Tapestry

Educating Omar Khadr

Tapestry's 2016 Gabriel Award-winning interview "Educating Omar". When Omar Khadr was imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, he received a postcard from an English professor in Edmonton. Through letters and book reports, Arlette Zinck became Khadr's teacher and friend. It was a profound spiritual experience that changed her life.
A message from one of the first postcards Arlette Zinck sent to Omar Khadr when he was in Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. (CP Images)

Arlette Zinck is an associate professor of English at The King's University, a Christian college in Edmonton.

In 2008, she decided to educate a prisoner -- but he wasn't just any prisoner and it wasn't just any jail.

He was fifteen-years-old, a Canadian and he was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay on charges laid by the US government.

His name was Omar Khadr.

Through letters, postcards and book reports, Arlette Zinck became Khadr's teacher and friend. Eventually, she played a key role in bringing him from his Cuban cell to his new life in Edmonton.

Click LISTEN to hear Tapestry's 2016 Gabriel Award-winning interview "Educating Omar".