Most believe Khadr deal was wrong, poll finds

71% say Liberals should have fought lawsuit

The first opinion poll carried out since the government apologized and paid $10.5 million in compensation to former child soldier Omar Khadr suggests the Liberals will pay a political price for the decision.

Seven out of 10 Canadians say the government made the wrong call by settling out of court, according to an online survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute over the weekend.

The poll suggested 71 per cent of Canadians are of the opinion the Trudeau government should have fought Khadr’s lawsuit and left it to the courts to decide whether he deserved compensation and an apology.

Not surprisingly, 91 per cent of past Conservative supporters disagree with the decision.

More worrying for the Trudeau government is that 61 per cent of past Liberal voters also think the government did the wrong thing (along with 64 per cent of 2015 NDP supporters).

The sample of 1,521 Canadian adults who are part of the Angus Reid Forum has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

In announcing the deal Friday, the government claimed it had “no choice” but to settle, pointing out the Supreme Court ruled in 2010 the government was complicit in the violation of Khadr’s rights as a citizen, when he was visited in Guantanamo Bay prison by CSIS agents in 2003 and 2004.

The government and the Supreme Court argued that whatever Khadr may or may not have done on the battlefield in Afghanistan was irrelevant to the settlement. (He pleaded guilty to five war crimes, including throwing the grenade that killed U.S. special forces Sgt. Christopher Speer in 2002. He is currently appealing the conviction.)

Expert opinion is united that the government would eventually have lost in court.

The Canadian public does not see it that way, according to the poll.

Two-thirds of respondents rejected the idea the Trudeau government had “no choice.”

The same number said they felt Khadr, who is now 30 years old and living in Edmonton, remains a “potentially radicalized threat,” up from 55 per cent on his release two years ago. The finding would appear to explode Khadr’s hope the settlement would “restore” his reputation.

There are some inconsistencies thrown up by the research. Three-quarters of those polled say Khadr was a child soldier and should have been treated as a victim of violence, rather than a perpetrator. Four in 10 are unsure whether he received fair treatment.

But despite the acknowledgment that Khadr was coerced by his father, al-Qaida founder Ahmed, more than four in 10 respondents say he deserves neither compensation nor an apology (a further 29 per cent say they would support an apology but not a financial settlement).

What to make of it all? Emotions are running high and opinions are being formed based on how people feel, rather than on the legalities and facts.

There is a sense that it is unfair for someone perceived as a supporter of terrorism to be awarded millions of dollars, while wounded Canadian soldiers received a fraction of that amount, regardless of what the Charter of Rights might say.

The sense of injustice is compounded by an apparent belief that the Liberals tried to let the news slip out in the quiet of summer, while the prime minister was outside the country, in a pre-emptive deal designed to ensure no money went to Sgt. Speer’s widow.

The government has been at pains to deny those allegations but many Canadians, including many Liberal supporters, are in no mood to listen.

The government’s claim it had no choice is one that has a particularly poor track record in this country.

When then prime minister John Turner told Brian Mulroney that he had no option but to make patronage appointments left by his predecessor Pierre Trudeau, the Conservative leader responded: “You had an option, sir. You could have said ‘I’m not going to do it’.”

Mulroney called it “a confession of non-leadership” and promptly found himself in 24 Sussex Drive.

History is unlikely to repeat itself — the timing, in the middle of Parliament’s summer break, is unfortunate for the new Conservative leader, Andrew Scheer.

But there are few more potent drivers of political change than disillusionment with leaders who promise, and then fail, to do the right thing.

The Angus Reid poll says loudly and definitively that a clear majority of Canadians believe Trudeau got it wrong.