prison • mackaycartoons

Thursday August 12, 2021

August 19, 2021 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday August 12, 2021

Canada Considers Countering Winter Games and Hostage Diplomacy

Canada is being urged by legal and international experts to apply diplomatic pressure on both China and the United States to secure the release of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, following Spavor’s 11-year prison sentence by a Chinese court.

December 8, 2020

Spavor, an entrepreneur, was detained in China in December 2018 along with Kovrig on allegations of state spying, charges widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in connection with a U.S. extradition request. Meng’s formal extradition hearing began on Wednesday in British Columbia.

Since their arrest, Canada has been pushing for the release of Spavor and Kovrig. Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau condemned Spavor’s sentence on Wednesday.

“This decision was made after a process that lack both fairness and transparency including a trial that did not satisfy the minimum standards required by international law,” Garneau said at a press conference, adding Canada was is ‘intense’ discussions with both Chinese and U.S. officials to free both Spavor and Kovrig, who is still awaiting trial in China.

February 12, 2021

Trudeau, in a statement, called the sentence unacceptable and unjust.

“For Mr. Spavor, as well as for Michael Kovrig who has also been arbitrarily detained, our top priority remains securing their immediate release. We will continue working around the clock to bring them home as soon as possible,” he said.

Since the arrests in 2018, Canada has decried what it calls “hostage diplomacy” and in February launched the ‘Declaration Against Arbitrary Detention in State-to-State Relations,’ which has now been endorsed by 66 countries.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party leader has warned that it may soon be too dangerous for Canadians to travel to China for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. (CTV)

December 12, 2018

Speaking at a news conference on Ontario on Tuesday, leader Erin O’Toole said: “We are approaching a point where it won’t be safe for Canadians, including Olympic athletes, to travel to China.”

Diplomats from dozens of countries gathered at Canada’s embassy in Beijing on Wednesday to hear the Spavor verdict. The fate of a fellow Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, remains unclear.

O’Toole was speaking after a court rejected the appeal of a third Canadian, Robert Schellenberg, whose prison term in a drug case was abruptly increased to death following Meng’s arrest.

March 24, 2008

Asked about the winter Games, O’Toole said: “Yes Canada should be considering a boycott.

“And I’ve said we’re going to be watching the decision very closely. Beijing has to know that the world is watching the genocide taking place against the Uyghurs. They’ve watched what’s been happening in Hong Kong and the situation with Mr Schellenberg, Mr Spavor and Mr Kovrig.”

He said Canada would have to think “long and hard on whether we reward a country like that with the Games”. (The Guardian)

Friday May 8, 2015

May 7, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 8, 2015

Omar Khadr walks free on bail after 13 years in custody

With those words, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Myra Bielby turned down the federal government’s last-ditch effort Thursday to keep the 28-year-old detained.

Omar Khadr broke into a big, wide smile when the decision was read. His supporters in the courtroom erupted in cheers.

At 2:03 p.m. Toronto time, his lawyer Nathan Whitling posted a picture on Twitter of Khadr walking out of the courtroom with the caption: “#omarkhadr walks free.” The burly young man wore sneakers, jeans and a black T-shirt with his other lawyer, Dennis Edney, flanking him.

“Whatever anybody might think of Mr. Khadr he has now served his time.”

Bielby had heard arguments in the case Tuesday but said she could not rule immediately and granted the government a 48-hour stay in the bail order.

Her decision to turn down the government’s emergency motion cannot be appealed, but Ottawa will appeal the bail order itself, which was granted in March by Justice June Ross.

No date has been set yet for that appeal and Khadr is free on bail until the case works its way through the appeal court.

“We are disappointed by the decision of the court, because we feel that victims should be considered in the decisions,” Public Safety Minster Steven Blaney said at a press conference. Blaney said legal procedures against Khadr are “still underway” but he would not comment on whether the case will go to the Supreme Court.

In an earlier statement, Blaney also said: “Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes, including the murder of American Army medic Sergeant Christopher Speer. By his own admission, as reported in the media, his ideology has not changed. (Source: Toronto Star)

Tuesday October 2, 2012

October 2, 2012 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday October 2, 2012

The U.S. dumps a problem on Ottawa, with Omar Khadr’s return

For the Conservatives, Omar Khadr was an opportunity. Now he’s just a problem.

Mr. Khadr has finally returned to Canada, to serve out the remainder of his sentence for crimes committed against the United States in Afghanistan. Stephen Harper’s Conservative government had done everything in its legal power, short of a diplomatic breach with the U.S. government, to keep him interned at Guantanamo Bay, America’s problem.

But those efforts ran out, and now Mr. Khadr is coming home, where he will earn more than his share of unwelcome attention.

When Mr. Khadr was first apprehended on an Afghanistan battlefield by American forces and sent to Guantanamo, the Liberal government of the day treated him like the embarrassment he was. Foreign and Justice ministers spoke about him only when pressed, and then only in the most guarded of sentences. Ottawa was happy to let the Americans prosecute his crimes.

The Conservatives were less circumspect. Mr. Khadr was a wedge, one they were happy to exploit.

Human rights advocates saw Mr. Khadr not as a criminal or terrorist, but as a victim. At worst, he was a young offender, duped by his family into joining a war he was too immature to comprehend.

He was, in their eyes, a child soldier, no more complicit than the children impressed into the armies of African warlords. And his detention at Guantanamo was part and parcel of the Bush government’s abusive war against terrorists.

Conservatives have no truck with such talk; nor, they believe, do most Canadians, especially those Canadians inclined to vote Conservative. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Saturday July 24, 2010

July 24, 2010 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 24, 2010

Conrad Black & Omar Khadr

Former media mogul Conrad Black is being sued for $71 million in back taxes by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which alleges he failed to report $120 million in U.S. income during the period 1998 to2003.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

The IRS claims in U.S. federal tax court that Black filed no tax returns and paid no tax on $120 million (all figures U.S.) in taxable income between 1998 and 2003, according to media reports.

According to Forbes business magazine, Black – currently serving a 6 1/2-year sentence in a Florida prison – is challenging the claim, arguing in court filings he was not subject to U.S. taxing authority. (Toronto Star)

Meanwhile, In a calm, measured voice, Omar Khadr made clear his feelings about the judicial machinery that has kept him captive at Guantanamo Bay for the better part of eight years, even smiling on occasion as he addressed the judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, and his Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney.”I will not willingly let the U.S. government use me to fulfil their goal, ” the bearded Khadr, 23, said Monday as he explained why he rejected the deal recently offered by military prosecutors.

Pleading guilty at his trial next month would “give an excuse to the government for torturing me and abusing me as a child, ” he said.

For much of Monday’s hearing there were protracted exchanges between Khadr and Parrish about whether the Canadian detainee wanted to represent himself at his trial or boycott the entire proceeding.

Parrish quizzed Khadr about his mental health.

“This place is not a five-star hotel, ” he replied, “so I’m sure it’s going to have an effect on me. I don’t know.”

Khadr is charged with war crimes that include killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was just 15. Human rights organizations and other advocates have argued Khadr was a child soldier and should have been rehabilitated by the U.S., not imprisoned.

Khadr is the only remaining westerner among Guantanamo’s 181 prisoners and the youngest. (Toronto Star)

Tuesday December 11, 2007

December 11, 2007 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 11, 2007

Conrad Black sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison

A Chicago judge sentenced disgraced media tycoon Conrad Black to six and one-half years — or 78 months — in prison and handed him a $125,000 fine, which must be paid within 90 days.

Conrad Black Cartoon Gallery

Black made his way through a throng of reporters outside the courthouse, offering little comment other than to say an appeal “would speak for itself.”

He was told to report to the Florida penitentiary at Eglin Air Force Base before March 3, although it was soon discovered that Eglin has been closed for a year. The government is now asking that Black serve his time at another low-security prison in the same state: Federal Correctional Institution Coleman.

Judge Amy St. Eve told Black she felt he was not a “future threat” because of everything he had lost.

Black spoke for only a few minutes in court, despite reports that he had prepared a 5,000-word statement.

He complimented the judge on her handling of the trial, and said he regretted the loss suffered by Hollinger International shareholders.

Black was also ordered to forfeit $6.1 million for fraud and obstruction of justice — with no right to restitution. (Source: CTV News)