Dallaire says he never meant to equate Canada with terrorists

On Tuesday, the ex-general sparked outrage in some quarters by suggesting Canada and the United States have sunk to the moral equivalent of terrorists in their handling of the young Canadian held at Guantanamo Bay.

He told a House of Commons committee that the two countries have flouted human rights and international conventions in dealing with Khadr - and are no better than those who don't believe in rights at all.

The Conservatives immediately called on Dallaire to retract the remarks.

Dallaire, who served as Canada's special UN ambassador for children, issued a statement Wednesday clarifying his remarks, but standing by his main position.

"Frankly, I think it is a distraction from the issue at hand to engage in a debate over the semantics of my response to a loaded question raised by a Conservative MP ... who asked whether I was equating the Canadian and the American governments as equal to al-Qaida in terms of terrorism," Dallaire wrote.

"Suffice it to say that I in no way intended to equate Canadian or U.S. authorities with the terrorist organization al-Qaida. But we cannot avoid the point that if we violate international law in our pursuit of the war on terror, we risk reducing ourselves, collectively, to the same level as those we oppose.

"What is clear to me is that we, Canada, have no legal basis on which to justify our inaction in allowing a Canadian citizen and the first ever child soldier to be prosecuted for war-crimes in an illegal process in Guantanamo Bay."

Khadr was 15 when he was captured after a fire fight in Afghanistan and has been held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for six years. American authorities now are attempting to try him before a special tribunal.

Dallaire warned that allowing a child soldier to be tried "will set a dangerous precedent that will put at risk the future of thousands of children we pledged to protect and to assist with disarmament and reintegration into society."

The Conservatives also said Liberal Leader Stephane Dion should dissociate himself from Dallaire's comments, but Dion stood by the Liberal senator Wednesday.

"I think that (Conservative MP) Jason Kenney, as usual, provoked a colleague of mine who has not a lot of experience in the heat of the parliamentary debate, but on the substance of the issue, Gen. Dallaire is right.

"Mr. Khadr should be back in Canada. All the other countries have done that. The last westerner that we have in Guantanamo is a Canadian and he was a child soldier when he has been arrested. So this must be solved and the inaction of the government is unacceptable."