By Gloria Galloway

The Conservative government will not ask for Omar Khadr to be repatriated from an American detention centre in Cuba despite a Supreme Court ruling that his rights have been violated, the Foreign Affairs Minister said Wednesday.

“It’s exactly the same decision that we have taken since the outset of this incident,” Lawrence Cannon told reporters.

“We, of course, respect the decision that the Obama administration has taken to close down Guantanamo but at the same time to make sure that those people who are held, and who have charges that are being put forward and they are facing, that indeed the American justice system go forward,” he said.

Mr. Cannon said the Canadian government will continue to monitor the situation and allow the Americans to make a determination. Once that determination is done, he said, “then we will see what the next steps are.”

In a 9-0 ruling last week, the Court found that Canada and the United States are violating Mr. Khadr’s right to life, liberty and security under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but stopped short of ordering the government to ask Washington to send him home.

NDP MP Paul Dewar said the government’s response is unacceptable.

“What the court was clearly directing the government to do was to reply and provide remedy and what the Supreme Court said is that every day that Mr. Khadr is in the facility in Guantanamo Bay, his constitutional rights are being violated.”

It’s obvious, Mr. Dewar said, that the government should immediately communicate with the U.S. administration and ask that Mr. Khadr be returned to Canada.

It’s obvious, Mr. Dewar said, that the government should immediately communicate with the U.S. administration and ask that Mr. Khadr be returned to Canada.

Bob Rae, the Liberal foreign affairs critic, also said it is up to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, the Attorney-General of Canada, to explain how the government will react to the court’s ruling.

“The Attorney General of Canada has to tell us how the government intends to comply with a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada,” said Mr. Rae.

Mr. Cannon said that Mr. Nicholson is still reviewing the Supreme Court decision and will offer a response once the review is complete.

Mr. Khadr was 15 years old in 2002 when was severely wounded in a skirmish in which he is alleged to have thrown a grenade that killed a U.S. Special Forces medic. He was charged with murder and scheduled to go before a Guantanamo Bay military commission. He is still awaiting that trial.

Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents (54 per cent) to an Angus-Reid online poll online poll released Wednesday said they have no sympathy for the man who has been held by the Americans in a Guantanamo Bay detention facility and subjected to torture.

That has number actually increased since last year when 45 per cent of respondents said they were untroubled by what has befallen Mr. Khadr.

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Tags: Bob Rae, Guantanamo Bay, Lawrence Cannon, Obama Administration, Omar Khadr, Paul Dewar, Rob Nicholson, Supreme Court

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