News flash: The Canada Supreme Court has just ordered arguments on whether the government must work to seek the release of Omar Khadr, a native citizen of Canada detained at Guantánamo.The government's appeal of lower courts' orders to do just that will be heard on November 13, at the courthouse in Ottawa.
This will not be the Canada Supreme Court's 1st consideration of Khadr; it issued a ruling on an evidence-disclosure matter in 2008.
As we've posted, Khadr, now 22 years old, is alleged to have been fighting as a child soldier when he was seized in Afghanistan in 2002. He's spent a third of his life in U.S. antiterrorist detention. (My observations on Khadr's December hearing before a military commission at Guantánamo are at pages 9-13 of this report.)
The Toronto Star today wrote that the Conservative-led Canadian government
has long argued Khadr should face trial under the U.S. military justice system, which took custody of him immediately. Khadr was jailed first at Bagram military base and later in Guantanamo Bay, where he was subjected to a 'frequent flyer' program of sleep deprivation to prepare him for aggressive questioning.
That treatment was known to Canadian officials just prior to the third interview conducted by a Canadian foreign affairs official in March 2004.
