[Makarov]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I don't care for Harper's undying love for Israel either, but the reality is all of Nato tows that line.

How is that "the reality" when, prior to Harper's election in 2006, Canada was somehow able to maintain both a more nuanced position on the Palestine-Israel question and its membership in NATO (and for much of this period with a far more hawkish President in the White House)?

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I don't necessarily buy that Canada is behind others on climate change initiatives. Canada has natural resources that can and should be developed. Canada is also a manufacturing nation, which produces a lot of emissions. Canada is also freezing cold. Canada's overall contribution to GHGs is 2%. Even if Canada slashed their GHG emissions by 50% (which is unrealistic in today's means) that is a 1% reduction in global emissions. If the USA, the EU & China slashed their emissions by 50%, now we're talking.

Climate change is a complex issue to be sure. However I think there is little doubt that, rightly or wrongly, Canada's position on the issue has exposed it to a great deal of criticism internationally. I know its lazy and far from authoritative, but I'll cite wikipedia on that point:

Canada is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. However, the Liberal government that later signed the accord took little action towards meeting Canada's greenhouse gas emission targets. Although Canada committed itself to a 6% reduction below the 1990 levels for the 2008-2012 as a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the country did not implement a plan to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. Soon after the 2006 federal election, the new minority government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada could and would not meet Canada's commitments. The House of Commons passed several opposition-sponsored bills calling for government plans for the implementation of emission reduction measures.

Canadian and North American environmental groups feel that Canada lacks credibility on environmental policy and regularly criticizes Canada in international venues. In the last few months of 2009, Canada's attitude was criticized at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) conference,[5] at the Commonwealth summit,[6] and the Copenhagen conference.[7]
In 2011, Canada, Japan and Russia stated that they would not take on further Kyoto targets.[8] The Canadian government invoked Canada's legal right to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol on 12 December 2011.[9] Canada was committed to cutting its greenhouse emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012, but in 2009 emissions were 17% higher than in 1990. Environment minister Peter Kent cited Canada's liability to "enormous financial penalties" under the treaty unless it withdrew.[8][10] He also suggested that the recently signed Durban agreement may provide an alternative way forward.[11] Canada's decision was strongly criticised by representatives of other ratifying countries, including France and China.

SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Canada

Originally Posted by CroFlames

It's not exactly easy to negotiate with the folks who run Gitmo. Obama promised to shut it down, and lo, it's still up and running. If the President can't shut it down, I doubt Canadian diplomats could negotiate terms with the military/gitmo any better. I also don't have too much sympathy for Omar. He went to Afghanistan to knowingly kill Canadians/Nato troops.

I don't like the feeling of defending the conservatives since I have no love for any politicians, but some arguments against them I don't buy.

Sorry, but none of what you posted with respect to Omar Khadr makes any sense. Again, I'm going to cite the relevant wikipedia article because (a) its convenient; and (b) it is relatively thorough:

Omar Ahmed Khadr (born September 19, 1986) is a Canadian citizen who was captured badly wounded in Afghanistan in July, 2002 at age 15 by American forces. He was held at Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 10 years. He pleaded guilty in October, 2010 to several purported war crimes prior to being tried by a United States military commission.[1][2][3][4][5] He was the youngest prisoner and last Western citizen to be held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. He accepted an eight-year sentence, not including time served, with the possibility of a transfer to Canada after at least one year to serve the remainder of the sentence.[6]

During a firefight on July 27, 2002, in the village of Ayub Kheyl, Afghanistan, in which several Taliban fighters were killed, Khadr, not yet 16, was severely wounded.[7] After being detained, he was asked for information about Al Qaeda[citation needed]and subsequently sent to Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. During his detention, he was interrogated by Canadian as well as US intelligence officers.

Khadr was the first person since World War II to be prosecuted in a military commission for war crimes committed while still a minor. His conviction and sentence were widely denounced by civil rights groups, anti-Western propagandists, and various newspaper editorials.[8] His prosecution and imprisonment was condemned by the United Nations, which has taken up the issue of child soldiers.

On September 29, 2012, Khadr was repatriated to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence in Canadian custody.[9] He was initially assigned to a maximum-security prison but moved to a medium-security prison in 2014. Khadr was released on bail pending an appeal of his U.S. conviction in May 2015 after the Alberta Court of Appeal refused to block his release as requested by the Canadian government.

Khadr's lawyers successfully challenged his incarceration in Canada as an adult offender. In May 14, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the federal government's position, ruling that Khadr had clearly been sentenced by the US military tribunal as a minor. If he loses his appeal of the US conviction, underway in a separate action, he would serve any remaining time in a provincial facility rather than in a federal penitentiary.[10]

Khadr's defence attorneys claimed that the Canadian government acted illegally, sending its counsel and CSIS agents to Guantanamo Bay to interrogate Khadr and turning their findings over to the Tribunal prosecutors to help convict Khadr,[155] and that the release of the documents might help prove Khadr's innocence.[61] In 2007, the Federal Court of Appeal ordered the Canadian government to turn over its records related to Khadr's time in captivity, as judge Richard Mosley stated it was apparent that Canada had violated international law.[71] The government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2008, arguing that Khadr was just "fishing" for information and that disclosing their records, which included an initial account of the firefight that differs from all previously seen reports,[156] could jeopardise national security.[157] Critics alleged that the refusal to release the classified documents was due to the "embarrassment" they caused the government.[157][158]

On May 23, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled unanimously that the government had acted illegally, contravening s. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and ordered the videotapes of the interrogation released.[159]

In April 2009, the Federal Court of Canada ruled again that Khadr's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated. It concluded that Canada had a "duty to protect" Khadr and ordered the Canadian government to request that the U.S. return him to Canada as soon as possible.[160] In August 2009, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision in a 2–1 ruling.[161] Finally, in January 2010, in a unanimous 9–0 decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the participation of Canadian officials in Khadr's interrogations at Guantanamo clearly violated his rights under the Charter. In its sharply worded decision, the Supreme Court referred to the denial of Khadr's legal rights as well as to the use of sleep deprivation techniques to soften him up for interrogation:

The deprivation of [Khadr's] right to liberty and security of the person is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. The interrogation of a youth detained without access to counsel, to elicit statements about serious criminal charges while knowing that the youth had been subjected to sleep deprivation and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects.[citation needed]

But, the Supreme Court stopped short of ordering the government to seek Khadr's return to Canada. It left it to the government to determine how to exercise its duty to conduct foreign affairs while also upholding its obligation to respect Khadr's constitutional rights.[162]

In 2008 Foreign Affairs officials visited Khadr several times. Karim Amégan and Suneeta Millington reported that Khadr was "salvageable" if allowed to return to Canadian society, but that keeping him in the prison would risk radicalizing him.[171] As of January 2009, 64% of Canadians supported repatriating Khadr to Canada,[172] up from 41% in June 2007.[173]

The Wikileaks Cablegate disclosures in 2010 revealed that the Canadian government had decided against seeking Khadr's repatriation, a decision supported by the US. This made it "politically impossible" for the country to accept custody of Uighur former detainees whom the US was unable to return to China.[174] The Wikileaks cables showed strong US interest in Canadian reaction to Khadr's case. The director of Canada's intelligence agency expressed his belief that the release of DVD footage of Khadr's interrogation at Guantanamo by Canadian officials, in which he is shown crying, would lead to "knee-jerk anti-Americanism" and "paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty".[174]

Former Canadian Senator Romeo Dallaire has been an outspoken advocate for Omar Khadr's rights as former child soldier. In July 2012, Dallaire set up a petition putting pressure on then Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to honour the plea bargain deal Khadr made in 2010 when he was released to Canadian custody. 35,000 concerned citizens signed the petition. Omar was repatriated in September 2012.[175]

Dallaire: "Omar has been 10 years in jail already, in a jail so many have considered illegal and inappropriate. He's been tortured to get testimony out of him and through all that has seen no support whatsoever."[176]

Frankly, I don't see how Canada's treatment of Omar Khadr is remotely defensible or anything less than a complete embarrassment.