Juno News - April 24, 2019


Omar Khadr does not deserve a hero's welcome


Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

183.01176

Word count

762

Sentence count

41


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Omar Qadar's hero's welcome on a popular Quebec talk show has some wondering why he should not be treated like a folk hero. Is he the type of guest you want to have on a TV talk show? That's the conversation many are now having.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Is Omar Qadar the type of guest you want to have on a TV talk show?
00:00:13.940 That's the conversation Canadians are now having after video clips surfaced of Qadar appearing on Tout Le Mans en Pâle.
00:00:21.620 That's a popular Quebec talk show program that is watched by more people than any other talk show in Canada.
00:00:28.020 It's got about a million viewers, more popular than any English language program, a major, major part of Quebec Francophone culture that people obviously watch quite a lot, get their news from, form their opinions from.
00:00:41.580 Very odd clip surfaced on Easter Sunday after the program was broadcast.
00:00:45.840 A lot of people in English Canada seeing it going, what on earth is this?
00:00:50.080 Qadar walking into the set of this TV program, flashy lights, a live studio audience.
00:00:56.940 His name is said enthusiastically.
00:00:59.560 He comes out to face the crowd like it's the Johnny Carson show or Conan O'Brien or what have you.
00:01:04.920 Folks stand up.
00:01:06.500 They applaud.
00:01:07.840 Some are even cheering him.
00:01:09.360 He gets something of a celebrity welcome, a hero's welcome.
00:01:13.260 What on earth is this about?
00:01:15.460 Well, we still don't know exactly why at this point in time Qadar was on this program and why he agreed to be on this program.
00:01:23.040 Qadar has previously said, and said again on that program, you know, I'm just a regular Canadian.
00:01:29.060 That's how I want to live my life.
00:01:30.600 I just want to be a regular guy.
00:01:32.600 I don't think I'm going to ever be an ordinary citizen, but I'm going to carry myself as ordinary as I can.
00:01:40.660 Yeah.
00:01:40.840 Okay, fine.
00:01:42.760 But then why are you accepting an invitation to appear on this program?
00:01:48.240 Sort of makes you wonder and makes you wonder why he received something like a hero's welcome.
00:01:53.000 You probably have your scars.
00:01:54.400 We all do.
00:01:55.020 But from what I see right now, I see a strong, willing man.
00:02:00.820 And like, I still can't.
00:02:02.620 I don't know.
00:02:03.420 You're amazing.
00:02:03.940 Look, I get that Qadar is a controversial guy, and there are people who say this guy is a hardened terrorist from Canada's first family of terror.
00:02:12.880 And there are others who say, no, no, you've got to disassociate him from what his father, Ahmed Qadar, what his sister, Zainab Qadar, who hosted Osama bin Laden at her wedding.
00:02:23.120 You've got to separate him from them because he was a teenager at the time.
00:02:26.720 He was a child soldier.
00:02:27.940 He was brainwashed.
00:02:28.800 Okay, even if, even if you have that perspective, the more sympathetic one of him, you've got to wonder, why make him into a cause celeb?
00:02:37.700 Why are there still so many people making Omar Qadar a folk hero?
00:02:42.540 That's the question.
00:02:43.940 Now, I can't entirely blame a news program from having Qadar on.
00:02:47.940 I mean, I've hosted TV programs and radio programs over the years, and there's people out there that are just a great get.
00:02:53.620 You may not like them, you may not agree with them, but you know, if they're on the program, everybody's going to watch it, everybody's going to tune in, and it's your opportunity to ask them the questions that everybody is asking.
00:03:04.660 You know, journalists will sometimes test each other.
00:03:06.920 They'll say, hey, would you interview Paul Bernardo?
00:03:09.640 You know, if he was a guy who wanted to do media interviews, would you go up to the prison and meet him in that common room and sit down and chat with him?
00:03:16.400 And some people say, no way, that's horrified, I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't want to give him any more sort of airtime, give him any more exposure, let him manipulate people with his words and so forth.
00:03:25.820 Others go, yeah, everybody wants to hear this true crime story, got to go and talk to him.
00:03:30.240 So there's those litmus test stories.
00:03:32.040 I get why someone would want, well, to have anybody on their program.
00:03:36.200 But the odd thing about all of this is Kadar saying he doesn't want the attention, and then he goes and gets it, and an audience that, even if they're somewhat sympathetic to his story, even if you grant him that, and I don't think that's necessarily warranted, why is he receiving the hero's welcome?
00:03:56.040 That's the conversation I think we need to be having whenever Kadar flares up in the news.
00:04:00.500 I don't know if we're going to resolve this massive difference of opinion that people have of Kadar, but can't we all agree that the guy just shouldn't be treated like a hero?