Relent on Khadr, Tories urged
Their refusal to repatriate hurts Canada, lawyers say
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/08/2009 (5898 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
DUBLIN — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government will tarnish Canada’s global image if it doesn’t accept the latest court ruling ordering Ottawa to repatriate a Canadian-born terrorist suspect held in a U.S. military prison, the Canadian Bar Association said Saturday.
CBA president and Winnipeg lawyer Guy Joubert said Omar Khadr is the only remaining western citizen being held at Guantanamo Bay after the governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium and Australia all used diplomatic pressure to successfully push for the return of their jailed nationals.
“We’re the last one, and I can’t help but think that it doesn’t help our image as a free and democratic society when we allow something like this to happen,” Joubert told Canwest News Service in an interview at the annual meeting of the body that represents Canada’s legal community.
The Federal Court of Appeal on Friday upheld a lower court ruling ordering Ottawa to repatriate Khadr, but the government has so far not indicated whether it will seek to challenge that decision before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Joubert said Khadr, who was captured in Afghanistan by American forces at age 15 in 2002 and charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy and aiding the enemy, has the right to face the criminal justice system in Canada.
“It’s quite simple: He’s a Canadian citizen that has been incarcerated in another country, who has been denied basic procedural rights that any other Canadian would enjoy in this country,” Joubert said.
Khadr should be brought “back home to face justice here, to let our courts deal with his case.”
Harper noted Friday that the decision wasn’t unanimous, with one of the three Appeal Court justices not supporting Federal Court Justice James O’Reilly’s April decision.
O’Reilly ruled then that Canadian officials violated Khadr’s charter rights, as well as breaking various international laws, when they interrogated him at Guantanamo in 2003 and 2004. They then passed that information to American authorities.
O’Reilly said the actions of the officials, who knew Khadr was being subjected to torture techniques such as sleep deprivation, deprived him of “fundamental justice.”
— Canwest News Service