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Legal experts weigh in on Ottawa’s settlement with Omar Khadr

Jul 7, 2017 | 3:15 PM

TORONTO — The federal government has reached a settlement with Omar Khadr for violations of his constitutional rights. The government also apologized for the treatment he received outside Canada, including a decade spent in the U.S.-operated prison at Guantanamo Bay. But legal questions still swirl around the settlement, which sources say includes a $10.5-million payment. Some lawyers weigh in to answer them:

 

— Why did the government give Khadr money in the first place?

Khadr launched a civil suit against the government in 2004 — amended in 2013 — seeking $20 million. In a statement Friday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale described settling the case as the “only sensible course” and added that a trial on the matter likely would have cost millions of dollars more. The government said it would not disclose terms of the settlement, but sources confirm the $10.5-million payment has been made.

— Was seeking a settlement really the most sensible approach?

Legal experts think so. Cases concerning Khadr have come before the Supreme Court three times. The court found that Canada breached Khadr’s constitutional rights. Carmen Cheung, executive director of the Global Justice Lab at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, says the breach pertained largely to Khadr’s interrogation by Canadian officials while incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay. “The remedy for that breach has been quite limited,” she said. As a result, Cheung said the government probably felt Khadr’s civil suit was likely to succeed and opted to resolve matters out of court for less money.

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—Is Khadr finished with legal matters?

No. In 2015, a court in Utah ordered Khadr to pay US$134.1 million to people impacted by his alleged actions during a 2002 firefight in Afghanistan, the details of which have long been murky. The claim was awarded to Tabitha Speer, whose husband, special forces soldier Chris Speer, died during the attack, and to another American soldier, Layne Morris, who was blinded in one eye during the same battle. Khadr is accused of throwing the grenade that killed Speer.

— Does the Canadian settlement mean Khadr will have to comply with the American court decision?

Lawyers monitoring the case say the prospect of recovering money to pay the U.S. court-ordered damages is dubious. Lorne Sossin, dean of York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, says Khadr’s legal team will likely rely on elements from Ontario’s Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Act. A section of the act lays out several criteria that would bar courts from enforcing an American ruling, and Sossin said several of them apply to Khadr. “That suit was conducted in Mr. Khadr’s absence and is based on evidence and information obtained at Guantanamo using interrogation techniques found to violate international and Canadian law,” he said in an email.

— If Khadr transferred the money out of the country, would that make a difference?

According to Sossin, such a move would only make it that much more difficult to recover the damages sought by U.S. courts. “If the money is not in Mr. Khadr’s possession or control, it is hard to see how it could be recovered from him to satisfy the American judgment.”

Michelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press