Seeing Khadr through Hicks: Australian and Canadian Exception by Proxy in the War on Terrorism

The American lead War on Terrorism has provoked a lot of criticism. Notable critics like Giorgio Agamben have pointed to the War on Terrorism’s intentional undermining of the Rule of Law through the establishment of States of Exception particularly with regard to the detention center in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. This existence of this institution has been met with almost universal condemnation, with the exception of Australia and Canada. Those states seemed to abandon their citizens to Exception by Proxy. This article analyses the Guantanamo Bay detention center as an instrument of a State of Exception and the processes of Exception by Proxy that Australia and Canada participated in.