Omar Khadr to appeal terrorism convictions

By The Canadian Press - Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 5:36 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr plans to appeal his terrorism convictions and hopes to walk free if his efforts are successful.

Khadr’s lawyer Dennis Edney said Saturday that the Toronto-born 26-year-old was “looking forward” to the appeal which is expected to be filed “very soon.”

Khadr has been held in Ontario’s maximum security Millhaven Institution since his transfer to Canada last September from Guantanamo Bay, where he had been held for a decade.

He had pleaded guilty before a widely discredited American military commission in October 2010 to five war crimes — among them killing a U.S. special forces soldier — committed as a 15 year old in Afghanistan. He was given a further eight years behind bars.

Edney said the appeal being launched aims to have all those convictions dismissed.

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Faulty info in feds’ Omar Khadr file suggests he killed two Afghans

By The Canadian Press - Monday, March 18, 2013 at 8:39 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The federal government’s file on Omar Khadr contains faulty information based on a memo prepared by a senior policy analyst for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest.

Among other things, the government alleges the late terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was an accomplice of a 15-year-old Khadr, and that the Canadian citizen killed two Afghan militia men.

The assertions are important given they will help inform decisions Canadian prison and parole authorities make on Khadr.

The claims, which form part of Toews’ decision allowing the Toronto-born Khadr, 26, to transfer from Guantanamo Bay to Canada last September, originated with a memo written in October 2011 as part of the transfer preparation.

The memo, by Liliane Keryluk, contains a series of statements reflecting Khadr’s 2010 deal with a U.S. military commission in which he pleaded guilty to five war crimes, among them throwing a hand grenade that killed an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan.

However Keryluk’s memo — reprised in Toews’ decision — goes even further than American military prosecutors. In particular, her memo asserts:

“Mr. Khadr engaged U.S. military and coalition personnel with small-arms fire, killing two members of the Afghan militia force. He threw and/or fired grenades at nearby coalition forces, resulting in numerous injuries to them.”

Although someone inside the compound where Khadr was staying shot the two Afghans, nowhere in his signed admission, which was drafted by military commission prosecutors, is there any suggestion he personally killed them.

While his confession does say American soldiers were hurt “as a result of Khadr and his conspirators’ actions in the firefight,” the only grenade prosecutors said he threw was the one that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer.

The memo also contains the assertion Khadr “conspired with Usama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Sheikh Sayeed al Masri, Saif al Adel, Ahmed Said Khadr, who is Mr. Khadr’s father.”

It goes on to say the 15-year-old had “several known accomplices,” including bin Laden, al Zawahiri, and his father — which Toews also repeated in his decision.

While Khadr’s father was a bin Laden associate, and their families spent some holiday time together, American prosecutors never claimed the teen had direct operational contact with bin Laden or al Zawahiri, current leader of the al-Qaida terrorist organization, or that they were his accomplices.

“There is no evidence whatsoever to support these false allegations,” Khadr’s lawyer, Dennis Edney, said from Edmonton on Monday.

“Even the Canadian government is aware these accusations are baseless, as it had a representative from DFAIT present throughout the sham trial.”

Keryluk refused to discuss her memo, which was signed off on by senior department officials as it worked its way up the political chain.

A ministry spokeswoman would only say the information was “based on court documentation from the United States government” and was “consistent with the decision” Toews rendered on Khadr’s return to Canada.

The badly wounded Khadr, then 15, was the only survivor found in the rubble following a battle in which American forces dropped two 500-pound bombs on a compound in Afghanistan in July 2002. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay a few months later.

Under his guilty plea in 2010, he was given a further eight years behind bars and was transferred to Canadian custody last fall. He is currently a maximum-security inmate at the Millhaven Institution west of Kingston, Ont., and is already eligible for day parole.

A strange internal file on Omar Khadr from public safety minister

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press - Monday, March 18, 2013 at 5:21 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The federal government’s file on Omar Khadr contains faulty information based on a memo prepared by a senior policy analyst for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest.

Among other things, the government alleges the late terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was an accomplice of a 15-year-old Khadr, and that the Canadian citizen killed two Afghan militia men.

The assertions are important given they will help inform decisions Canadian prison and parole authorities make on Khadr.

The claims, which form part of Toews’ decision allowing the Toronto-born Khadr, 26, to transfer from Guantanamo Bay to Canada last September, originated with a memo written in October 2011 as part of the transfer preparation.

The memo, by Liliane Keryluk, contains a series of statements reflecting Khadr’s 2010 deal with a U.S. military commission in which he pleaded guilty to five war crimes, among them throwing a hand grenade that killed an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan.

However Keryluk’s memo — reprised in Toews’ decision — goes even further than American military prosecutors. In particular, her memo asserts:

“Mr. Khadr engaged U.S. military and coalition personnel with small-arms fire, killing two members of the Afghan militia force. He threw and/or fired grenades at nearby coalition forces, resulting in numerous injuries to them.”

Although someone inside the compound where Khadr was staying shot the two Afghans, nowhere in his signed admission, which was drafted by military commission prosecutors, is there any suggestion he personally killed them.

While his confession does say American soldiers were hurt “as a result of Khadr and his conspirators’ actions in the firefight,” the only grenade prosecutors said he threw was the one that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer.

The memo also contains the assertion Khadr “conspired with Usama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, Sheikh Sayeed al Masri, Saif al Adel, Ahmed Said Khadr, who is Mr. Khadr’s father.”

It goes on to say the 15-year-old had “several known accomplices,” including bin Laden, al Zawahiri, and his father — which Toews also repeated in his decision.

While Khadr’s father was a bin Laden associate, and their families spent some holiday time together, American prosecutors never claimed the teen had direct operational contact with bin Laden or al Zawahiri, current leader of the al-Qaida terrorist organization, or that they were his accomplices.

“There is no evidence whatsoever to support these false allegations,” Khadr’s lawyer, Dennis Edney, said from Edmonton on Monday.

“Even the Canadian government is aware these accusations are baseless, as it had a representative from DFAIT present throughout the sham trial.”

Keryluk refused to discuss her memo, which was signed off on by senior department officials as it worked its way up the political chain.

A ministry spokeswoman would only say the information was “based on court documentation from the United States government” and was “consistent with the decision” Toews rendered on Khadr’s return to Canada.

The badly wounded Khadr, then 15, was the only survivor found in the rubble following a battle in which American forces dropped two 500-pound bombs on a compound in Afghanistan in July 2002. He was taken to Guantanamo Bay a few months later.

Under his guilty plea in 2010, he was given a further eight years behind bars and was transferred to Canadian custody last fall. He is currently a maximum-security inmate at the Millhaven Institution west of Kingston, Ont., and is already eligible for day parole.

Omar Khadr turns again to former high profile lawyer; current ones step down

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 4:13 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – Omar Khadr’s two Canadian lawyers have stepped down as his counsel after the former Guantanamo Bay inmate turned again to a man who spent years championing his highly politicized case, The Canadian Press has learned.

In a notice of motion to Federal Court, where Khadr is suing the federal government for breaching his constitutional rights, John Norris and Brydie Bethell said they made the decision to step down last week.

“Current counsel concluded they were required to withdraw from representing (Khadr) for reasons they are not at liberty to disclose to the court,” Norris said in his application.

“Counsel have advised the plaintiff that they intend to bring this motion.”

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2012: The year of the comeback

By Tamsin McMahon - Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 12:40 PM - 0 Comments

Stanley Chou/Getty Images

Literary wizardry

J.K. Rowling may be the most commercially successful author in recent memory, but in the lead-up to her first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, skeptics questioned her writing chops. It’s one thing to earn a billion dollars charming children with teenage wizards. It’s quite another to penetrate the cloistered world of the literary elite. The fuss turned out to be for naught. The Casual Vacancy has been a critical success: the Guardian declared Rowling a storyteller “on a par with R.L. Stevenson, Conan Doyle and P.D. James.” Any 10-year-old could have told you that.

Putting the Sheen on cable TV

Writers for CBS’s Two and A Half Men made sure Charlie Sheen would never return when his character was hit by a train, and his body “exploded like a balloon full of meat.” Leave it to cable TV to see the potential in Sheen’s penchant for drug-fuelled rants and rehab stints. Sheen’s Anger Management debuted on FX in June. Ratings were respectable enough for the network to commit to a further 90 episodes. Let’s hope they left some downtime in Sheen’s schedule for a possible relapse. Maybe Ashton Kutcher will be free.

An inauspicious homecoming

Visit a prison and you’ll find inmates who claim to be wrongly convicted. But few can proclaim their innocence quite like Conrad Black. Since his release from a Florida prison in May he has made the rounds of British and Canadian media to declare himself the victim of the “fascistic conveyor belt of the corrupt prison system.” If there is one decision Black seems to regret, it’s the one to renounce his Canadian citizenship for a British life peerage. Eleven years after he termed his exit from Canada as his “last and most consistent act of dissent,” Black is back home on a one-year visa and fighting to keep his membership in Order of Canada. Missing Tim Hortons coffee, m’lord? Continue…

U.S. court ruling casts doubts on Omar Khadr’s war crimes convictions

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 at 4:58 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – A new American court ruling in favour of Osama bin Laden’s driver has cast doubt on the validity of Omar Khadr’s war crimes convictions, legal experts said Wednesday.

Even so, they said, several factors make it essentially impossible for Khadr to have his convictions before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay set aside.

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The complicated case of Omar Khadr

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, October 9, 2012 at 11:03 AM - 0 Comments

Photograph by Blair Gable

Canadian citizen, convicted terrorist and diplomatic conundrum Omar Khadr is back home. Flown in on an American military transport early Saturday morning, Khadr’s first appearance in his birth country since 2001 seemed to come rather suddenly, particularly given the protracted political and legal debates over his capture, incarceration and repatriation. What brought things to a head so quickly? And was the right decision made?

It seems Maclean’s played a key role in the timing of Khadr’s return. Two weeks ago Senior Writer Michael Friscolanti unveiled important new information on this polarizing file when he obtained the transcript of a seven-hour interview from 2010 between Khadr and forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner at the U.S. military prison in Guantánamo Bay. Friscolanti’s cover story (“The secret Khadr file,” National, Oct. 1) revealed for the first time the contents of this much-discussed but never-seen video footage.

News of our exclusive story immediately put the heat on long-standing diplomatic discussions to bring Khadr home. According to the Toronto Star, our access to the secret U.S. military document was considered a serious “breach of trust” by the Obama White House and forced Canada’s hand. CTV National News similarly identified our cover story as the accelerant in convincing Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to agree to accept Khadr, something Ottawa said it would “favourably consider” more than two years ago.

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Omar Khadr: into the unknown

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 11:00 AM - 0 Comments

Janet Hamlin/Pool/Reuters

In the spring of 2004, when Omar Khadr was a still a teenager, a Foreign Affairs bureaucrat flew to Guantánamo Bay for a jailhouse meeting. An internal government memo—secret at the time, but now part of Khadr lore—famously described what the Canadian visitor found: a “thoroughly screwed-up young man” who had been “abused” by every adult in his life, from his radical parents to fellow detainees. “Before he is returned to Canada (if this were to be a possibility) some thought should be given to managing this process,” the memo continued. “The social service agencies should play a major role.”

Khadr, of course, was still years away from coming home. Shot and captured on an Afghan battlefield, and shipped to Cuba shortly after his 16th birthday, he grew from boy to man behind the world’s most infamous bars. Along the way, he learned to survive and endure, not just the incessant interrogations, but the manipulation of older, more sinister cellmates. As Khadr told one psychiatrist in 2010, just four months before pleading guilty to war crimes: “I grew up a little bit more and I became more independent in my thoughts. Right now, nobody can influence me to do anything.”

As desperate as he was to escape Guantánamo, Khadr became accustomed to the rhythms and the routine, as prisoners so often do. Popular with the jailed and jailers alike, he spent much of his incarceration in a communal lock-up, sharing meals and prayers and games of soccer with other detainees. He watched television. He played basketball. After a decade inside the wire, Khadr understood how to navigate the strange world of Gitmo—and how to get things, from acne cream to “special comfort socks” to more juices and salads in his lunch. He saw a doctor three separate times just for his dandruff.

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Ambassador says U.S. didn’t have to pressure Canada to repatriate Khadr

By Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press - Monday, October 1, 2012 at 10:10 PM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – The United States didn’t have to pressure Canada to repatriate convicted terrorist Omar Khadr from its Cuban military prison, American envoy David Jacobson said Monday.

Toronto-born Khadr returned to Canada on Saturday after 10 years in the notorious U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a facility which has been condemned by human rights organizations across the globe.

The Harper government has been accused of dragging its feet on the 26-year-old’s case and Canada’s foreign affairs minister even recently suggested the repatriation came after diplomatic pressure from the U.S.

But Jacobson, who spoke to reporters at Ottawa’s Carleton University after a speech on the upcoming American presidential election, said Canada and the U.S. collaborated on the Khadr file.

“I’m not sure I’d use the word pressure. We wanted it to happen. We had an understanding with Canada that’s public — the fact that they would look favourably on a request,” he said.

Jacobson called Khadr’s return a small step towards the eventual closure of the prison because the Canadian citizen was the last Western national held there.

U.S. President Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay four years ago when he won the White House, but Jacobson said Obama has faced serious obstacles.

“Is it the end of the road? No. This has been a difficult thing for the president. He indicated on day one … that he was going to try to close Guantanamo. He has met a lot of resistance in Congress and elsewhere. But this was a step in the right direction and we’re pleased the Canadians did it,” said Jacobson.

“We explained to the Canadians our desire. But we don’t pressure, that’s not how it works.”

On Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird simply answered “yes” when asked by CTV’s Question Period if the U.S. had exerted diplomatic pressure on Canada to accept Khadr.

Baird added that since Khadr is a Canadian citizen and the Americans plan to close Guantanamo Bay, Canada did not have much of a choice but to let the prisoner return.

Khadr pleaded guilty in October 2010 to five charges, including murder in violation of the law of war for the death of an American special forces soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002. Khadr was 15 years old at the time of the offences.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Khadr was eligible to return to Canada a year ago to serve out the remainder of an eight-year sentence for war crimes, but his transfer was delayed amid sniping between Canada and the U.S.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews had insisted he needed to satisfy himself that Khadr would pose no threat to public safety.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Toews said Khadr’s weekend repatriation came after a regulatory process was followed.

“The transfer of Omar Khadr occurred following a process initiated by the American government and conducted in accordance with Canadian law. It did not include consideration of foreign relations,” he said.

Meanwhile, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said the rhetoric used by the Conservatives to portray Khadr to Canadians needed to change.

“I think the attitude of the Conservatives is completely out of keeping with what needs to happen and where we need to be as a country with respect to Mr. Khadr,” Rae said.

“But we’ve come to expect nothing else, nothing less, nothing better from the Conservatives or from Mr. Toews…they’re going to continue to use what I call simple cartoon rhetoric and cartoon language in describing a real person who now has to be rehabilitated into Canada.”

The U.S. had little to say about Khadr’s transfer prior to Jacobson’s comments Monday night.

“We’re glad that it’s behind us. We appreciate the actions of Canada,” Jacobson said.

Khadr was taken to Millhaven Institution west of Kingston, Ont., upon his return for a period of assessment — a normal procedure for new inmates — before authorities decide where he will serve out the remaining six years of his sentence.

He will be eligible for parole within about six months.

Omar Khadr faces uncertain future back in Canada

By Scaachi Koul - Monday, October 1, 2012 at 1:14 PM - 0 Comments

After spending 10 years in Guantanamo Bay, Khadr arrived at maximum security prison, Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., on Saturday morning.

Millhaven has been dubbed “Guantanamo North,” and includes a six-bunk facility to hold suspected terrorists. It’s not yet known if Khadr will be placed there for the six remaining years in his eight-year sentence—as he is awaiting a Corrections Canada assessment. Khadr, meanwhile, is spending his days in 23-hour lockdown.

John Baird wasn’t thrilled to welcome Khadr back to Canada, admitting that a big reason why he’s back is due to pressure from the U.S.—the Americans are looking to close Guantanamo and Khadr is still a Canadian citizen.

Handle with care

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 1, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Ronald Crelinsten says Omar Khadr must be handled with care. Postmedia talks to War Child’s Samantha Nutt. Sheema Khan says Omar Khadr will be a test of our ability to rehabilitate child soldiers.

Omar was incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay as its youngest inmate, subjected to torture, mind games and denied counsel for his first two years of detention. Ten years later, he is back in Canada after the grudging acceptance of a plea deal by our government. Omar is also the last Western detainee to be repatriated (all of whom have a 0 per cent recidivism rate). By all accounts, Omar fits the description of a child soldier, as defined by the Optional Protocol. Why have Canada and the U.S. ignored their treaty obligations?

Once a terrorist, always a terrorist, some believe. In their minds, Omar is a traitor who cannot change. They are willfully blind to successful rehabilitation programs of child soldiers.

‘This young man in an unfortunate situation’

By Aaron Wherry - Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 1:12 PM - 0 Comments

Tuesday will mark ten years since this question was asked, seemingly the first time Omar Khadr was reference in the House of Commons.

Svend Robinson. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Last July, Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian citizen, was arrested by the U.S. army in Afghanistan. To date, the U.S. has allowed the Red Cross access but has refused all Canadian consular access, in blatant violation of international law. I want to ask the minister this. What action is the government taking to ensure that this teenager will not be held at Guantanamo Bay indefinitely, tried before a secret military tribunal and possibly sentenced to death? What is Canada doing to defend the rights of this young Canadian citizen from this abuse of U.S. power?

Bill Graham. Mr. Speaker, my colleague opposite, who is very familiar with international law, will know that he is wrong in qualifying the right to consular access in these cases. This young man in an unfortunate situation was arrested in the course of having been accused of killing an American serviceman in the course of a conflict. There is no consular access in the course of conflicts or we would have had consular access to all of our prisoners during the second world war. We have access. We have requested to the United States to have access and it has assured us that we will have access. The Red Cross has assured us that the young man’s health is in good condition. We continue to press the United States to ensure that his rights will be protected, but I want to assure the House–

‘Very, very happy to be home’

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 2:58 PM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr’s lawyer talks to the Canadian Press.

Meanwhile, Khadr’s lawyers told the Canadian Press that they are surprised by Toews’ statements regarding continuing concerns over the case. ”We’re at a loss to understand why the government continues to demonize Omar and to stoke public opinion against him,” said lawyer John Norris. “We know him to be a kind, intelligent thoughtful young man who has tremendous potential and we know that he will live up to that.”

Norris said that the 26-year-old is happy to finally be back on Canadian soil. ”He’s finding it hard to believe that this has finally happened,” Norris said after speaking to his client by phone. ”His spirits are good. He is very, very happy to be home.”

Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae has released a statement.

“Omar Khadr’s return to Canada is long overdue. Mr. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was a child soldier. It is extremely unfortunate that it took the Conservative government this long to fulfil its responsibility to bring him back to Canada.

Now Mr. Khadr will serve the remainder of his sentence under the supervision of the Canadian correctional system, and we can ensure that he receives proper treatment and rehabilitation.”

And a statement from the NDP’s Paul Dewar and Wayne Marston.

Today, the Conservatives ended nearly a decade of unnecessary delays and allowed Omar Khadr to serve out the remainder of his sentence in Canada. Canada is the last Western country to repatriate their citizens from the discredited Guantanamo prison system.

Mr. Khadr’s return to Canada was inevitable, yet the Conservatives chose to drag this process out for years at great cost to taxpayers. Their mishandling has hurt our relationship with the United States, our closest ally, and tarnished Canada’s reputation on the international stage.

Both the Supreme Court of Canada and the U.S. Supreme Court, based on the full facts of this case, have found that the military commission proceedings in Guantanamo violated both U.S. domestic law and Canada’s international human rights obligations.

Conservatives have previously faced court judgments against them for their mishandling of the case and failure to respect human rights.

The government should now allow Mr. Khadr to be handled by Canadian authorities in accordance with Canadian law, free from interference.

Updated: Convicted war criminal Omar Khadr ‘very happy to be home’

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press - Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 1:40 PM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – A decade after 15-year-old Omar Khadr was pulled near death from the rubble of a bombed-out compound in Afghanistan, the Canadian citizen set foot on Canadian soil early Saturday following an American military flight from the notorious prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Khadr was immediately whisked off to a maximum-security facility in eastern Ontario following the five-hour flight to CFB Trenton, Ont.

“He’s finding it hard to believe that this has finally happened,” John Norris, one of Khadr’s lawyers, told The Canadian Press just after speaking to his client by phone.

“His spirits are good. He is very, very happy to be home.”

Under a plea agreement, the Toronto-born Khadr was eligible to return to Canada a year ago to serve out the remainder of an eight-year sentence for war crimes handed down by a much maligned military commission in October 2010.

But his politically-wrought transfer was delayed amid sniping between Canada and the U.S., while Public Safety Minister Vic Toews insisted he needed to satisfy himself that Khadr, who turned 26 earlier this month, would pose no threat to public safety.

“Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the al-Qaida terrorist network and a convicted terrorist,” Toews said Saturday, repeating a standard government line.

“(But) I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed, and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration.”

In his three-page decision Friday allowing the transfer, Toews identified five areas of concern, including that Khadr has been away from Canadian society for years and will require “substantial management” to re-integrate.

Toews also said Khadr idealizes his late father — a purported high-ranking al-Qaida financier — while his mother and older sister “have openly applauded his crimes and terrorist activities,” an apparent reference to media comments they made eight years ago.

Still, Toews said it is up to the parole board to determine how many of the six years remaining on his eight-year sentence Khadr will have to serve behind bars.

The inmate is eligible for early release within months and the minister said he was counting on the board to put “robust conditions” in place if it does allow him out.

Norris, who said the transfer was “finally a time that justice had triumphed over politics,” expressed surprise at Toews’ position.

“We’re at a loss to understand why the government continues to demonize Omar and to stoke public opinion against him,” said Norris.

“We know him to be a kind, intelligent, thoughtful young man who has tremendous potential and we know that he will live up to that.”

Khadr was taken upon his arrival in Canada to Millhaven Institution just west of Kingston, Ont., for assessment pending permanent placement.

News their relative was back in Canada caught Khadr’s family in Toronto off guard.

“Do we know where he is so we can maybe go see him?” one close relative asked a reporter.

In October 2010, Khadr pleaded guilty to five war crimes committed as a 15 year old in Afghanistan.

The most serious offence was murder in violation of the rules of war — a crime not recognized outside of the military commissions — for the death of Sgt. Christopher Speer. The U.S. special forces soldier was killed by a grenade Khadr admitted throwing following a massive bombardment of the compound he was at in July 2002.

Khadr, near death and almost blind, was found in the rubble and taken to Bagram prison in Afghanistan. He was transferred a few months later to Guantanamo Bay.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the 40-year sentence handed him by a military-commission jury was capped at a further eight years, with only one more to be served in Guantanamo, but he remained there until Saturday.

Ottawa blamed the Americans for failing to authorize the transfer, while the Americans and Khadr supporters fumed that Canada was dragging its feet.

In Ottawa, Liberal Leader Bob Rae called it “extremely unfortunate” the Conservative government took so long to allow Khadr back.

NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said the Conservatives had tried to look like they were being tough on terrorism but had undermined Canada’s international credibility in the process.

He urged the government to let prison and parole authorities take over.

“There should be absolutely no interference politically with this case,” Dewar said.

Social media and online sites showed the same kind of split that has long characterized Canadians’ views on Khadr, with most comments slamming his return.

“The only embarrassment here is that this piece of trash was allowed to return home to our wonderful country,” one poster wrote on a news site.

“I am so sorry to see this traitor back in our country — this is one of the sad prices we pay to live in a democracy but it is another testimony to our greatness,” another said.

Supporters were also quick to express their opinions.

“We treat child soldiers from other countries with compassion but this man, who was also a child soldier brainwashed by his own parents, we treat with a complete lack of understanding and hatred,” one said.

The Pentagon had little comment, saying the U.S. “co-ordinated with the government of Canada regarding appropriate security and humane treatment measures.”

Khadr was the last westerner and youngest inmate held at the U.S. prison in Cuba.

Human rights groups, which have long condemned Khadr’s incarceration and treatment, applauded the transfer.

The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights said the move ended “one of the ugliest chapters” in the Guantanamo’s history and called for Canada to release him immediately.

In Washington, Human Rights Watch called on Ottawa to help the “former child soldier” integrate into society and “remedy abuses he suffered” during his decade in U.S. custody.

“Omar Khadr’s repatriation provides an opportunity for Canada to begin to right a wrong,” the organization’s Andrea Prasow said.

“Canada should also do all it can to hold accountable those who are responsible for his abuse.”

Among other things, Khadr was shackled in stress positions, threatened with rape and deprived of sleep during some of his years in custody.

The Supreme Court of Canada twice ruled the government violated his rights.

Khadr’s only public words since his capture came at his military commission trial, when he apologized to Speer’s widow and said his “biggest dream” was to get out of Guantanamo and said he hated no one.

“Love, forgiveness are more constructive and bring people together.”

He’s back

By Aaron Wherry - Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 10:09 AM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr arrived in Canada this morning at 7:40am and has been transferred to Millhaven maximum security prison in Bath, Ontario.

Here is the official explanation from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

And here is the statement Mr. Toews delivered to reporters this morning.

Good morning. I will be making a short statement.

Early this morning, convicted terrorist Omar Khadr was transferred to Canadian authorities at CFB Trenton.

This was done pursuant to a decision I made earlier this week.

He arrived at 07:40 ET aboard a U.S. Government aircraft travelling from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He has been transferred from CFB Trenton to Millhaven maximum security prison at Bath, Ontario.

Omar Khadr is a known supporter of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and a convicted terrorist.

He pleaded guilty to the murder of Sergeant First Class Christopher Speer, an American Army medic, who was mortally wounded in a firefight in Afghanistan on July 27, 2002 and died on August 6, 2002.

Omar Khadr also pleaded guilty to:
• Providing material support for terrorism;
• Attempted murder in violation of the law of war;
• Conspiracy and spying

Omar Khadr was born in Canada and is a Canadian citizen. As a Canadian citizen, he has a right to enter Canada after the completion of his sentence.

This transfer occurs following a process initiated by the United States Government and determined in accordance with Canadian law.

The remainder of his prison sentence will be administered by the Correctional Service of Canada.

I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration.

Any decisions related to his future will be determined by the independent Parole Board of Canada in accordance with Canadian law.

Thank you.

The official announcement from the U.S. Defence Department is here.

Omar Khadr is on his way home

By Michael Friscolanti - Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 8:37 AM - 0 Comments

Omar Khadr—a boy, now man, whose legal saga has triggered fierce debate among fellow Canadians—has spent his final night behind U.S. bars.

Early this morning, the Toronto-born 26-year-old was escorted onto a U.S. military plane, bound for an unspecified Canadian jail.

Khadr was eligible to apply for a prison transfer last year, but bureaucratic delays on both sides of the border had held up the process.

What happens next is not clear.

Khadr, who pleaded guilty to five war crimes, including the battlefield murder of an American soldier in Afghanistan, has six more years left to serve on his sentence. But under Canadian law, he will be eligible to apply for parole in June.

Source: The Miami Herald

Khadr on his way back to Canada: Media reports

By The Canadian Press - Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 8:18 AM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – There are reports that Omar Khadr is being repatriated to Canada after spending nearly a decade in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Several American and Canadian media outlets are citing unnamed sources as saying Khadr is being flown back to Canada this morning.

Officials with the federal government and Khadr’s lawyers were not immediately available to confirm or deny the reports.

Khadr has been serving a sentence for war crimes and has been eligible to return to Canada since last October under a plea bargain deal.

Khadr pleaded guilty to five crimes, including murder, in violation of the rules of war before a U.S. military tribunal in October 2010.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured _ badly wounded and almost blind _ in the rubble of a bombed out compound in Afghanistan in July 2002.

He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later and has been held there since.

He applied to transfer to Canada in April of last year to serve the rest of his sentence in a Canadian prison.

Talking to Omar Khadr

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 28, 2012 at 3:50 PM - 0 Comments

Michael Friscolanti’s exclusive story about Omar Khadr’s conversation with forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner is now online. Chris Selley reads it and considers.

Is he lying, manipulating? Is he sincere? Search me. If it’s a calculated routine, it’s a complicated one. The fact is, we simply don’t know what’s going on in Omar Khadr’s head, his political thoughts, his potential for violence, his chances for successful integration in Canadian society. Anyone who tells you otherwise — certain he’s a bomb waiting to explode, certain he’s a gentle lamb — is simply grasping at his preferred straws.

Never mind humanitarianism for now. The smart public safety play, from the day of his capture under a Liberal government, was to take an active interest in precisely these questions, in hopes of him coming home, as he must, as well-adjusted and pacified as possible. At every turn, Ottawa has rejected that approach, and no doubt there are more stall tactics to come. Personally, my hunch is that he is not particularly dangerous. But I’d rather wager as little of my safety on that as possible. If he is, in fact, a threat, it’s hard to see the advantage, in Dr. Welner’s memorable phrase, of him continuing to “marinat[e] in a community of hardened and belligerent radical Islamists” at Guantanamo Bay.

The secret Omar Khadr file

By Michael Friscolanti - Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 9:15 AM - 0 Comments

Colin Perkel/CP

Omar Khadr has spent so much of his young life answering questions. (Some honestly, some not.) The faces of his interrogators have changed over the years—men, women, American, Canadian—but the questions rarely did. The gist of every grilling was the same. How does a 15-year-old kid from Toronto end up on the front lines of Afghanistan? What was your father’s relationship with Osama bin Laden? Did you throw the grenade that killed Sgt. Christopher Speer? (As one CSIS spy famously told him: “You didn’t just fall off the turnip truck . . . You could probably tell us a lot of interesting things.”)

On June 15, 2010, the man asking the questions was not a nameless interrogator. It was Michael Welner, a prominent forensic psychiatrist based in New York. Hired by Pentagon prosecutors, Welner’s job was, among other things, to personally assess Khadr in advance of his much-anticipated war crimes trial. When they sat down together that Tuesday morning, inside the razor wire of Guantánamo Bay, Khadr was a few months shy of his 24th birthday. With a full beard and a muscular frame, he looked nothing like the bony teenager who was shot and captured by U.S. troops eight years before.

“If I had to ask you about the five worst memories that you have in your life, what are they?” Welner asked him.

Continue…

Exclusive: The secret Omar Khadr interview you’re not supposed to see

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 10:01 AM - 0 Comments

Locked away at Guantánamo Bay for the past decade, Omar Khadr is closer than ever to coming home. But one final obstacle appears to be blocking his return to Canada: a secret, videotaped interview he gave to an American psychiatrist two years ago.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews—who will ultimately decide whether Khadr can transfer to a Canadian prison—recently asked the Pentagon to hand over a copy of the 2010 interview (among other pieces of evidence), hoping it could shed some light on the “real” Omar Khadr. The tape was delivered to Ottawa earlier this month, and although many Canadians are demanding to see it, the contents have remained a secret.

Until now.

Maclean’s has viewed a transcript of this pivotal videotape and, in a world exclusive, takes readers inside the seven-hour interview. It’s a chilling glimpse into the two faces of Omar Khadr: the tearful child soldier who dreams of coming back to Toronto and the remorseless murderer who, even now, refuses to admit that his notorious father was a senior al-Qaeda terrorist. “I think he was just a normal dad,” he said. “He was just trying to raise his children the right way.”

At one point during the interview, Khadr is asked what he misses most about his former life, which famously ended, at age 15, when he was shot and captured by U.S. troops during a deadly firefight in Afghanistan. “I miss being trusted,” said Khadr, now 26. “Nobody trusts me, and they don’t trust me because of something I didn’t do or I was made to do. I was never given a chance.”

Asked about Canada, he replied: “It’s a country I can call home.”

To read more of senior writer Michael Friscolanti’s exclusive story, pick up this week’s issue of Maclean’s, on newsstands now.

A long November

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, September 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Vic Toews suggests Omar Khadr won’t be home for Christmas.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews shot down as erroneous a report that said convicted terrorist and murderer Omar Khadr would be back in Canada in November. ”The process in regular transfer of offenders situation is about nine months,” Toews told reporters Thursday. “We received his application in April.”

Still waiting

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 4:43 PM - 0 Comments

The Harper government tries to explain why it hasn’t made a decision about Omar Khadr yet.

The Canadian government claims in court documents that they only became aware of psychological assessments of Guantanamo prisoner Omar Khadr through media reports in February, despite the fact that the existence of this material had been widely reported since 2010.

The tapes he sought apparently landed on his desk on Sept. 7, but Vic Toews hasn’t viewed them yet.

Canada blames U.S. for delay in transferring Khadr

By Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press - Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 5:24 AM - 0 Comments

TORONTO – The Canadian government is defending itself against allegations it is deliberately dragging its feet in allowing Omar Khadr to return from Guantanamo Bay by arguing much of the delay is the fault of the Americans, new court documents show.

In an affidavit filed in response to a Federal Court application by Khadr’s lawyers, a senior public safety official cites two main reasons for the lack of a decision to the application for Khadr to serve out his sentence in Canada — something he was eligible to do starting in October 2011.

The first reason cited was a delay in Washington’s approval of the transfer — granted only this past spring.

The second reason was Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ request for sealed videos of mental assessments of the inmate done for military prosecutors — apparently only discovered in February through media reports.

Khadr, who pleaded guilty to five crimes including murder in violation of the rules of war before a widely discredited military commission in October 2010, applied to transfer to Canada in April last year.

In an affidavit by Mary Campbell, the Correctional Service of Canada completed its processing of the application in October 2011 — around the time Khadr was eligible to return under terms of his widely reported plea deal.

The file was immediately forwarded to Public Safety Canada, which in turn sent it to Toews for a decision, according to the document obtained by The Canadian Press.

However, Toews refused to accept the file, according to Campbell, the ministry’s director general of the corrections and criminal justice directorate.

“The minister does not, as a practice, consider applications from offenders in the U.S. unless the U.S. has first approved the application,” Campbell said in her affidavit dated Wednesday.

“The minister did not receive the file at that time.”

John Norris, one of Khadr’s Canadian lawyers, said Toews’ refusal to handle the file before receiving formal U.S. approval made no sense given that Washington had agreed to the transfer at Khadr’s trial in October 2010.

“How good an explanation is that in a case where the Americans had committed in a plea deal to approval?” Norris said in an interview early Thursday.

“Clearly, it’s the minister’s office that is mishandling the file.”

The U.S. indicated its approval of Khadr’s transfer in April and provided the actual hard-copy package in May, Campbell said.

The entire file — without the psychiatric evaluations of Khadr, who turns 26 next week — was finally given to Toews on May 23, the documents show.

According to Campbell, Canada began to correspond with the U.S. in March about the sealed videotapes of the assessments done by psychiatrist Dr. Michael Welner and a military psychologist, Maj. Allan Hopewell — after learning about their existence through media reports a month earlier.

Welner, who condemned Khadr as an unrepentant and dangerous extremist, starred as the prosecution’s main witness at the 2010 military commission trial. Hopewell’s view was decidedly less negative, calling the Toronto-born Khadr manipulative, mentally stable and someone who sees himself as a Canadian.

Because the tapes had been sealed, it would require a joint defence-prosecution request to the head of the military commissions and a security clearance to have them released to the Canadian government. It took until Sept. 5 for the tapes to reach the ministry and another two days to land on Toews’ desk, Campbell said.

Norris called the situation surrounding the tapes “extraordinary.”

“They don’t say anything about why it took so long for them to find the stuff,” he said.

Normally, it takes just under 15 months for the government to decide on prisoner’s transfer — suggesting Toews should at the very least have rendered his decision two months ago.

In their Federal Court application filed in July, Khadr’s Canadian lawyers call the delay in deciding the case “unreasonable” and “an abuse of process.”

Khadr was 15 when he was captured badly wounded and almost blind in the rubble of a bombed out compound in Afghanistan in July 2002. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later, and has been held there since.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has denounced Khadr as a convicted criminal, and Toews denied a news report that Canada had approved the transfer but was delaying the announcement.

He’s coming back. Probably. At some point.

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 8:19 PM - 0 Comments

The Huffington Post reports that “while Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is not expected to formally communicate the decision for several weeks … the Conservative Government will approve Khadr’s transfer from the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay and plans are afoot to house the 25-year-old Canadian in a federal institution with a segregated space for his own safety.”

The Prime Minister’s Office says, “False. No decision made.”