LAWYERS FOR THE WIDOW OF THE U.S. MEDIC KILLED IN A 2002 FIREFIGHT ARE SEEKING TO COLLECT ON OTTAWA’S PROMISE TO PAY FORMER GUANTANAMO PRISONER OMAR KHADR $10.5 MILLION IN COMPENSATION.
Ontario court filing for widow, attack survivor
TORONTO • The lawyer for the widow of an American soldier killed in Afghanistan has filed an application so that any money paid by the Canadian government to a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner convicted of killing him will go toward the widow and a U.S. soldier he injured.
Don Winder made the comments as a decision by the Trudeau government to apologize and give $10.5 million to Omar Khadr comes under mounting criticism. The details of the deal have not been made public yet, but an official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed it was negotiated last month.
Winder’s filing in Ontario Superior Court also says the applicants might ask for an order blocking Ottawa from paying Khadr any compensation. Alternatively, it wants any government money flowing to Khadr to go instead to relatives of Sgt. Chris Speer, including his widow Tabitha, and retired U.S. sergeant Layne Morris.
Filed on June 8, the application seeks a declaration recognizing a US$134.1-million default judgment against Khadr from Utah in June 2015 and an order that he pay the money. It also asks for another US$900,000 in legal and other costs plus accrued interest.
The Canadian-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight at a suspected al-Qaida compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Speers, an American special forces medic, and injury of Morris, who lost an eye. Khadr, who was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer, was taken to Guantanamo and charged with war crimes.
He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus time served. He returned to Canada two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.
Morris and Speer’s widow filed a wrongful death and injury lawsuit against Khadr in 2014 after he launched a $20-million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit. A U.S. judge granted $134.2 million in damages in 2015.
“We will be proceeding with that application and trying to make sure that if he gets money it goes to the widow of Sgt. Speer and Layne Morris for the loss of an eye,” said Winder.
In his lawsuit against the Canadian government, Khadr argues it violated international law by not protecting its own citizen and conspired with the U.S. in its abusive treatment of him.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2010 that Canadian intelligence officials obtained evidence from Khadr under “oppressive circumstances,” such as sleep deprivation, during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2003, and then shared that evidence with U.S officials.
Now 30, Khadr spent 10 years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was the youngest and last Western detainee held there. His case received international attention after some dubbed him a child soldier.
The news of the government giving millions to someone who pleaded guilty to killing a U.S. soldier has not gone over well among conservatives in Canada.
“Odious. Confessed terrorist who assembled & planted the same kind of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that killed 97 Canadians to be given $10 million,” former Conservative minister Jason Kenney tweeted. Kenney added that Khadr should be in prison paying for his crimes, not profiting from them as the expense of Canadian taxpayers.
Conservative MP Tony Clement urged Khadr to give any settlement money to Speer’s widow and children.