don't like a ruling? get rid of the judge!

When explaining why the Iraq War resisters should be sent back to the US, the standard Tory fallback position is that the US is a democratic nation governed by the rule of law. They say all the war resisters will be given due process.

As I recall, that was Stockwell Day's excuse for not coming to the aid of Ronald Allen Smith, a Canadian citizen on death row in Montana.

Today that supposedly democratic nation showed us yet again how their rule of law works.

The U.S. military judge presiding over the trial of Canadian terrorism suspect Omar Khadr has been fired, said Khadr's lawyer.

In a news release issued Thursday, Lt.-Cmdr. William C. Kuebler said the judge, Col. Peter Brownback, was replaced after threatening to suspend proceedings in the case earlier this month.

Brownback told prosecutors they had to provide Khadr's defence lawyers with records of his confinement at the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or he would suspend the proceedings.

Kuebler, Khadr's U.S. military-appointed lawyer, said he learned Brownback had been fired in an email from the chief judge of the U.S. military commissions, Col. Ralph Kohlmann. Kuebler's news release also included an email sent Wednesday by lead prosecutor Maj. Jeff Groharing, which complained of numerous delays in trial proceedings.

Kuebler told CBCNews.ca he believes the prosecution hopes the change will "speed things up."

Brownback will be replaced by Col. Patrick Parrish, said Kuebler, who said he won't have a chance to talk to Khadr until later in June.

Pick up a 15-year-old boy in a foreign country, throw him in prison without charges or trial, torture him, and deny him access to legal counsel for several years. If a judge challenges your right to do so, get rid of the judge.

This is a democratic nation governed by the rule of law?

And this is the country that the Government of Canada wants to suck up to?