Canadians angry at Khadr deal donate to kin of slain U.S. soldier

TORONTO — Canadians across the country have been reaching into their wallets to donate money to the family of an American soldier whom Omar Khadr is accused of killing in Afghanistan 15 years ago. The online fundraising effort — part political protest, part generosity — comes amid a furor over the $10.5 million sources said the federal government paid Khadr for breaching his rights while he was an American prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Jerome Dondo, of St. Claude, Man., who said he donated $10 to the campaign, decried the federal payout while the widow and children of U.S. special forces soldier Sgt. Chris Speer were fighting in Canadian court for that money. “The Canadian government should have at least waited until a court decision was made before sending the payment,” said Dondo, a married accountant with nine children. “This was my way of showing the Speer family support for their loss.

Over the past week, more than 2,200 donors in both Canada and the United States have contributed $134,000 to Tabitha Speer and her two children Taryn and Tanner, now in their mid and late teens. The family, and blinded former U.S. soldier Sgt. Layne Morris, failed this week to freeze Khadr’s assets while they try to enforce a US$134-million wrongful-death award against him from a Utah court.