Novel says Stephen Harper refused repatriation of Omar Khadr from U.S.

Omar Khadr could've been repatriated to Canada nearly a decade ago. According to a new book, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper blocked the move, which left the Canadian citizen imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

Quebec legal scholar Frédéric Bérard writes in his novel, I Accuse the Torturers of Omar Khadr, that the federal government kept Khadr away from Canadian soil.

"It shows everything we did here in Canada to make sure he wasn't repatriated," said France-Isabelle Langlois, then director-general of the francophone branch of Amnesty International Canada, who also read the book. 

"What was also shocking [was the] statement by [Hillary] Clinton," she added.

The book articulates that then-U.S. secretary of state Clinton intended to send Khadr back to Canada until Harper blocked the move. If true, it would contradict his government's claim that it refused the former child soldier's return out of compliance with the American judicial process.

Then-Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon defended inaction on the Khadr case out of "respect [for] the sovereignty of the United States on that question."

"We respect the process put in place by the American government, and we will await the outcome of that process," said Cannon after a meeting with Clinton in 2009 in which they discussed the Khadr case.

However, Bérard writes that Khadr's lawyer Dennis Edney had assurances from the highest levels of the U.S. government that Canada's reluctance prevented the transfer.

Clinton supposedly told Edney that although "Washington was ok with the transfer, it remained impossible as long as Harper was opposed," writes Bérard.

Khadr ultimately pleaded guilty to terrorism charges because he allegedly threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan as a 15-year-old. 

If tried in Canada, he would be sentenced as a minor and not as an adult when tried by the U.S. military commission.

In 2009, a Federal Court judge ordered the federal government to repatriate Khadr as a remedy against violations of his rights while imprisoned in Guantanamo, where Canadian officials interrogated him as a minor without a lawyer. 

In legal arguments before a federal court, the Crown argued a "one in a million" chance the U.S. would accept Canada's repatriation request. Still, the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the order.

After another government appeal, the Supreme Court ruled the government had to remedy the violation of Khadr's Charter rights.

Facing the possibility of a life sentence if the U.S. military commission convicted him, Khadr pleaded guilty in exchange for an eight-year sentence, part of which he could serve in Canada. 

In 2015 he met bail, and four years later, an Alberta judge ruled his conviction had formally expired.

During his decade in Guantanamo Bay, Khadr faced what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called "torture." He reportedly faced severe sleep deprivation and rumours that officials dragged him across the floor through his urine.

Harper's chief of staff, Anna Tomala, wrote briefly: "Former Prime Minister Harper's opposition is well noted on public record." She pointed to his statement denouncing the $10.5-million settlement Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government reached with Khadr in 2017 for the federal government's violation of his rights.

COMMENTS

Be the first to comment

Please check your e-mail for a link to activate your account.