Khadr demands passport
‘ Al Qaeda family’ link no reason to deny document, court told ‘Shocking treatment’ of Canadian citizen, his lawyer argues
Abdurahman Khadr may have told Canadians he was raised in an “ Al Qaeda family,” but the government had no legal right to deny him a passport, argues one of the country’s leading civil rights lawyers.
Toronto lawyer Clay Ruby said thenforeign affairs minister Bill Graham’s decision not to provide Khadr a Canadian passport is an embarrassment for the country.
“ No Canadian citizen should be treated this way. This is shocking treatment. This is not what you expect from a government in a free country,” Ruby told a Federal Court hearing yesterday. Ruby also questioned whether Graham’s decision was made on the basis of Canada’s security, or to appease the American government.
Relying on information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in April 2004, the passport office, according to court records, advised Graham: “ The implications of providing passports to the high- risk members of the Khadr family are significant in terms of ‘ Canada- U. S. relations’ . . . it seems likely the Canadian public and the American government would be highly critical of full passport services being provided to this family.”
“ The Americans might be upset, so we’re refusing a Canadian a right guaranteed in the Constitution? That doesn’t seem appropriate,” Ruby told reporters outside of court. “ You don’t expect governments to act that way. Bill Graham acted that way and I think it’s reprehensible. I think it’s a disgrace.” Ruby told Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan that Graham’s decision was unconstitutional. Graham used a rare power of intervention, known as a royal prerogative, to deny Khadr’s request for a passport in November 2003 ( after his old one had expired). The Passport Office did not have the authority to reject a claim for a passport on issues of national security at the time. That legislation has since been changed. The government has conceded it was wrong in denying his passport without providing reasons, but it argues that it was simply an “ administrative error,” and Graham still had the authority under the royal prerogative. Khadr is the second youngest son of Ahmed Said Khadr, who once counted Osama bin Laden among his friends. The senior Khadr, a reputed Al Qaeda financier, was killed during a fight with Pakistani authorities in October 2003.
Khadr’s younger brother, Omar, has been detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an “ enemy combatant,” since he was captured in Afghanistan at the age of 15. The now 19- year- old is to face a military tribunal on a charge of murder in the death of a U. S. army medic. Khadr has not been charged with any crime in Canada or abroad, but created astir when he went public with his family’s connection to Al Qaeda. But he also said he eschewed the teachings of his father, even turning informant for the CIA against Al Qaeda.