Remember Canada is complicit in the ongoing torture of Omar Khadr!

> because Canada keeps Omar Khadr in jail, solitary for 23 hours a day,

  • after 10 years of torture in Guantanamo; an ordeal that no 15-year-old Canadian child should ever have to endure,

  • based on the illegal conviction in Guantanamo Military Court for alleged crimes, that did not existed under international law and where he could not defend against.

Why the World understands what Canada does’t get:

[Canadian embassy, London UK, January 11, 2021]

Omar Khadr: the case is not closed | Amnesty International Canada

FreeOmar AmnestyOmar Khadr was transferred to Canada on September 29, but the campaign for justice continues.

On September 29, 2012, Omar Khadr was finally transferred from Guantanamo Bay to Canada after ten long years. Captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15 in July 2002, he never should have been on a battlefield in the first place. As the Canadian government stated at the time: “It is an unfortunate reality that juveniles are too often the victims in military actions and that many groups and countries actively recruit and use them in armed conflicts and in terrorist activities.” But instead of demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration, Omar Khadr and other children sent to Guantanamo faced torture and ill-treatment, unlawful detention and the hopelessness of indefinite legal limbo.

Accused of throwing a grenade that ended the life of a US Special Forces soldier, Omar Khadr’s trial by military commission ended in a plea agreement in October 2010. He was sentenced to eight more years in detention, the first of which was to be served in US custody before he would be eligible for transfer to Canada. Diplomatic notes exchanged between the US and Canada at the time of the plea agreement stated that the “Government of Canada is inclined to favourably consider Mr. Khadr’s application to be transferred to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence.” In November 2010, then Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told the House of Commons that Canada would “implement the agreement.”

Almost a year after Omar Khadr became eligible for a transfer to Canada, the request stil sat unsigned on the Minister of Public Safety’s desk. In the face of too many delays, Omar Khadr’s lawyers launched a Federal Court action in mid-July. That pressure and the work of many others over the years - including Amnesty members from all over the world - ultimately contributed to his transfer at the end of September 2012.

An explanation for the long delay is owed not just to Omar Khadr, but to the Canadian public. The courts, UN bodies and numerous NGOs including Amnesty International have repeatedly pointed to the outstanding human rights violations yet to be remedied in Omar Khadr’s case. The allegations of torture and ill-treatment are credible and troubling, and must finally be investigated. Canadian officials were also found to have violated Omar Khadr’s Charter rights when they continued to interrogate him in Guantanamo despite the fact that his detention and treatment violated international standards. His status as a child combatant – and the obligations that follow from that – also continue to go unacknowledged.

Please use the form on the Amnesty International Canada website to send a message to Prime Minister Harper that the case of Omar Khadr is not closed.  Not only are there violations yet to be recognized and remedied, but we must ensure that there is greater consistency in the government’s approach to Canadians detained abroad facing serious human rights violations.

Please sign and send the following email to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling on him to resolve the outstanding human rights issues in the case of Omar Khadr. You can use the comment box to make additional points in your letter.

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

While a welcome step, the transfer of Omar Khadr to Canada after many long delays does not resolve the outstanding human rights issues in this case. I urge your government to promptly:

  • Investigate the credible and troubling allegations of torture and ill-treatment while Omar Khadr was detained in Bagram and Guantánamo  Bay.
  • Recognize Omar Khadr as a child soldier in line with the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
  • Acknowledge the grave human rights violations associated with the detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, including the fact that the military commissions fall far short of international standards for fair trials.
  • Provide a remedy as required by the 2010 Supreme Court of Canada decision, particularly with a view to ensuring non-repetition of the human rights violations experienced by Omar Khadr.
  • Ensure that the Correctional Service of Canada is able to manage Omar Khadr’s case without political interference.

Link to the original text and the form on the Amnesty International Canada website

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LAW TIMES Speakers Corner | Officials must stop demonizing Omar Khadr

Monday, 22 October 2020 08:21 | Written by Catherine Morris

The Canadian government has claimed Omar Khadr had the benefit of due process in the United States.

His return to Canada on Sept. 29 prompted yet more official statements and headlines labelling him a war criminal and a convicted terrorist. These assertions distort and contradict both the facts and the law.

As a result, many people hold an erroneous belief that Khadr pleaded guilty to legitimate charges in a properly constituted court. In fact, Khadr was never charged with any U.S. criminal offences or international war crimes.

After his 2002 capture on a battlefield in Afghanistan at age 15, Khadr waited more than three years before facing charges at a military tribunal set up by an executive order of former president George W. Bush’s administration.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld found the tribunals to be unlawful and in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The U.S. Congress hastily passed a new Military Commissions Act and Khadr was recharged with newly created offences even though international law and the U.S. Constitution forbid prosecutions for ex post facto offences, as does Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The military commission procedures provide for relaxed rules of evidence and permit coerced evidence not allowed by U.S. or Canadian criminal law.

Evidence obtained in violation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment can also be admitted because of the Military Commissions Act’s narrow definition of torture that’s at odds with the convention. Nor is the military commission viewed as independent.

In June 2007, Col. Peter Brownback, then the military commission’s presiding officer, dismissed the charges against Khadr. He said that while the commission had jurisdiction over unlawful enemy combatants, prosecutors had failed to prove Khadr had taken up arms against the United States unlawfully.

A quickly convened military commission review overturned that decision in September 2007 and reinstated the charges.

Brownback acknowledged he took heat from the Pentagon for dismissing the charges. In June 2008, Brownback threatened to suspend the proceedings against Khadr unless prosecutors handed over Khadr’s medical and interrogation records. Later that month, the Pentagon replaced Brownback.

In May 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada (Justice) vs. Khadr ruled that participation by Canadian officials in the process in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was contrary to Canada’s binding international obligations.

In January 2010, the top court in Canada (Prime Minister) v. Khadr denounced Canadian officials’ violation of Khadr’s s. 7 Charter rights.

The top court declared Khadr’s entitlement to a remedy but left it up to Canada’s executive to decide how best to respond. Canada’s response was a diplomatic note asking the United States not to use information turned over by Canadian agents.

In July 2010, Canada’s Federal Court in Khadr v. Canada gave the government seven days to supply a list of all possible remedies to cure the continuing Charter violations. The House of Commons standing committee on foreign affairs had already made one recommendation in June 2008 that Canada secure Khadr’s repatriation.

Majority votes of the Senate on June 18, 2008, and the House of Commons on March 23, 2009, had urged repatriation. Instead of suggesting remedies, the government appealed the ruling on the seventh day.

Predictably, the Guantanamo Bay military commission ruled all of Khadr’s statements admissible, including those made as a result of treatment that violated the convention against torture, in August 2010.

Radhika Coomaraswamy, then the United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict, pointedly stated that in international law, child soldiers “must be treated primarily as victims and alternative procedures should be in place aimed at rehabilitation.”

Canadian officials paid no attention. Instead, they agreed to Khadr’s October 2010 plea bargain and said Canada would be “inclined to favourably consider” repatriation to Canada after a year of his sentence.

Lawrence Cannon, then the foreign minister, promised the House of Commons that Canada would implement the agreement. The year came and went.

In June of this year, the UN committee against torture urged Canada to repatriate Khadr and to redress the human rights violations found by the Supreme Court. Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews responded by complaining that “when there are serious concerns regarding human rights violations across the world, it is disappointing that the UN would spend its time decrying Canada.”

Khadr has never faced a trial before any properly constituted court that afforded the judicial guarantees recognized in international law as indispensable to fair proceedings.

This is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. In addition, the case demonstrates serious and flagrant violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the convention against torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the protocol on children in armed conflict.

We must view the voluntariness of Khadr’s plea bargain in the context of the U.S. policy of holding Guantanamo Bay prisoners until the end of the so-called war on terror. Without the deal, Khadr faced indefinite detention whether the military commission found him guilty or innocent.

This catch-22 followed eight years of detention marked by denial of virtually all of his rights. They included the rights to habeas corpus, access to an independent tribunal for determination of rights, proper legal representation, family visits, and freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Such conditions defy the very concept of voluntary negotiation. The U.S. plea agreement is not a reliable indicator of guilt in or out of court.

Some Canadians have expressed fears about public danger. Safety is an important consideration that is served only when facts and law are respected. Public safety is at risk in a polarized climate of suspicion, fear, and hatred fomented by public officials’ derogatory characterizations of Khadr.

Toews is responsible for Corrections Canada as well as appointments and renewals of adjudicators at the Parole Board of Canada. It is improper for a minister to make statements about Khadr that could influence the impartiality of adjudicators at tribunals vested with the responsibility for independent determinations.

The Khadr case raises concerns about disrespect by Canadian government officials for our courts, the UN human rights system, and, indeed, the rights of all of us. Canadian ministers and officials must start treating Khadr in accordance with Canadian and international law.


Catherine Morris teaches international human rights at the University of Victoria. She also teaches courses in negotiation and conflict studies at universities in Europe and Asia. In addition, she monitors human rights in several countries for Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada.

Source: http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201210229386/Commentary/Speaker-s-Corner-Officials-must-stop-demonizing-Omar-Khadr

PRESS RELEASE | Omar Khadr: U.N. Committee against Torture recommends transfer to Canada and redress for human rights violations

For Immediate Release  Friday, June 01, 2020

Omar Khadr: U.N. Committee against Torture recommends transfer to Canada and redress for human rights violations

 The Committee against Torture (Committee) issued its Concluding Observations on Canada on May 31. The hearing on Canada was held in Geneva May 21-22. Among the issues the Committee reviewed was Canada’s treatment of Canadian Omar Khadr during his ongoing detention at Guantánamo prison. Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen, captured in at age 15 in Afghanistan by the US in 2002 and imprisoned since in Bagram and Guantánamo Bay prisons.

In its May 2012 “shadow report” to the Committee, LRWC and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (CLMG) had recommended that Canada immediately repatriate Khadr and remedy the violations against him. The Committee agreed. The Committee’s Concluding Observations urge Canada “to promptly approve Omar Khadr’s transfer application and to ensure that he receives appropriate redress for human rights violations that the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled he experienced.”

The Supreme Court of Canada confirmed in 2010 that Khadr’s s. 7 Charter rights to liberty and security of the person had been violated by Canadian and US officials. In 2008 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that participation by Canadian officials in the Guantánamo Bay process—which violated the Geneva Conventions—was contrary to Canada’s binding international obligations.

The Committee also recommended that Canada raise awareness of Convention against Torture (Convention) requirements amongst judges and members of the public.

All reports are available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/cats48.htm

A webcast of the Committee’s review of Canada, which took place May 21-22 in Geneva, will be posted in the archives at: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/

Contacts

For interviews or more information, contact:

 Gail Davidson, LRWC
Tel: +1-604 738-0338
Fax: +1-604 736-1175
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.lrwc.org
 Gavin Magrath
Magrath O’Connor LLP
302-326 Richmond St. West, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5V 1X2
Phone: 416-931-0463
Email: gavin at agrathoconnor.com
Source: http://www.lrwc.org/omar-khadr-committee-against-torture-recommends-transfer-to-canada-and-redress-for-human-rights-violations/

PRESS RELEASE | Omar Khadr: Canada in Breach of multiple International Human Rights obligations, including Convention against Torture and Convention on the Rights of the Child

May 15, 2020

For Immediate Release

On May 21-22, 2012, the United Nations Committee against Torture will review Canada’s failure to comply with its obligations under the Convention against Torture to prevent, punish and remedy the torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of Canadian Omar Khadr during his ongoing detention at Guantánamo prison. In a report to the Committee against Torture, Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (CLMG) state that Canada was both a direct participant and indirectly complicit in the torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of Mr. Khadr by his U.S. captors.Omar Khadr is a Canadian citizen, born 19 September 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. He was 15 years old when he was wounded and captured by U.S. troops on 27 July 2020 during a 4-hour U.S. ground and air attack home near the village of Ayub Khey, Afghanistan. Khadr was imprisoned at Bagram, Afghanistan until October 2002 and has subsequently spent a period approaching ten years at the detention and interrogation facility at Guantanamo, Cuba. During his detention, Khadr was given no special status as a minor, which made him a child soldier and a victim of war crimes under international law. He was interrogated without counsel on at least two occasions while he was still a minor by Canadian officials who knew he had been subject to torture, including sleep deprivation and prolonged solitary confinement. Canadian officials then illegally provided the results of those investigations to his captors while denying him access to his own statements.

The Canadian government has also failed to take any steps to prevent or remedy US crimes against Khadr including torture and other ill treatment, nine years of arbitrary detention without trial, denial of habeas corpus, denial of access to counsel, denial of access to an independent tribunal, conviction under retroactive laws, conviction based on confessions extracted by torture, and non-disclosure and falsification of evidence.

Mr. Khadr, now 25, has long been the only Western prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre not repatriated by his home country. He has been eligible to return to Canada since October 2011 under terms of a plea bargain struck in 2010, but the Canadian government has not repatriated him, nor has it taken any steps to remedy numerous breaches of Khadr’s Constitutional rights, in defiance of repeated findings of the Federal Court and the Supreme Court of Canada.

LRWC and CLMG recommend that Omar Khadr be immediately repatriated, have equal access to and the equal protection of Canadian and international law and access to remedies for the violations of his rights and that Canada establish a Commission of Inquiry into the actions of Canadian officials in relation to the capture, detention and treatment of Mr. Khadr.

The Committee’s review of Canada, which is scheduled to take place May 21-22 in Geneva, can be watched live at: http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/

Find a copy of the report at:

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/ngos/LRWC_ICLMG_Canada_CAT48.doc

For interviews or more information, contact:

Gail Davidson, LRWCTel: +1-604 738-0338

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.lrwc.org

 

Gavin MagrathTel: 416-931-0463

Email: [email protected]

Magrath O’Connor, 73 Richmond St. West, Suite 306, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5H 4E8

Roch Tassé, CLMGTel: +1 613 241 5298

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://iclmg.ca/

Source: http://www.magrathoconnor.com/2012/05/omar-khadr-canada-in-breach-of-multiple-international-human-rights-obligations-including-convention-against-torture-and-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child/

Near future Omar Khadr | Interview with Lawyer John Norris and Omar Deghayes

Excellent reporting on the impending repatriation of Omar Khadr. Interview by Anna Maria Tremonti (CBC-radio | 2012 0419) with Omar Deghayes and Khadr’s lawyer, John Norris.