Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, like other Harper ministers, appears to believe that Canadian citizenship is colour-coded. For some Canadians marooned in other countries, exile should, according to these ministers, be their eternal lot. But only for some.

Abousfian Abdelrazik knows what it’s like to be brown, Muslim and a Canadian citizen trapped abroad. So does Suaad Hagi Mohamud. So does Abdihakim Mohamed.

Considerable media attention and public indignation (and sustained legal action in the case of Abdelrazik) forced our Conservative rulers to let these fellow-citizens return home.

If your name happened to be Brenda Martin, of course, you were swiftly jetted back to Canada on the taxpayers’ nickel.

But Omar Khadr, a fifteen-year-old at the time of his alleged killing of an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan, still remains cooped up in Guantanamo. Canada has reneged on an agreement with the US to repatriate him. Vic Toews is always somewhere else when the matter is raised.

Toews has his supporters, of course—read the comments here and try to keep your lunch down. This is precisely the conservative base to which Toews—and the Harper government in general—have been playing from the beginning.

Senator Roméo Dallaire, who knows a thing or two about where that sort of evil can lead, has put up a petition. Show Toews and his colleagues that most Canadians are decent folks. Go sign.