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This week, back on Canadian soil, the rationale has shifted. Trudeau, again:

“If we had continued to fight this, not only would we have inevitably lost, but estimates range from $30-40 million that it would have ended up costing the government.”

Last week, it was national honour at stake. This week, it’s expediency. We settled not for virtue’s sake but for the money. Honour and expediency are not twins, however much the latter likes to dress as the former.

Last week, it was national honour at stake. This week, it's expediency. The decision is now presented as an inevitability

This week, the decision is presented as an inevitability. “Had we continued to fight” we would have “inevitably lost.” A very strange statement for a civil action, any court action.

No court case has an inevitable outcome. Inevitable outcomes would obviate the need for courts in the first place. God forbid, and let the heavens fall, we wouldn’t need lawyers either.

That which is “inevitable” invites no considerations of either the Charter or honour. Fate rules all. This week’s comments explode last week’s rationale.

Trudeau’s performance to date suggests a politician auditioning his responses, trying to find the one to match the country’s mood, rather more than a person convinced of his own choices.

Trudeau's performance to date suggests a politician auditioning his responses, trying to find the one to match the country's mood

It also suggests he doesn’t know why the public is angry. There are three “actors” in the Khadr story. In order of influence and importance, they are: (a) his family, (b) the Americans, and (c) the Canadian government.

By far the main reason Khadr was in Afghanistan, in the firefight, and for that matter in Guantanamo, was (a) his own family, father, mother and sister. It was his father, Osama bin Laden’s friend, that made him the child soldier. He wasn’t kidnapped in some civil war as are the majority of these unfortunates. He was designed by his own parent to be such. That’s a distinguishing feature of this case.