Judge rejects bid to freeze Omar Khadr payout assets
No evidence he has plans to shelter money, court rules
A Canadian judge wasted precious few minutes on Thursday in refusing to freeze a reported $10.5-million payout to Omar Khadr so the widow of a slain U.S. soldier he was accused of killing in Afghanistan can have more time to go after the money.
In his ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba said he had heard nothing to show Khadr planned to hide assets to thwart possible enforcement of a massive American court award against him.
“We don’t, thank goodness, in Canada have one law for Omar Khadr and one law for all other Canadians,” Belobaba said during the hearing.
Tabitha Speer, widow of Sgt. Chris Speer, and a former American soldier Layne Morris, blinded in one eye, wanted an injunction freezing Khadr’s assets pending their battle to have a Canadian court force him to pay the $134.1-million (U.S.) judgment from Utah.
Their lawyer, David Winer, struggled to persuade Belobaba to hand down what the judge called an “extraordinary and very drastic remedy” and a “nuclear weapon.”
Grabbing someone’s property, the judge said, demands solid evidence that the person planned to thwart creditors or flout court orders.
Winer’s evidence amounted to media reports on Khadr’s recent settlement of his lawsuit against Ottawa for breaching his rights during his 10 years as a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay. Sources said the deal with Khadr, 30, included a government payout of $10.5 million — money the Americans want to get their hands on.
In one article, the Globe and Mail cited an anonymous source as saying Khadr had already legally sheltered the money, court heard.
“Everything that he has reported on this matter has so far turned out to be correct,” Winer said of Globe reporter Robert Fife.
“Newspapers get it right a heck of a lot of times; they have great people working for them,” Belobaba allowed. At the same time, he said it was difficult to rely legally on one anonymous source, a point Khadr’s Edmonton-based lawyer, Nate Whitling, pressed home during his brief submissions.