Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Omar Khadr stands a good chance of having at least two of his five terror convictions overturned. But that probably won’t get him out of prison any sooner.
Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr: Confessed jihadist, Hunger Games fan
Janet Hamlin
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October 2, 2012 – Globe and Mail
Curricula for convicted terrorists aren’t the stuff of everyday academia.
So when Omar Khadr’s U.S. legal team asked Arlette Zinck, an English professor at King’s University College in Edmonton, to design and deliver a lesson plan for the Guantanamo Bay detainee, she and her colleagues had their work cut out for them.
Whisked from Guantanamo Bay to Millhaven Institution, Omar Khadr tries to learn the ropes
Janet Hamlin
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October 1, 2012 – Globe and Mail
Eleven months after Canada pledged to bring him back from Guantanamo Bay, Omar Khadr’s fate is in the hands of prison officials as the convicted terrorist tries to learn the rules in a home he can’t remember.
The pre-dawn flight via American military aircraft on Saturday that brought the 26-year-old to Ontario from the U.S. naval base where he was imprisoned for nine years and 11 months came as a surprise to Mr. Khadr, his lawyers and his family, who learned of it from television news.
Omar Khadr in Canadian prison after return from Guantanamo Bay
Janet Hamlin
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September 29, 2012 – Globe and Mail
For the first time in 10 years and three months, Omar Khadr’s fate rests outside the hands of politicians and military personnel.
Toronto-born Mr. Khadr left Guantanamo Bay’s detention centre in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday morning via U.S. military aircraft. He set foot on Canadian soil just over three hours later.
Khadr’s lawyers ask court to demand decision on Guantanamo detainee’s return to Canada
Janet Hamlin
Saturday, July 14 – Globe and Mail
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Omar Khadr’s Canadian lawyers are asking a federal court to order Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to make up his mind on whether to bring the Canadian convict back to serve time in Canada.
In an application filed on Friday, John Norris and Brydie Bethell asked judges to review what they argue is an unreasonable delay in deciding on Mr. Khadr’s transfer application. The 25-year-old was eligible to return to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada as of October, 2011.
Khadr’s lawyer out of hospital, fit to resume trial
Lieutenant-Colonel Jon Jackson, Omar Khadr's military-appointed lawyer, is pictured speaking to the media in a hangar at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay.
(Photo by Anna Mehler Paperny/Globe and Mail)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 – Globe and Mail
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Omar Khadr’s lawyer is out of hospital, is off painkillers and will be able to go to trial once the Canadian detainee’s Guantanamo Bay hearing resumes.
Dates for the trial, postponed for about a month after Lieutenant-Colonel Jon Jackson collapsed in pain during cross-examination, are still up in the air. But witnesses are being asked to clear their day books as part of the complex scheduling that goes into co-ordinating war-court proceedings at the U.S. naval base.
Stephen Xenakis, the retired brigadier-general and a defence-team physician in close contact with Mr. Khadr, is preparing to make his case before the war tribunal. He hopes to convince the seven-person military jury what military judge Colonel Patrick Parrish didn’t believe: that the now 23-year-old Mr. Khadr endured enough physical and psychological torment to traumatize him and render his testimony unusable.
The Guantanamo detainee dilemma
Monday, August 16, 2010 – Globe and Mail
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GUANTANAMO BAY — There have been calls to close Guantanamo Bay’s notorious detention centre since the first blindfolded, shackled detainees walked onto the base’s tarmac in January, 2002. But what do you do with the 176 people remaining behind the razor wire and green mesh?
As the camp’s population slowly dwindles and cases against those the U.S. government plans to prosecute inch forward, that question is becoming tricky to answer.
Who poses a risk – to the United States, or elsewhere? Who would be in danger if transported to their country of origin? What do you do if a detainee would rather stay, or if you can’t find a country willing to accept released prisoners?
Khadr trial asks jury: Jihadist or scared teen?
Friday, August 13, 2010 – Globe and Mail
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GUANTANAMO BAY — Omar Khadr was either an enthusiastic teen jihadist who happily planted explosive devices and comforted himself in times of loneliness with thoughts of killing U.S. soldiers.
Or he was a frightened, cowed 15-year-old, dragged by a zealous father to Afghanistan against his will, caught up with a bad crowd, taken captive while gravely wounded and tortured into submission and confession by his captors.
The 23-year-old Canadian’s military jury was presented two contrasting portraits of the young man. Duelling sides of his Guantanamo Bay war-crimes trial sought to trump each other in painting what happened during a protracted 2002 Afghan firefight that left a U.S. army sergeant dead and the then-15-year-old severely wounded in U.S. custody.
But the opening salvos in what promises to be a long battle of competing narratives were cut short Thursday when Mr. Khadr’s military-appointed lawyer passed out during cross-examination, apparently from pain related to gallbladder surgery six weeks ago.
The jury who will decide Omar Khadr’s fate
Thursday, August 12, 2010 – Globe and Mail
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GUANTANAMO BAY — Omar Khadr’s trial begins in earnest Thursday, with lawyers set to give opening arguments after days of grilling would-be jurors and settling on a seven-person panel to decide the fate of the first person tried in the Obama administration’s war-commissions process.
Next come witnesses for the prosecution and defence; the trial will likely go for weeks before a verdict is reached.
Eight of the original 15 members of Mr. Khadr’s jury pool were dismissed Wednesday, after lawyers made arguments to get rid of potential jurors they worry would not be sympathetic to their arguments.
Prosecution lawyer Jeff Groharing tried to convince military judge Colonel Patrick Parrish to jettison jurors who expressed reservations about Guantanamo Bay, detainee treatment and trying 15-year-olds as adults.
With a polite introduction of the accused, jury selection begins in Khadr trial
Wednesday, August 11, 2010 – Globe and Mail
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GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA — A fighter pilot from the first Gulf War; a former military policewoman; a battalion commander who lost troops to an improvised explosive device in Baghdad.
Omar Khadr got his first glimpse of the people who will decide his fate in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom Tuesday. Lawyers for the prosecution and defence spent hours quizzing 15 panel members on everything from their views on al-Qaeda and prosecuting juveniles, to the ages of their children and their military experience.
The session offered a look at the individuals – all members of the U.S. armed forces – who will decide not only the verdict in the 23-year-old Canadian’s case, but also his sentence in the event of a conviction.
a business of misfits 