CBA Calls for Repatriation of Omar Khadr

On January 23rd Canadian Bar Association President Guy Joubert sent a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper (PDF) asking for Omar Khadr to be repatriated to undergo judicial process here in Canada. From the CBA letter:

Mr. Khadr has already spent six years in pre-trial custody. The U.S. has had ample opportunity to bring its processes into compliance with the tenets of the Rule of Law and its international obligations, and to try him.

Once Mr. Khadr is repatriated, it will be up to officials in the Canadian justice system to conduct an independent assessment of admissible evidence against him, to determine whether this evidence supports charges under Canadian law, and if so, whether he should be tried as an adult or a child. Because of the secrecy and allegations of torture that have plagued the U.S. proceedings to date, the best chance to fairly and openly assess Mr. Khadr’s criminal culpability may in fact be in Canadian proceedings.

See the CBA press release (January 26, 2009).

The letter references the 141 page report Foreign Policy Practicum 2007-08 (PDF) from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law, entitled “Repatriation of Omar Khadr to be Tried under Canadian Law: An Overview of the Case Against Omar Khadr and the Prospect of Canadian Criminal Jurisdiction, Brief Submitted to Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights” (January 2008).

See also: Slaw posts mentioning Omar Khadr.