Canada has sunk to the moral equivalent of al-Qaeda by failing to treat Canadian Omar Khadr the same way it treats other child soldiers, Liberal Senator Roméo Dallaire said Tuesday.

Dallaire, who appeared before a foreign affairs committee on international human rights, said Khadr is clearly a child soldier who shouldn't be prosecuted by an illegal court system at Guantanamo Bay but reintegrated into society.

Canada is heading down a slippery slope by failing to obey the United Nations conventions on child soldiers to which it is a signatory, he said.

"The minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties in order to say you are doing it to protect yourself … you are no better than the guy who doesn't believe in them at all," he said.

"We are slipping down the slope of going down that same route."

Now 21, Khadr has been in U.S. custody since 2002, after he was captured on an Afghan battlefield. The Pentagon says he threw a grenade that killed U.S. Sgt. Christopher Speer and are attempting to try him before the controversial military tribunals.

Dallaire, Kenney spar

In a testy exchange with Conservative MP Jason Kenney, Dallaire suggested by failing to treat Khadr as a child soldier, Canada has sunk to the moral equivalent of terrorists.

Kenney pointed to a number of al-Qaeda actions, including an incident in which the group allegedly outfitted mentally challenged young girls with explosive belts and sent them to their deaths in a Baghdad animal market.

"Is it your testimony that al-Qaeda strapping up a 14-year-old girl with Down Syndrome and sending her into a pet market to be remotely detonated is the moral equivalent to Canada's not making extraordinary political efforts for a transfer of Omar Khadr to this country?" asked Kenney.

"If you want a black and white [response] … I am only too prepared to give it to you: absolutely," said Dallaire. "You are either with the law or you are against the law. You're either a child soldier or you're not. You're either guilty or you're not."

Canada must be ready to deal with similar situations in the future, Dallaire said.

"If you think this is the last one, then we're really smoking dope because in this era, we're going to face similar scenarios and we've got to be prepared in this multi-ethnic country to handle it," he said.

Canada must protect all of its citizens, "whether we like them and their beliefs or not. That is irrelevant," he said.

Dallaire said Canadian soldiers have helped rehabilitate more than 7,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan. None of them have been prosecuted, he said.

"What is the political reason? What makes [Khadr] different from the others?" said Dallaire.

Dallaire said Khadr is being tried under an illegal judicial system at Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. prison on the eastern tip of Cuba.

"The thing is flawed, it is illegal and we're letting it happen," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush would be "one of the happiest people on earth" if Canada removed Khadr from Guantanamo, Dallaire said.

"The way to sort it out is you get the prime minister of this country to call the president and say 'I want my boy out and we’ll fill out the paperwork after.' And that's it," said Dallaire.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said he disagreed with Dallaire's choice of words and hinted the senator could be disciplined.

"This is a matter … [for] the [party] whip, and we'll deal with that," Dion told reporters.

"I would express that in my own way. I would say that Canada should do like the other countries and ask the government of the United States to bring this Canadian home to be prosecuted in Canada. The inaction of the government is unacceptable."

U.S. expert calls for action

The former U.S. prosecutor for the UN's war crimes court in Sierra Leone also called for Khadr to be returned to Canada, saying he believes Khadr is a child soldier.

"I think it's important to bring Khadr back and have his case fairly and openly considered in Canada," said David Crane, who appeared before the committee.

Crane, a law professor at Syracuse University College, said children who volunteer for military duty shouldn't be held to the same standard as adults.

"Children, any child, just doesn't have the requisite mental capability of this situation, regardless if they volunteer or not," he said.

"Children shouldn't be placed in these situations. If so, we shouldn't prosecute them for what they did," he said. "Legally, at the international level, they're not responsible for what they did. We just don't do this anymore."

Dallaire declared his intention to agitate on Khadr's behalf earlier this month, saying he would "harass" Prime Minster Stephen Harper until the government intervened in the case.

Washington maintains that the U.S. Military Commissions Act, which governs the trial process at Guantanamo Bay, doesn't have a minimum age, and is legal under international law.

With files from the Canadian Press