The CBC has almost always allowed open comments on their online news site, cbc.ca.
In most cases, this makes sense. Open comments sometimes bring out depressing elements of society content to hide behind anonymity, but as Canada's leading journalistic institution CBC has a mandate to allow open and free discussion on its comments page.
The site occasionally closes comments, usually in stories about court cases, particularly when young offenders are involved. This decision makes a lot of ethical sense, but it also covers a media institution's liabilities.
It's curious, then, that in the case of Omar Khadr, the CBC has, for the most part, continued to allow open commenting. This is a mistake. The comment circus takes away from CBC's reasonably solid journalism on the story, obscuring the facts and research with vitriol and hate.
