TORONTO - Omar Khadr's interrogation video appeared to polarize the Canadian public Tuesday as images his lawyers hoped would stir compassion and push Ottawa into repatriating him from Guantanamo Bay prompted reaction ranging from sympathy to outright contempt.
It's a sign, experts said, of the tension between the Khadr family's reputation as an al Qaeda family and public support for the rule of due judicial process - something even the U.S. Supreme Court has found lacking in Guantanamo.
That later sentiment was shared by many who posted their opinions on media websites, including one person who wrote: "I am Canadian and I demand that his rights be vigorously enforced. YO! HARPER! Snap to it!"
Another opined: "It makes me sick that people like Robert Pickton, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka have way more rights than this poor boy who was just a kid and did what he was told."
"Omar should be set free."
For every statement of support, however, there were damning words of condemnation aimed at both Khadr and his family.
The late family patriarch, Ahmed Said Khadr, was an associate of Osama bin Laden; the family spent time living in at least one of his compounds. His mother, who now lives in Toronto with Omar Khadr's siblings, has publicly assailed Canada's moral values.
"This kid is a terrorist, plain and simple, and he comes from a terrorist 'al Qaeda' family," read one posting.
Another wrote: "He's a Canadian of convenience... every single (member of the Khadr family) are not real Canadians."
At the Khadr family's home, his sister Zaynab described the vitriol as misplaced.
"People have been blinded with rage, but I think they're putting it in the wrong place," she said.
"I'm not saying my brother is guilty and I'm not saying he's innocent. I'm saying that what's happening is not right - to an enemy or a friend."
Khadr, 21, is accused by the U.S. of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002. He faces trial before an American military commission in October.
The video, taken some six months after his capture at the age of 15, was released by his lawyers Tuesday as part of their ongoing campaign to have Khadr returned to Canada.
"We're hoping that the Canadian public will recognize that if you put aside any concerns or guilt or innocence... and look at the compassion we feel, that children have a special significance in society," said lawyer Denis Edney.
The Khadr family is held in contempt by many Canadians, but the country's sense of judicial fairness has tempered the anger with sympathy for the prisoner's plight, said University of Toronto law professor Ed Morgan.
"Statements from the Khadr family, all along, have been horrendous. No one would sympathize with what the Khadr family has said," Morgan said.
"The problem here is that the Guantanamo procedures are so roundly criticized, including by the U.S. Supreme Court, that it's hard to be anything but a little sympathetic for people who are confronting what looks like a lack of due process."
The polarized public reaction to the video came as little surprise to Delta Media's Bernie Gauthier, a public relations guru based in Ottawa.
While the footage clearly shows a frustrated teen under stress who lacks the gruff voice one might expect of a soldier, the orange prison jumpsuit and security camera footage might also feed into the public's image of criminality, Gauthier said.
"What we have in our own minds, our own bias and our own judgment that we have, will shape how we interpret the video," he said.
"(Do) we pay more attention to the pleading child and the body language of someone who is frustrated and hurt, or is it the orange jumpsuit and the camera angle that sort of confirms for us what we think about him already?"
Given the strong emotional response from the public to the video, Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae cautioned that Khadr's fate should not be subject to a "popularity contest."
"He was brainwashed and sent in to fight NATO troops. I think we all recognize that's deeply troubling to Canadians," said Rae.
"We have our troops there, obviously it's deeply troubling to all of us. The issue is not that. The issue is, isn't it appropriate for Canada to take responsibility for Mr. Khadr?"
