Should Canada be outraged over Omar Khadr shoulder surgery?

One of Canada's most notorious inmates returned to the news this week when it was confirmed that war criminal Omar Khadr recently underwent shoulder surgery at an Edmonton hospital for an injury suffered during an Afghanistan firefight.

His lawyer, Dennis Edney, told the Canadian Press that Khadr was treated for a shoulder problem that has been lingering since he was injured in Afghanistan and went untreated during his decade-long incarceration at Guantanamo Bay.

He is now recovering at the Regional Psychiatric Centre in Saskatoon, where he is being treated with antibiotics and receiving 24-hour care.

"Our government has long been advised that Omar suffers from serious injuries that were not treated in Guantanamo Bay," Edney told the news agency.

"It is only now he is having his shoulder treated, while his eyesight also demands treatment."

Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five charges, including murder, for the death of an American soldier killed during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan. The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 years old when he participated in the firefight. Khadr was shot twice in the back and suffered shrapnel wounds to his eye.

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Khadr was originally imprisoned in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. military base for a decade before being transferred to maximum-security federal prisons in Ontario and later Edmonton.

He was recently transferred to the medium-security Bowden Institution in Innisfail, Alta.

Khadr is currently suing the Canadian government for violating his human rights dating back to his incarceration at Guantanamo Bay. He also says he only pleaded guilty to war crimes because it was the only way he would be transferred into the Canadian justice system and is appealing the conviction.

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Khadr is a polarizing figure in Canada, with some viewing him as a child soldier who fought against Canadian allies in Afghanistan and others who see him as a young victim mistreated by the justice system.

For the former, the idea that Canadian health care is paying to treat wounds sustained while fighting Canadian allies could be tough to swallow. For the latter, it is about time Khadr's injuries were treated.

"Finally some much needed medical treatment," one supporter wrote on a "Justice for Omar Khadr" Facebook page.

Every Canadian citizen has the right to receive medical treatment, and that goes for inmates and prisoners as well. Even controversial ones. And especially those who have suffered without treatment for years.

The only thing sensational about Khadr's surgery is the name and reputation of the patient, and the case history that led his current situation. And, perhaps, the fact that it didn't happen sooner.

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