SpeerKids.com UPDATE: A heartfelt thank you

A little over a month ago I asked you to join me in raising money for the real victims of Omar Khadr, the Speer kids.

We were all upset over the $10.5 million payment, the apology, the way it was done — so quickly and in secret, to help Khadr shield his money from a lawsuit.

The appeal was an ambitious one. I asked you to help me raise one million dollars for the Speer kids, Taryn and Tanner.

While we didn’t raise the $1 million, I can’t say we failed because with your help, we raised $231,134 with the support of 3,767 backers.

It is an amazing result and all due to your support.

Our initial support was from the Rebel base but as I did TV and radio interviews across the continent, we had people that don’t normally watch The Rebel, don’t follow us or even agree with us, donate to this campaign because they were moved.

I want to thank those other media outlets, some of whom don’t really like anything The Rebel does, have me on to talk about the other side of this story.

We were able to focus a spotlight on the what Khadr did, who he hurt and what average Canadians and Americans could do about it.

We had some detractors who claimed we were doing this to promote ourselves, but it was never about me or The Rebel, it was about doing the right thing.

This campaign to help the real victims of Omar Khadr, the family of Sgt. Christopher Speer, the medic Khadr killed, was always about turning our outrage into something good.

The settlement with Khadr is outrageous. The government is out of touch with the majority of the Canadian people on this file. But thanks to you we now have $231,000 to pass on to the Speer family.

Tabitha Speer has expressed her deep gratitude for the support but remains deeply private. I don’t expect we’ll see her on camera but now that the campaign is over, we’ll be in touch to arrange the transfer of every penny of this money that will go to the Speer family and the college funds for Taryn and Tanner.

If they pass along any messages we’ll share them with you but for the most part, I plan on respecting the privacy of Tabitha, Taryn and Tanner.

Thank you so much for trusting us, for supporting us in this, for taking some of your hard earned money and donating to a good cause.