Feds Don't Need To Repatriate Khadr

The fate of accused war criminal Omar Khadr rests with an American military commission after the Supreme Court of Canada concluded it can’t make the federal government try to bring him home.

The court said bluntly that Canadian officials violated Khadr’s constitutional rights when they questioned him at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in 2003 and 2004. But it disagreed with two lower courts that said the federal government must request his repatriation.

“That’s pretty much the end of the road in terms of the Canadian government assisting him at all,” said Nathan Whitling, one of Khadr’s Canadian defence lawyers. Instead, the defence will now focus on the 23-year-old’s July trial before a military commission in Guantanamo, which Whitling called “a kangaroo court that makes it up as they go along.”

Khadr was charged by the United States with murder and several other offences for allegedly throwing the grenade that killed a U.S. military medic in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 at the time. The Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether Canada had a legal obligation to try to repatriate him. In its decision, it said courts are reluctant to intervene in foreign affairs policy and must respect the separation of powers in government.

“The proper remedy is to grant Mr. Khadr a declaration that his Charter rights have been infringed, while leaving the government a measure of discretion in deciding how best to respond,” the nine judges said in a unanimous decision.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government was pleased at the outcome and “will carefully review the Supreme Court’s ruling and determine what further action is required.”

The federal government does not come out of the judgment unscathed. The court hammered the actions of federal officials toward the young prisoner, whom they interviewed at Guantanamo in 2003 and 2004.

For example, in 2004, when Khadr was 16, he was interrogated at Guantanamo by Canadian officials without a lawyer present and after being subject to what was known as the “frequent flyer program” whereby suspects were deprived of sleep over several weeks to soften them up for questioning.

“Interrogation of a youth, to elicit statements about the most serious criminal charges while detained in these conditions and without access to counsel, and while knowing that the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the U.S. prosecutors, offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects,” says the judgment.

The court said theses acts violated section 7 of the Charter of Rights — the right to life, liberty and security of the person. The judgment does not preclude the government asking the Americans for Khadr’s return. In fact, it says that the breach of Khadr’s rights continues, so the original legal remedy sought — repatriation — “could potentially vindicate those rights.”

Source: www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/01/29/12667276.html#/news/canada/2010/01/29/pf-12662511.html