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Rex MurphyJuly 7, 2017 6:46 PM EDT
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… and started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons.
— Hamlet
How and when Canadians were let in on the Trudeau government’s lavish settlement and accompanying official apology to Omar Khadr are its most curious and telling elements. No cabinet minister, and certainly not Justin Trudeau, stepped before a bank of microphones and cameras to bring the good news to Canadians before it was a done deal. How unlike Trudeau to put a blanket over his good deeds — more usually he orders up another pair of billboard socks to mark such occasions. No socks for Khadr.
We learned of it from Ottawa’s scoop master, Robert Fife. Fife is a reporter, not a Liberal spokesman. No spokesman was provided for days. The word, as it were, just got out. And it’s surely a coincidence that it got out at the tail end of our Canada Day celebrations, and on the eve of morning of the American’s Fourth of July. Wedged in between competing fireworks, so to speak. Was there anyone in the Canadian government who thought this tendentious settlement was a good way to end our national birthday party and send a message to the Americans at the beginning of theirs? However we feel about Khadr’s various doings, the Americans are still more than a little sensitive on this score. Was the timing, then, incidentally or accidentally, a diplomatic shot in the ribs to the Americans, a touch of impishness or sly scorn towards Trumpian America?
The bells were still tolling for Canada’s birthday and Trudeau headed off to Ireland when the news was leaked. So he was conveniently across the sea and on another continent by the time people were shaking their heads over the vast cash award, all but immune to having to answer questions about it. The travelling press caravan did get one question to him, and his comment — it’s a magical piece of work — had more blarney in it than the famous stone itself: “There is a judicial process underway that has been underway for a number of years now and we are anticipating, like I think a number of people are, that that judicial process is coming to its conclusion.”
If this be transparency let us have mud. Clams are more open. If there is information in that statement, it is under armed guard and in witness protection. Drop the padding and what we have is this: there is a process, there has been a process, and Trudeau and an unspecified number of people think this process will end. If he had just added, “And a proof is a proof, and when you have a good proof, it’s proven” we could embed this glory right under the Gettysburg address in the quotation books.
No naming of Khadr. No mention of the dollar sum. No reference to the apology. No commiserating remarks for Tabitha Speer, the wife of the dead American medic. Equally stunning, Trudeau neglected to highlight its “diversity,” which for any Justin Trudeau statement is the equivalent of going to bed without saying your night prayers.
