Trudeau tells town hall heckler that he, too, is angry about Khadr’s settlement

HAMILTON — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a woman heckling him about Omar Khadr during a town hall Wednesday in Hamilton that he, too, is angry about the $10.5 million his government paid last summer to the former Guantanamo Bay inmate. “The anger that some people feel, and that a lot of people feel about the payment the government made to Omar Khadr is real and quite frankly — this might surprise you — but I share that anger and frustration,’’ he said.

That money, which was paid to settle a lawsuit alleging the government violated Khadr’s Charter rights, could have been put toward programs to help people, Trudeau said, but it is a “bit of a consolation’’ that if the government hadn’t settled, the lawsuit could have cost between $30 and $40 million.

“That settlement had nothing to do with what Omar Khadr might have or might not have done,’’ he said. “It had to do with what the Canadian government did or did not do and when a Canadian government wilfully turns its back on defending a Canadian’s rights and allows a Canadian to be tortured and mistreated, we all end up paying.’’