OTTAWA — The Harper government will appeal a Federal Court ruling that said it must ask the United States to send Omar Khadr home.
Federal Court Judge Walter O’Reilly ruled Thursday that Ottawa’s refusal to demand repatriation of Khadr from a military detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba, offends fundamental justice.
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday the government will appeal the decision.
He told the House of Commons that Khadr, 22, is facing charges and that the American justice process must play out.
“This individual was accused of very serious crimes,” he said.
The charges against Khadr are before an American military commission, but the hearings are on hold pending a review of his case.
Cannon said recent news footage apparently showed Khadr assembling bombs of the kind that have killed a number of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan over the years.
Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was 15 when he was captured by American soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002.
He allegedly tossed a grenade that killed a military medic.
O’Reilly said Ottawa’s refusal to ask for Khadr’s return violates the man’s rights. He said the government must ask the United States “as soon as practicable” to send Khadr home.
The Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois have repeatedly demanded Khadr’s return.
Nate Whitling, one of Khadr’s Canadian lawyers, concedes there is no guarantee the government of U.S. President Barack Obama would agree to a repatriation request. But Canada should still try, he said.
In reaching his decision, O’Reilly accepted arguments from Khadr’s lawyers that the government should have sought his repatriation on the grounds that Canada was complicit in his torture.
“Canadian officials were knowingly implicated in the imposition of sleep-deprivation techniques,” the judge wrote.
“Khadr was then a 17-year-old minor, who was being detained without legal representation, with no access to his family, and with no Canadian consular assistance.”
Government lawyers argued Ottawa had nothing to do with any mistreatment.
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