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Posted by Scott Tribe on November 2, 2010, at 8:28 am |
So yesterday, we find out Canada was negotiating all along with the US in agreeing to a plea bargain, despite Foreign Minister Cannon’s claims to the contrary (which he ridiculously tried to continue using in Question Period yesterday). Today, Brian Lilley of the Sun writes there was a bitter Cabinet argument over the fact Canada had accepted the plea agreement, and now there are apparently “top Conservatives” blaming Canadian diplomats for exceeding their authority:
The deal appears to have been sealed while Prime Minister Stephen Harper was travelling in Europe and there is the suggestion that foreign affairs officials used this time to offer and accept more than Harper [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on November 1, 2010, at 8:41 am |
Everyone is aware by now of the farce known as the Omar Khadr showtrial and it’s conclusions by the military jury deciding to not only accept the prosecutor’s recommendation of 25 years, but to go 15 years over that. A symbolic gesture, not only because it was meaningless with Khadr’s plea bargain (a move that appears now to have been correct; the Defence council obviously knew how this would end up), but of how everything was stacked against Khadr from the beginning in this carbon-copy of a Stalinist show-trial (minus the executions). I’ll only note that it’s very interesting to me that this military jury asked to hear the [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on October 26, 2010, at 8:55 am |
Given a choice between a stacked military tribunal/kangaroo court, presided over by a Military Judge who had been hand-picked by Bush (who replaced the former Military Judge who had actually given Khadr’s legal team some procedural victories, and was suddenly “re-assigned” in the middle of the trial without explanation) which was going to almost certainly give Khadr life imprisonment (this is the system after all that was set up so that there would be no acquittals, which a former Bush official infamously said), or to do a guilty plea bargain that allowed him to get out of Guantanamo after a year and able to serve the rest of his [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on January 29, 2010, at 3:19 pm |
Basically, the Supreme Court has split the middle with it’s ruling on Khadr; his Charter Rights have been violated and continue to be violated, but they’ve ruled that for now (I say “for now” because some media are reporting that the ruling states that the SC may act in the future to provide the remedy if the government fails to act) , it’s up to the Government of Canada to provide a remedy for that, and they won’t force the government to call for Khadr’s repatriation, even if that’s considered a good remedy (As stated at his Twitter page by one of the reporters covering this, the Supreme Court [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 26, 2009, at 5:32 pm |
Very interesting news today about the Omar Khadr case and the government’s decision to appeal to the Supreme Court; it appears some people’s suspicions (including me) about the government filing this appeal to stall on acting on Khadr may have been incorrect; the government is asking the SC to speed up a decision from them on whether or not to hear the case:
In an unusual move, federal lawyers swiftly filed written arguments to the Supreme Court of Canada yesterday, and asked for an expedited decision from the judges on whether to allow an appeal to proceed. A hearing is not automatic…Even Khadr’s Canadian lawyers were surprised by how [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 25, 2009, at 1:01 pm |
This came across my email just now: a statement from the Liberal Party and key Liberals condemning the Harper government’s decision to appeal the Omar Khadr case to the Supreme Court:
Liberal MPs today said Stephen Harper continues to treat some citizens as more Canadian than others by appealing, for the second time, the federal court’s order to repatriate former child soldier Omar Khadr from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison. “Stephen Harper doesn’t care that we’re the only Western country with one of our nationals still in Guantanamo Bay,” said Liberal Consular Affairs Critic Dan McTeague. “He’s content to damage Canada’s once proud reputation by doing nothing to safeguard [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 25, 2009, at 1:28 am |
This is not exactly a shocker that he and his Conservative government would do this appeal to the Supreme Court to overrule 2 Federal court rulings that they are compelled to ask the US government to repatriate Omar Khadr:
The federal government will go to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn court rulings that would require Ottawa to press for the return of Canadian Omar Khadr from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, CBC News has learned..The Supreme Court will have to decide whether to review the case.
You could see them setting up for that appeal when Harper noted a week ago up in [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on August 18, 2009, at 11:53 am |
There’s a column in the Star today from Professor Errol Mendes, who teaches constitutional and international law at the University of Ottawa, on the background of the Omar Khadr case as it has wound through the Canadian courts. There is also an observation or 2 from Professor Mendes about Stephen Harper being offside with the court decisions, and he lists a reason about why he thinks Harper continues to oppose asking for repatriation, and why he potentially will appeal the latest 2-1 Federal Appeals Court ruling against him ordering him to ask for Omar Khadr’s repatriation to the Supreme Court of Canada:
The rulings by the Canadian Supreme Court [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 23, 2009, at 12:09 pm |
..but the Harper government is arguing that it should be allowed to pick and choose which Canadians it should help overseas or in another country if they get into trouble, regardless of the circumstances. That’s part of their justification in launching an appeal of the Federal Court decision that orders them to seek the return of Omar Khadr home to Canada, and as Jeff points out, it appears as a Canadian you’ll get help if the Conservative government likes you – not so much if they don’t, or if you aren’t a member of an ethnic group that the Conservatives are trying to woo to vote for them:
This [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on May 8, 2009, at 4:20 pm |
No surprise here for me about this decision by the Conservatives; they’re obviously going to go to the bitter (judicial) end to avoid any real action on Omar Khadr unless the Supreme Court forces them, or Obama beats them to the punch: (read more) [...]
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