Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Chairman, may I add a word or two? I feel that Mr. Kenney's partisan remarks are regrettable. If mistakes were made in the past, this does not allow us to tolerate the intolerable today, and I don't think that partisanship will help the resolution of this issue. This is a rule of law issue; this is not a Liberal or Conservative or NDP issue.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Ms. Deschamps, I will answer you more or less in the same way as Mr. Matas answered you earlier. Canada enjoys an extraordinary reputation on the international scene. We are among the countries that garner the most regard in the world for our respect for the rule of law of course, and for individual rights.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  This is my understanding.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I would just like to correct what you said, to the extent that you said that they had been released. They were released from the Guantanamo Bay prison, but they were repatriated to their countries. As I just said, some were found guilty, others were brought to court, others were released, according to each individual case.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Mr. Patry, I will try to answer your first question regarding what happened in other countries. According to the information we have, people have been repatriated to four countries, namely England, France, Belgium and Australia. In some cases, they were indicted and condemned; in other cases they were indicted and acquitted; and in other cases, they were released.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  May I add something on this, Mr. Kenney? We know through the media and what has occurred at the Supreme Court of Canada that CSIS has gathered a lot of information about Mr. Khadr. The government has a lot of information about this and is probably in the best position to determine whether he could be charged here with that evidence in hand.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We concur wholeheartedly.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I believe you should ask the Prime Minister. One thing for sure is that the rule of law is contravened in a severe fashion in Guantanamo, and a Canadian citizen has been languishing there for almost six years. But I still have great hopes that the Prime Minister and the Canadian government will realize that this is an important issue for all Canadians, and that he will speak to President Bush to ask for the repatriation of Mr.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  As I said in my introduction, we gathered the signatures of 34 bar presidents across the world. This includes Europe, England, France, Belgium and the rest of the world. They adopted the same position, which is to support the Canadian Bar Association's request to exhort the Canadian government to repatriate Mr.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I will try to answer your first question, and Mr. Waldman would perhaps answer the second one. Canada has an obligation pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol regarding the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. As he was 15 years old when the things that he is accused of occurred, clearly he should have the protection that Canadian law provides for children.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  We have very serious reasons to believe that he is not getting a fair trial in Guantanamo. The list of things that indicate that he is not getting a fair trial is rather long. Mr. Matas has referred to the absence of habeas corpus, which is a fundamental right both here and in the United States.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, for this opportunity to bring the perspective of the Canadian Bar Association to your deliberations on the Omar Khadr matter. I'm joined here today, as you said, by Lorne Waldman, a member of the CBA's national citizenship and immigration law section. Mr.