Mr. Speaker, 25 current and former MPs, including 16 sitting NDP MPs, nine NGOs, and over 110 academics, lawyers and human rights activists signed an open letter to the Prime Minister calling on the government to bring Omar Khadr home to Canada without delay.
Omar Khadr is the only Canadian and the only minor detained by the United States at Guantanamo Bay after allegedly killing a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan when he was 15 years old. He has been held for over five years without conviction. Two attempts to convict him using the flawed American military commission system have failed. Serious concerns exist for his mental and physical well-being.
Britain, France, Australia, Russia and Kuwait, among others, have got their citizens out of Guantanamo, but not Canada. A Canadian citizen deserves Canada's support for a fair and just trial no matter how unpopular his actions or how much we may disagree with the political opinions of his family.
Omar Khadr must be returned home and the legal consequences of his alleged actions adjudicated in our criminal justice system.