Click LISTEN to hear Tapestry's 2016 Gabriel Award-winning interview "Educating Omar".

In 2008, Arlette Zinck wrote a letter to Omar Khadr - who, depending on your point of view, was either a convicted terrorist, or "Guantanamo's Child."

In that letter, Zinck gave Khadr an assignment: "Find any book. Let me know what the title is and we'll talk about it."

Arlette Zinck has been tutoring Omar Khadr ever since. She is an associate professor of English at The King's University, a Christian school in Edmonton.

I read through a book report that looked for all the world like a legal affidavit… point by point, numbered paragraphs...that's what he knew. - Arlette Zinck

Zinck and Khadr exchanged letters for several years - hers were lesson plans, his were book reports. His reading list included Anne of Green Gables, Great Expectations and Three Cups of Tea.

Arlette Zinck isn't an activist, never has been. She comes from a military family. She's the first one to admit she doesn't know what happened during the 2002 firefight in Afghanistan that left one American soldier dead. Omar Khadr was convicted of war crimes, including murder.

What Arlette Zinck does know is that whoever Khadr was when he was 15 years old - whatever he might have done - her faith calls her to show up. The back-and-forth letters between them marked the beginning of a deep spiritual experience for Zinck.

The clips of Omar Khadr in this programme come from the documentary Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows, produced by Patrick Reed, Michelle Shepard and Peter Raymont for White Pine Pictures, in association with the CBC.