In the bombed-out and bullet-riddled al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan where Omar Khadr was the only survivor, albeit shot up and near death, U.S. military personnel found a very telling video.

It showed Khadr, 15 when captured, helping another al-Qaida bomb-maker put together improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the kind that killed so many of our Canadian soldiers during their deployment in the volatile eastern fringes of Afghanistan.

He appeared as calm as a cucumber while making those roadside bombs, as nonchalant as if he were doing nothing more than building a castle from a Lego set.

Former Conservative defence minister Jason Kenney put a number to the carnage that IEDs such as those inflicted.

He did it in the form of a tweet Wednesday when word got out that the Trudeau Liberals were about to cut a $10.5 million cheque to Khadr and his lawyers to settle his civil suit against Canada, and apologize to him for Canada not running to his rescue.

The number was 97. Ninety-seven of the 159 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan were killed by IEDs.

"Odious," tweeted Kenney. "Confessed terrorist who assembled & planted the same kind of IEDs that killed 97 Canadians to be given $10 million by Justin Trudeau."

Odious. Confessed terrorist who assembled & planted the same kind of IEDs that killed 97 Canadians to be given $10 million by Justin Trudeau https://t.co/58SA6llPya — Jason Kenney (@jkenney) July 4, 2017

In retrospect, Kenney was mistaken. He was off by a half-million, but what's $500,000 more when it is going to such a good cause?

Maybe Khadr's family can finally go off welfare now that their most famous son has hit the jackpot, but that is likely too much to ask from a family whose citizenship to Canada is one of convenience — a place where medical bills are paid by taxpayers, and where doors welcome them when they return home like they did after fleeing Osama bin Laden's hideaway following 9/11.

We are such an accommodating country.

Khadr confessed to murder during a U.S. military tribunal as part of plea deal that eventually brought him back to Canada and saw him freed, though has subsequently suggested he did so because he was “left with a hopeless choice,” imprisonment and torture in the U.S. He now suggests he doesn’t remember whether he tossed the grenade from that aforementioned Afghanistan compound that killed U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Speer.

David Milgaard got $10 million from the Canadian government but, unlike Khadr, he had killed no one.

Instead, he was wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of nursing assistant Gail Miller, and spent 23 years behind bars for a crime that forensic science proved he did not commit.

Miller's real killer, serial rapist Larry Fisher, was eventually convicted and, in June of 2015, had the decency to die prison.

He was likely the only good thing he had ever done.

What we have now, basically, is Canada rewarding its citizens for being terrorists. For up-and-coming jihadists planning to embrace the sadistic brutality of ISIS, Rule No. 1 will undoubtedly be to pack their Canadian passports, along with the contact number for a Canadian lawyer with liberal views and an expertise in civil litigation.

If Omar Khadr can win the lottery by playing the duped "child soldier" card — even after making IEDs with the best of them, and tossing a bull's eye with a grenade -— then who knows what awaits at the end of the rainbow for like-minded followers.

It may not be paradise, but it could be a pot of gold.

Ten-point-five million is nothing to sneeze at.

But it's more than enough to make right-thinking Canadians choke, and wonder if true justice has finally lost its way.

markbonokoski@gmail.com