatever doubt there may be, but there are these avenues that can be pursued and there is a sort of system. You got to work through that system, work with the criminal lawyers, put your client in the best possible light, take advantage of any little nook, cranny, any little shaft of light, and you might be able to widen that crack a little bit for your client to step through, but yes, very few things are foregone conclusions and it's our job as counsel to put the best possible foot forward for the client. Again, in my twelve years of practicing immigration law there's very few actual incorrigible [criminals]. I said this before … that hard cases make bad law and outliers shouldn't make the world a harder place for the vast majority of people that simply want to come to Canada and give their families a better life. These outliers don't reflect the vast majority of cases that we deal with. The vast majority of cases we deal with are human fragility, human error, understandable mistakes. Mark Holthe: You mentioned this concept of a TRP, a temporary resident permit, which is now the new version of a Minister's Permit. Raj Sharma: That's right. Mark Holthe: In some circumstances, individuals will have appeal rights when there is criminality involved and they're facing some harsh consequences, they have appeal rights and other times they don't. You had talked a little bit about the discretion that an officer has to write that report to refer it or not. Can you maybe clarify that just a little bit for counsel who maybe have individuals that are at the stage where the consequences could be pretty nasty? Maybe there is no appeal right and you indicated that sometimes an officer does have some discretion whether or not to write it. Raj Sharma: That's right. That Section 44 report, so let's say there's a conviction in Canada. Establishing that would be pretty straightforward, pretty easy. What counsel can do is respond to a procedural fairness letter, say, "Please don't write the Section 44 report and here's why," and these are going to be [modeled on] the typical Section 25 type of application or submission, so time in Canada, establishment in Canada, those ties here, the family ties here, hardship, or adverse conditions, or challenges upon return, children that are affected by the decision, the circumstances leading to the events, any indicia of remorse, rehabilitation, insight. All those should be placed squarely before the officer and you say to the officer, "Don't write this report, please. The guy's been here for a long time, this is a singular mistake, the criminal record is limited or none other than this lapse in judgment." If the officer writes the report, its then has to be referred under Section 44 sub 2 by a Minister's Delegate. If it's referred, for a permanent resident that means it goes to the immigration division. If it's criminality or serious criminality in Canada, that's Section 44 sub 2, that becomes a removal order for a foreign national. Again, there's less options for foreign nationals here. If it's referred to the immigration division, not much you can do if it's a conviction in Canada. The ID is not going to look beyond the certificate of conviction. If it's a conviction outside of Canada or an allegation that some offense has occurred outside of Canada, that would be equivalent to serious offenses inside of Canada. Then the immigration proceeding becomes a substantive proceeding. That's when it takes on some degree of significance. You are then going to start talking about foreign legal laws, standard of proof, burden of proof, and at that point you probably should be retaining a foreign legal expert. It gets complicated really quickly at that point. After a removal order is issued, post removal order options are limited. A TRP can overcome or allow you to remain in Canada notwithstanding a removal order. An H&C can do the same. One option might be to get a TRP pending record suspension for a conviction inside Canada, for example, if there's eligibility. Mark Holthe: If an officer chooses to write the report when you've made your submissions, can you challenge that part before it gets to the immigration division? Raj Sharma: Yes, you can challenge both the writing of a Report to the Federal Court and the referral of the report to the Federal Court. You probably won't do that if the person concerned is a permanent resident and has an appeal right to the IAD, there's no sense in that, but if you don't have that appeal, you're left with these limited options, so you're going to buy some more time. By going to the Federal Court either you buy some more time, it goes back, a different officer might come to a different conclusion, or you simply might need time for record suspension. Mark Holthe: Just buying the time, interesting. Raj Sharma: Might be one because you need strategic depth, so strategic depth is usually time, more time in Canada gives you more options. Mark Holthe: Define strategic depth for those who are not following. What are you talking about when you use that terminology? Raj Sharma: Strategic depth I was thinking more in terms of war. If you've got a country like Russia and you want to invade Russia, and Napoleon and Hitler both tried that. One of the problems is that Russia has a lot of depth, so you can invade, and invade, and keep invading, and the Russians will have time to mount a response. You can contrast that with, for example, Pakistan, which is thin wasted [country] geographically speaking, there's not a lot of strategic depth there. If we were to apply that terminology to immigration in Canada, then I would say strategic depth would be time. A lot of time, we don't have time, and so give me some time, give me enough time and I can do quite a bit. You need time to marshal resources, to file Federal Court obligations, to file TRP applications, to file H&C applications, to maybe get a rehabilitation application in, so time is our strategic depth and most of the time we don't have it. Mark Holthe: Yes, that is abundantly clear within our practice. I really appreciate that overview and the insight, it was awesome. Let's talk about some practice tips maybe. If counsel finds themselves in these types of positions dealing with an issue, a potential criminal inadmissibility, what are some of the things that go through your mind right away that you'd give in terms of advice, things that people want to make sure they do every single time, or little tips or strategies? You've already indicated here that you want to try to buy as much time as you can, that's obviously really important, but are there any specific things or pieces of advice that we haven't maybe talked about yet that you'd like to share with the listeners? Raj Sharma: I think definitely take a look at the IRCC or CIC policy manuals, Enforcement Manual 5, Enforcement Manual 6, take a look at the loose leaf publication by Mario Bellissimo and Genova, Immigration and Admissibility, they've got a handbook as well. You need to get an understanding of the facts and understand the law in a relatively quick fashion. Once you understand the context that you're in, so if the context is a permanent resident, and there's an offense, and you're looking at the loss of appeal rights, and you've got a procedural fairness letter, and the sentence has been served, what I would do immediately is probably do ATIP requests, access to information requests, and I would try to get and reconstruct the client's immigration history as much as possible. That's probably the first thing I would do is do an ATIP request. I would do FOIP requests for the correctional service documents, the institution documents, and see what's been going on over there and try to get access to those parole documents, take a look at their recidivism rankings. I would probably get the sentencing transcripts right away, I would get any pre-sentence reports that were filed or that were before the sentencing judge right away. After I looked at that I would see if I could update that pre-sentence report by a qualified forensic expert and reassess recidivism. Then I would probably put together these substantive submissions. Again, relying on maybe the IRB, IAD, Removal Order Appeals publication. Having regard to the sort of H&C factors and Ribic and Chieu factors. I would put all that together and get it into that officer probably as soon as possible. That's probably what I would do and that's probably what anyone should probably do with a PR facing removal where there's been a length of sentence greater than six months. If it was less than six months, then obviously maybe I'd just keep my powder dry to some degree, I'd still put in something, but I'd probably just keep my powder dry for the IAD. Mark Holthe: It's pretty much they're going to send it that way and choose not to make a decision at that stage. Raj Sharma: I would think as an officer, this is not in the manuals at all, but ... Mark Holthe: This is what we want, Raj, yes. Raj Sharma: As an officer, and I used to be an officer, but as an officer if I saw that a PR had a right of appeal, then really I would probably give short shrift to any sort of request for exercising my discretion at the 44 stage. I'd be like, "Look, let me just do my job, let me write this 44 report, and refer it, and let them make whatever submissions he needs to the IAD." I think the relationship to discretion and the loss of appeal rights is inverse, so if there's an appeal right, then I would narrow my own discretion. Then if there's no appeal rights, then I would probably take and expand my scope of discretion within, of course, the ambit of the law. Mark Holthe: That's awesome and it makes perfect sense. Officers, despite how some people feel, are human beings. When they feel like someone is trying to screw the system over, they're probably not going to give you a lot of help, but if they feel people are genuine and they've made a mistake, and there's a whole host of ... Raj Sharma: The system, maybe the system has been narrowed against, for example, any further request for relief. I think that they'll substantively consider. Mark Holthe: That's awesome. I really appreciate everything that you've shared here. Raj Sharma: Any time. Mark Holthe: This is fantastic. Now, as always when I have guests on, people are going to listen to this and they're going to say, "Hey, I've got a friend," or, "I know someone who's in this exact situation," and their counsel that they have right now is telling them that they might as well start singing 'Happy Trails,' and packing their bags, and they're saying to themselves, "There must be something else that I can do." They're going to listen to this and they're going to say, "Raj Sharma, how do I get a hold of this guy?" How do people track you down? What's the best way of getting in contact with you and engaging your services? Raj Sharma: For sure, Mark. Anyone can email us at info@sshlaw.ca, that's info@sshlaw.ca, number is 403-705-3398. I think we have a toll free number, but I'm not sure what it is. Mark Holthe: You can go to the website, right, too. Raj Sharma: Yes, you can definitely reach us and we'd be happy to help. It's something that we've developed for the last seven, eight years or so. Mark Holthe: Awesome, thanks a lot. I appreciate your time. Take care. Raj Sharma: Thanks a lot, Mark.

Freelance journalist Adrian MacNair on the horny press, the RCMP's release of 18 missing seconds of the Michael Zehaf-Bibeau video, and the whitewashing of CBC's Omar Khadr documentary.Support CANADALAND: https://canadaland.com/joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 In the wake of the recently announced release on bail of Omar Khadr, the Global Research News Hour returns to the case of the young man jailed in the notorious prison camp for nearly a decade. In the first half hour, Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney expertly debunks many of the talking points being put forward by critics like the Conservative government and Ezra Levant about Khadr's status as a "Confessed terrorist" and outlines the numerous ways in which the Canadian government violated Khadr's Charter rights. In the second half hour, Michel Chossudovsky expands on the Khadr tragedy by pointing to a Seymour Hersh article exposing the protection of Al Qaeda militants in theatre and the known incarceration of civilians at Guantanamo. Chossudovsky explains how the facility serves a propaganda function that enables the so-called "War on Terrorism."