Ottawa slow to hear about Khadr’s fate MP learns
OTTAWA— Federal government officials were kept in the dark even as the Pentagon confirmed to the media that Canadian teenager Omar Khadr’s trial for killing an American soldier would not be treated as a capital case.
Liberal MP Dan McTeague, the parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, was caught short by news the Toronto Star
had received confirmation Khadr will not face execution.
“ That’s nice. Would they bother telling the Canadian government?” fumed McTeague, who represents the riding of Pickering- Scarborough East. “It would appear they’ve told the media but they’re not telling us, even though we’ve made several requests.” McTeague said it was “ troubling that they tell the media before telling us,” but added there was confusion over whether Khadr, 19, would have faced the death penalty in any event. Khadr has been jailed at the U. S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since his 2002 arrest in Afghanistan on suspicion of killing a soldier in a grenade attack. Canada has made at least four requests since 2003 for formal, written assurances that Khadr would be given access to consular officials and a Canadian lawyer and would not face the death penalty after his trial at a military tribunal, promises that had still not arrived late yesterday afternoon.
Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an email to the Star: “ I can confirm that Mr. Khadr’s case will not be referred to commission as a capital case.”
“ This decision was made by the Appointing Authority for Military Commissions, Mr. John Altenburg Jr., upon the recommendation of the office of the Chief Prosecutor and the Legal Advisor to the Appointing Authority, Brig Gen. Thomas Hemingway,” he wrote.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day ( Okanagan- Coquihalla) called the lack of communication “ bizarre, but not surprising,” adding: “ There’s been a general breakdown of relations in a number of areas of CanadaU. S. situations.” Day also questioned how Canada has handled the entire Khadr affair, including readmitting several family members who professed sympathies with terrorist networks like Al Qaeda.
“ That’s probably led to frustration on the U. S. side, where they can’t understand what Canada is doing,” he said.