Khadr settlement saves money? Really?

Suddenly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of the never-ending federal deficits is worried about spending too much of our money.

That was his latest explanation last week for his decision to settle Omar Khadr’s $20-million civil suit against the government for $10.5 million and an apology.

Trudeau says he understands Canadians are concerned about the $10.5 million payout and he is too, which is why the government made the deal. Otherwise, it could have cost up to $40 million, he said. Where to begin? First, there are some court cases the government should defend on principle, which is what many Canadians believed about the Khadr suit.

Second, the $29.5 million difference between $10.5 million and $40 million is the kind of money a skeptic would say the Liberals spill at lunch.

Remember Trudeau’s broken election promise that “modest” Liberal deficits over his first term in office would total $24.1 billion, with a $1 billion surplus in 2019-20?

Current Liberal projections put that figure at $93.3 billion, an increase of 287 per cent, with a $20.4 billion deficit in 2019-20, $18.7 billion in 2020-21, $15.8 billion in 2021-22 and no end of annual deficits in sight. So much for saving taxpayers’ money.

The $29.5 million difference between $10.5 million and $40 million is the kind of money a skeptic would say the Liberals spill at lunch.”

Third, while it may be accurate, where does Trudeau’s estimate of up to $40 million come from? And where is the documentation to show Khadr’s civil suit has already cost taxpayers’ $5 million, as the Liberals claim?

Are the salaries of federal lawyers and civil servants who would have been doing other work for the government anyway wrongly included in those amounts?

Did the government hire outside lawyers? If so, let’s see their invoices.

It’s easy to believe the Trudeau government settled because it wants the Khadr case to be forgotten by voters well before the next election in October, 2019. After all, the trial would have included an examination of how the Liberal Jean Chretien and Paul Martin governments violated Khadr’s constitutional rights in 2003 and 2004, according to the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2010 ruling.

That’s why Trudeau’s Liberal government was so anxious to settle the Khadr suit, not out of concern for our wallets. Postmedia News