Let us pause for a minute to think of Tabitha Speer.

She asked for none of this. She was thrust into an unwelcomed spotlight when a young al-Qaeda combatant lobbed a grenade from a bombed-out compound in Afghanistan in July of 2002 and inflicted a mortal head wound on her husband, an Army medic and sergeant, and the father of their two young children.

Daughter, Taryn was only three; son Tanner 10 months.

If the U.S. Army soldiers who survived that firefight had put a bullet in the head of a severely-wounded Omar Khadr instead of saving his life, then all of this would have been over long ago.

There would have been no talk of Omar Khadr, no capture, no Guantanamo Bay, no trial, no confession, no transfer to a Canadian prison, no lawsuits and no $10.5 million payment and public apology.

But they did save Omar Khadr’s life and, as a result of unintended consequences, Tabitha Speer was dragged along for the ride.

U.S. Army Sgt. Christopher Speer would be 43 today, not 28 forever, if he had survived.

In the lead-up to the G20 summit in Hamburg, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau popped into Dublin for a sit down with Ireland’s new prime minister, coincidentally on the day word first leaked of the compensation money Khadr would soon have in the bank.

Trudeau skirted the issue, even though it is tough to think the leak did not come from the PMO itself in order to get ahead of the outrage that would surely come from the deal.

“There is a judicial process underway that has been underway for a number of years now,” he said. “And we are anticipating, like I think a number of people are, that that judicial process is coming to its conclusions.”

That was not quite true.

There was no “judicial process” underway. The civil case seeking $20-miilion in damages, launched by Khadr and his lawyers some time ago, was no longer in a courtroom.

It was at a bargaining table. The government had surrendered, and the question now was at what cost.

Not $20 million, but how about $10.5 million?

And do we have a deal?

Following Khadr’s guilty plea to murder before a military tribunal at Guantanamo, a confession he now insists was made under duress, Tabitha Speer and Layne Morris (a soldier blinded in one eye during the same battle) took him to civil court in Nevada.

The District Court there awarded them $134 million (US) in damages.

When word got out Khadr was in line for a $10.5 million jackpot, the Speer-Morris legal team tried to get an injunction on the payment, and basically put a lien on it.

But it was obviously too late. The Liberals had cut their cheque.

Repeated attempts to get comment from one of the Speer-Morris lawyers, Don Winder of Salt Lake City, to ask if he was prepared to file a new civil suit in Canada were in vain.

Winning such a suit, however, would be a long shot at best, with the Supreme Court of Canada already ruling that Khadr’s rights were violated during his incarceration in Guantanamo, and the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau having already coughed up $10.5 million to Khadr, along with an apology.

Tabitha Speer, it would appear, can’t win for losing.

She asked for none of this, of course, and nothing is likely what she will end up getting.

It’s not right, but it is the way it is.

markbonokoski@gmail.com