No sympathy for Khadr and life at the Iggy Cafe

I've just spent the last few days at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Station where I learned, in no particular order, that accused Canadian terrorist Omar Khadr thinks the whole U.S. military commission process is a sham; that the suspected terrorists he's jailed with started computer classes there this week; and that military personnel and journalists start their day with breakfast at the Iggy Cafe. As for Khadr, you can read some reports on what I've been up to here and here, but there is also a new poll out this morning from Angus Reid Public Opinion which concludes that a majority of Canadians have little sympathy for the plight Khadr is in. That said: Canadians, being a nation of people with sharp and subtle minds, appear to be able to tell when the system is gamed with 42 per cent of us doubting that the military commissions set up to try Khadr and other suspects will be able to do a fair job of it.

Meanwhile, Canadian reporters who normally find themselves reporting on Parliament Hill — that would be me and Canwest's Andrew Mayeda — were chuckling to find that the mess hall at the U.S. Naval Station is the Iggy Cafe — it's formal name is the Gold Hill Galley — which we, of course, assumed that Guantanamo must be a stop on Michael Ignatieff's Liberal Express tour. Here's a picture (left) of your correspondent patiently waiting outside for the the bus get fixed on get on the road to Gitmo. (It's called Iggy Cafe, incidentally, for all the iguanas on the island.)

UPDATE: The link seems problematic at the Angus Reid site. If you're having trouble, point your Web browser to http://www.visioncritical.com/ and try to navigate your way to the poll. As of Wednesday it was down near the bottom left of the page under the “News” section.