Saturday 8 July 2017

Round Two CBC does an about face with the Omar Khadr matters to stokes the fires within a wicked political game

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/omar-khadr-settlement-1.4193516

Omar Khadr might be entitled to a settlement, but it's wrong to say he 'deserves' it: Robyn Urback

  
3818 Comments 

Commenting is now closed for this story.

 Richard Jerfferson 
Richard Jerfferson
Groups like ISIS are laughing at us.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Richard Jerfferson Thats an understatement Hell I am laughing at this circus too.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Richard Jerfferson Oh My It seems that my political foes did not appreciate my two bits worth N'esy Pas?


Michael Smith
Michael Smith
@Richard Sharp

Well you sure are a smirking chimp Richard. Your self hate of your own country is apparent. You fit in with the Chimp on the hill.

David Raymond Amos
Content disabled.
David Raymond Amos
@Michael Smith Methinks neo cons should learn to argue a fellow citizen's opinion rather than resorting to mere insults of the person. N'esy Pas?


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@David Raymond Amos I should make a note and remind myself to ask your lawyer/bosses Hubby Lacroix and Melanie Jolie why you blocked that comment. I suspect that CBC remembers this letter from one year ago N'esy Pas?

https://www.scribd.com/document/317811875/Melanie-Joly-vs-Hubby-Lacroix



David Raymond Amos 
David Raymond Amos
@David Raymond Amos WOW CBC posted that comment above after blockiing one above that for no reason whatsoever? Now I am confused by their ethics


Alex Keiths 
Anthony Adams
Now go to work this morning fellow Canadians and break your back. Don't forget to pay your taxes. The average working law abiding Canadian will never see 10.5 Million dollars in their lifetime.


Paul William Michael Bodine
Paul William Michael Bodine
@Anthony Adams Blame Harper. Had he just brough Khadr home there would've been no settlement. He used Khadr as a fundraising tool to whip up angry, ignorant and scared folk.

David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Paul William Michael Bodine Yup

  
Alex Keiths
Alfred Sterl
The Liberals and Justin are putting so many final nails in the casket of any chance of re-election in 2019, by the time they are done it will be made more out of metal than wood.


Patrick O'Connor
Patrick O'Connor
@Alfred Sterl

Well look. It was our last Prime Minister who refused to listen to his legal council. Ten Million should come out of the pension of all those conservative politicians who refused good council while in office.

It is not Canadian'a fault that this negligence was promoted as government policy.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Patrick O'Connor Methinks your words are well worth repeating even if it is only a pipe dream that justice would be served in such a fashion.

"It was our last Prime Minister who refused to listen to his legal council. Ten Million should come out of the pension of all those conservative politicians who refused good council while in office."


Buford Wilson 
Buford Wilson
The expression on Omar's face speaks volumes.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Buford Wilson What did you read on his face that I didn't?


Carl Street 
Carl Street
Great ammunition for the next election ... "You had an option. sir"


Alex Keiths  
Al Smith
@Michael Murphy You mean like Jean Chretien and Paul Martin stood up for Khadr for the first 3 years he was in prison and allegedly being tortured? You didn't know that? They let him rot there.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Al Smith Jean Chretien and Paul Martin did the same thing when the Yankees attacked me in bigtime in 2003 but Harper was even worse Hell he had me arrested in Canada after I ran for public office four times


Candice Brown 
Candice Brown
Yesterday's opinion columnist says he deserves it... and today says he doesn't. ... which is it CBC???

Wait... Canadians know..... he doesn't.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Candice Brown Methinks CBC is confused as to what side of the fence they should sit on this time


Alex Keiths  
Rich Roberts
This is an outrageous and deeply offensive outcome. Tell the family of the soldier that was killed, our closest ally, and our neighbors that we have compensated a terrorist who took the life of one of your brave fighting men. Men who stand up to terrorism and the indoctrinated ideology that is the pure expression of evil, existing for the sole purpose of exterminating our freedoms and way of life. Today I am disgusted to be called Canadian.
 

Jer Asselin
Jer Asselin
@Rich Roberts Ya that's what the US was doing in Afghanistan, standing up to terrorism. Nice fairly tale to believe


4
David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Jer Asselin Trump has know idea what he is up to within Bush's old wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Obama's in Syria so he has decided to pick a fight with Russia, China and North Korea in order to seem as righteous as the last two Yankee Presidents. Trump and his Old Boyz Club dancing with swords with the Saudi's recently was the most comical thing I seen a Yankee President ever do. Did I say I love the circus?


Lonnie Donnigan 
Lonnie Donnigan
This would never happen in the US. Only in Canada.


David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Lonnie Donnigan True Methinks that is one of the reasons that I was happy to be born and raised in Canada


Karen King
 John Wall
Sneaky ways for Justin, he's still not ready.




Karen King
Karen King
@jimmysinclair

Huh, Trudeau is not working in the courts??

David Raymond Amos
David Raymond Amos
@Karen King Think again


Omar Khadr might be entitled to a settlement, but it's wrong to say he 'deserves' it: Robyn Urback

There are plenty of good reasons why making Khadr a millionaire makes many Canadians deeply uncomfortable

By Robyn Urback, CBC News Posted: Jul 07, 2017 5:00 AM ET

Awarding Omar Khadr $10.5 million is a tragedy, but it also would have been a tragedy to keep him locked up for the rest of his life.
Awarding Omar Khadr $10.5 million is a tragedy, but it also would have been a tragedy to keep him locked up for the rest of his life. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press) 


How does one look at the case of Omar Khadr — who admitted killing an American soldier, but was also a child; who confessed to war crimes, but was also likely under duress; who built bombs, but was also abandoned by his country while probably being tortured at Guantanamo Bay — and decide that the situation is unambiguous, black and white? That Khadr is either a deranged terrorist or an indoctrinated former child soldier, who either disgraces Canada by receiving a $10.5 million settlement, or redeems it for its failures?
Khadr might indeed be entitled to that money, or some money (the Supreme Court, in its 2008 and 2010 decisions on the government's breach of Khadr's charter rights, never set out any financial compensation, and the Trudeau government has yet to explain how it settled on $10.5 million), but he certainly doesn't "deserve" it in any colloquial sense of the term.

Someone who fought against Canada's allies and left two children fatherless is not worthy of a multimillion-dollar windfall, no matter how atrocious his subsequent treatment. But Canada stupidly abdicated its responsibilities to one of its citizens (like it or not, even accused terrorists have rights), so it is now paying a price.

f-khadr-cp-5182412-584
Khadr was a teenager when he was sent to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. 

In a recent CBC column, Jonathan Kay made an empathetic case for Khadr, arguing that at 15 years old, he was basically a pawn controlled by his deranged jihadist father. "Canadian-born Omar was enlisted as an al-Qaeda errand boy when he was still a tween," Kay wrote. "No one reading this can say, with certainty, that his or her life would have turned out different from Omar Khadr's if he or she was raised as he was."
Kay's quite right. Khadr was a child when he threw the grenade that (probably — we don't know for sure) killed Sgt. Christopher Speer; surely that should, to some degree, mitigate the extent to which we hold him responsible. But at the same time, the "I was just following orders" excuse has historically proven to be insufficient to exonerate a person for his or her actions, though the bar is surely lower for teenagers.

This is all to say, when it comes to Khadr, there has not, and will not, be any justice. Awarding him $10.5 million is a tragedy — for the Speer family, for taxpayers, for our collective understanding of what is right and good — but it also would have been a tragedy to keep him locked up for the rest of his life for being a child who failed to resist the violent pressures around him.


This nuance is lost on the Conservatives, however, who are aghast that the government would award millions of dollars to a hardened terrorist, conveniently ignoring the years and many dollars the Harper government spent exacerbating the saga by trying to keep him out of Canada — by using him as a wedge issue and claiming somehow that Khadr had not "suffered any loss or damage as a result of the acts of Canadian officials."

In the National Post, Conservative MP Michelle Rempel went so far as to suggest that Canada should continue to fight Khadr's civil suit — even if it costs millions of dollars — because "it's impossible to say, at this stage, whether the civil suit would have necessarily led to a larger payout."

Though she didn't state it outright, Rempel's implication seemed to be that the symbolism of fighting terrorism is more important than money. And in many cases, she would be right. Except in Khadr's civil suit, Canada would essentially be fighting against a Supreme Court ruling that found it in violation of its own principles of justice, not fighting against terrorism. Canada would be continuing to defend its decision to abdicate its consular responsibilities. That is not worth fighting for.

There are plenty of good reasons why making Khadr a millionaire makes many Canadians deeply uncomfortable. There are also many good reasons why some Canadians see this settlement as long overdue. This is an outcome, but not necessarily a good or bad one. No one is righteous here.


 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cabinet-explain-omar-khadr-settlement-1.4194467



Government formally apologizes to Omar Khadr, as Andrew Scheer condemns 'disgusting' payout

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee received $10.5M Wednesday, sources tell CBC News

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News Posted: Jul 07, 2017 11:11 AM ET

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould stands with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. The two senior cabinet ministers announced an apology and settlement with Omar Khadr Friday.
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould stands with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. The two senior cabinet ministers announced an apology and settlement with Omar Khadr Friday. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press) 

The federal government has formally apologized to former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, confirming Friday a financial settlement has been reached to end ongoing legal action.

"On behalf of the government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. Khadr for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a joint statement released to reporters Friday.

"We hope that this expression, and the negotiated settlement reached with the government, will assist him in his efforts to begin a new and hopeful chapter in his life with his fellow Canadians," the statement said.


The government has already issued a $10.5-million cheque to the man who has been branded a terrorist by some, and a child soldier subjected to torture by others. Khadr received the money Wednesday, sources told CBC News.

Canadian-born Khadr, 30, had sued the federal government for $20 million for breaching his civil rights.

'I hope Canadians take away two things today: Our rights are not subject to the whims of the government of the day, and there are serious costs when the government violates the rights of its citizens' - Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould

Goodale, speaking to reporters in Ottawa Friday along with Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, acknowledged Canadians hold "deeply divided" views about Khadr and his "complex saga," but said the settlement is necessary because of clear violations of Khadr's Charter rights by Canadian officials.

"It is not about previous behaviour on the battlefield in Afghanistan; it is about the acts and other decisions the Canadian government took against Mr. Khadr after he was captured and detained. Those facts are not in dispute and there is no doubt about how the Supreme Court views them. The government of Canada offended the most basic standards," Goodale said.

'A proper conclusion'


"There is no doubt wrongs were done, and there's no doubt that we are bringing this process to a proper conclusion."

Goodale said Khadr's court proceedings have already cost the government some $5 million in legal fees, and a settlement now was financially prudent given the Supreme Court's rulings in two previous decisions. Goodale would not confirm or discuss the dollar figure paid to Khadr.

The Saskatchewan MP said the former Harper government stubbornly refused to repatriate Khadr for years; the government could have resolved this longstanding issue but instead decided to pursue a protracted legal battle "with virtually no chance of success."

The Justice Minister said the Supreme Court rulings demanded the government provide some kind of remedy.

Scheer
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says the Liberal government's decision to compensate Omar Khadr is "disgusting." (Carolyn Dunn/CBC News)

"I hope Canadians take away two things today: Our rights are not subject to the whims of the government of the day, and there are serious costs when the government violates the rights of its citizens," Wilson-Raybould added.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said it was "disgusting" for the government to concoct a "secret deal" and hand over millions to a convicted terrorist. "This payout is a slap in the face to men and women in uniform who face incredible danger every day to keep us safe."

Scheer said he believes the Harper government's decision to repatriate Khadr in 2012 was a sufficient response to the Supreme Court's ruling that Khadr's rights were violated. "The fact that [Khadr] is in Canada today is the remedy, that is the compensation," he said. "I would have refused to agree to this settlement."

Scheer said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to shirk responsibility for the actions of previous Liberal governments by placing the blame on Harper.

"Let's be clear, this whole ordeal started under Liberal governments," he said, noting Canadian officials at Foreign Affairs and CSIS questioned Khadr at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and 2004, when former prime minister Paul Martin was in power.

The information gathered was then used by U.S. officials as part of their efforts to extract a guilty plea from Khadr.

'Restores a little bit my reputation'


In an interview with CBC News' Rosemary Barton, Khadr said he hopes the settlement will help restore his reputation.

"I think it restores a little bit my reputation here in Canada, and I think that's the biggest thing for me," he said, adding that he is sorry the apology or monetary settlement could cause pain for the family of the soldier he is accused of killing.

The settlement is similar to what was paid to Maher Arar in 2007 for Canada's role in a U.S. decision to deport him to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured.

The quiet money transfer came before a Toronto-based lawyer could file an injunction in an Ontario court to try to stop payment pending the settlement of a lawsuit launched by the family of the U.S. soldier Khadr is alleged to have killed in Afghanistan.

Tabitha Speer, the wife of the late U.S. special forces soldier Chris Speer, and Layne Morris, who was partially blinded in the firefight, won a $134-million US default judgment against Khadr in a Utah court two years ago.

Speer and Morris have sought to recoup some of the money owing from Khadr's settlement with the Canadian government. Those efforts are now in doubt.

Scheer, speaking to reporters in Calgary ahead of the Stampede, said secretly wiring the money before Speer could make her claim was "not just wrong, but disgusting ... contempt for the widow of a war hero.

This shows such a mean-spirited attitude towards the true victims of his whole ordeal," he said, adding Khadr should hand over his settlement to the families of the U.S. servicemembers.

Speer had hoped to tie up the money in court, and make her claim to the funds before Khadr received his cheque from the government.

Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following the confrontation at a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan.

Khadr, who was suspected of throwing the grenade that killed Speer, was taken to Guantanamo and ultimately charged with war crimes by a military commission.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to charges that included murder and was sentenced to eight years plus the time he had already spent in custody. He returned to Canada two years later to serve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his guilty plea, which he said was made under duress.


 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/omar-khadr-settlement-goodale-scheer-analysis-wherry-1.4194912

Liberals defend and Tories attack Omar Khadr payout, both citing principles

Ralph Goodale and Andrew Scheer trade accounts of the $10.5M settlement

By Aaron Wherry, CBC News Posted: Jul 07, 2017 8:08 PM ET
Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould stands with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. The two senior cabinet ministers announced an apology and settlement with Omar Khadr.
Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould stands with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale. The two senior cabinet ministers announced an apology and settlement with Omar Khadr. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press) 

After three days of anonymous leaks and partisan outrage, it fell to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to make what is surely the least flattering announcement of government funding in Canadian political history: an unspecified sum paid to the order of Omar Khadr.

Even viewed in the best possible light, it is an admission of gross failure.

Appended to that payment — reportedly $10.5 million, but officially confidential per the terms of the settlement — was a delicately worded apology in the name of Goodale and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

"On behalf of the government of Canada, we wish to apologize to Mr. Khadr for any role Canadian officials may have played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm."


Goodale would be slightly more definitive in response to subsequent questions from reporters.

"The settlement that was announced today has to do with the wrongdoing of Canadian officials with respect to a Canadian citizen," he said.

Put that way, it almost sounds simple.

But responding in Calgary, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer ventured his own simple summation.
"I believe that there is value in fighting for that principle that we don't pay convicted terrorists compensation," he said, vowing that he never would have settled.

Of course, Scheer's principle is not enshrined in law as a fundamental right.

And therein lies most of the current conflict, with Khadr subject to competing claims about principle and law, rights and politics.

Goodale's explanation


Square and stolid, Goodale parsed the situation carefully, building to an argument that made this settlement seem almost inevitable.

First, he moved to separate the circumstances of Khadr's capture in Afghanistan from the issue now at hand.
There was, Goodale explained, "heated debate" and "deeply divided views" about what transpired on that battlefield in 2002. Those events, he said, "can only be described as painfully tragic, including for U.S. armed forces personnel and their families."

"But the legal settlement that we are announcing today deals with a civil lawsuit launched by Omar Khadr against the government of Canada on a very precise question," he said. "Long after the firefight in Afghanistan and while he was in custody, did the behaviour of Canadian government officials contribute to a violation of the human rights of a Canadian citizen?"

To answer this question, he turned to the 2010 ruling of the Supreme Court. In short, that ruling established that Khadr was tortured and his rights unjustly withheld and that the Canadian government was complicit.

Practicality and principle of settling


Goodale thus deferred to both practicality and principle.

The government, he said, had already spent $5 million in legal expenses related to Khadr. Fighting the current suit would have incurred further costs, and Khadr was seeking $20 million in compensation. And the government, Goodale argued, had "virtually no chance of success."

Though opinion on that might not be unanimous, there are legal minds who support that contention.

"But equally important," Goodale concluded, "is the core issue repeatedly identified by the Supreme Court of Canada. In the pursuit of justice and national security, governments must respect charter rights and human rights and the rule of law."

Later, when badgered by a reporter, Goodale hit this last point harder.

"You may want to dismiss the rule of law and the Constitution," he said, leaning forward, "but if you do that, you are fundamentally undermining the integrity of the country."

In broad strokes, there were similarities to the explanation of the United Kingdom's justice secretary — a Conservative — when the British government decided in 2010 to compensate citizens who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay. In that case, £20 million ($34 million Cdn) was reportedly set aside for 17 individuals.

Shifting responsibility


In making his case, Goodale blamed the previous Conservative government for the situation. But it was the previous Liberal government, in which Goodale was a minister, that was responsible for the breach of Khadr's rights.

Had that Liberal cabinet successfully demanded his repatriation in 2003, this Liberal cabinet wouldn't have been trying to explain a settlement in 2017.


Asked about that government's role in all this, Goodale countered that the Supreme Court rulings in 2008 and 2010 were delivered when the Conservatives were in power, as if a government should need the court to clarify its responsibility to protect its own citizens.

Responding an hour later, Scheer said Canadians were "shocked" to hear of a "secret payout" to a "convicted terrorist," the last a phrase that invites questions about the process that resulted in Khadr's confession.

Scheer said it was "one thing to acknowledge alleged mistreatment," but that this payment had been "rushed" (a charge the Liberals later denied). He said the settlement was a "slap in the face" to members of the Canadian Forces. And he said Trudeau had a "choice."

Scheer apparently would have fought the lawsuit and risked spending perhaps more than $20 million for the chance to avoid spending $10.5 million.

Of course, being ordered to pay $20 million by the court would allow a government to plead that it had no choice.

Scheer's legal analysis was that the Harper government's decision to allow Khadr to return to Canada in 2012 was a sufficient response to the breach of Khadr's rights. But that version of events seems to defy both the Harper government's own statements at the time and the fact that 32 months passed between the court's ruling and Khadr's repatriation.

What Trudeau once said about Khadr


The government's announcement about the settlement came when Parliament was not in session, which doesn't help the claim that this is all defensible. And the prime minister's only response so far has been to dodge a question shortly after the settlement was leaked.

Conservatives, of course, would be shouting regardless.

Liberals might now just hope that Khadr isn't soon photographed behind the wheel of a newly purchased Mercedes-Benz.

Nearly four years ago, when he was in opposition, Trudeau addressed the possibility of compensating Khadr. He ventured that "Omar Khadr needs to be treated the way we treat Canadians according to the rules that exist, according to the laws and principles that govern."

That is easier said than done.

But in principle, it might provide some solace, even to critics of the settlement.

Here is a prominent reminder that should your rights be so violated, you too would be in line for redress, possibly even a multimillion-dollar settlement, no matter what else you are believed to have done in your life.


http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/omar-khadr-interview-compensation-apology-1.4193636

Omar Khadr says government apology 'restores a little bit my reputation'

Rosemary Barton of CBC's Power and Politics talks with Khadr following apology, $10.5M settlement

By John Nicol, Mark Gollom, CBC News Posted: Jul 07, 2017 11:46 AM ET

Omar Khadr says his reputation has held back his pursuit of work and education. The settlement of his lawsuit against the government 'is going to help me move forward,' he says.
Omar Khadr says his reputation has held back his pursuit of work and education. The settlement of his lawsuit against the government 'is going to help me move forward,' he says. (CBC)

Omar Khadr hopes an apology from the federal government will help restore his reputation, but is sorry that the apology or monetary settlement could cause pain for the family of the soldier he is accused of killing.

"I think it restores a little bit my reputation here in Canada, and I think that's the biggest thing for me," Khadr, now 30, said during a feature interview with CBC's Power & Politics host Rosemary Barton.

The Liberal government confirmed today it has apologized to Khadr and awarded him a settlement as part of the wrongful imprisonment civil suit his lawyers launched against Ottawa. The government  said Friday that details of the settlement are confidential, but sources told CBC News that amount totalled $10.5 million.

"I can't say anything about that one way or the other," Khadr said in an interview. "It's part of the agreement that I don't talk about those things." The full interview is posted at the end of this article.


News of the impending deal drew sharp criticism among those who believe Khadr is a terrorist who killed an American soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan and does not deserve compensation.

The Toronto-born Khadr moved with his family back to the Middle East when he was 10 years old. His father, Ahmed Khadr, ended up as a money man for Osama Bin Laden and directed his children to support al-Qaeda.
On July 27, 2002, when Omar was 15 years old, he was captured by American soldiers during a firefight at a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Sgt. Christopher Speer. Khadr was seriously wounded in the firefight.
Khadr was taken to notorious prisons in Bagram, Afghanistan, and U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and tortured, which contravened two UN Conventions that Canada had signed — those against torture and the rights of the child. The latter convention says signatories should treat child soldiers as victims and "accord to these persons all appropriate assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and their social reintegration."
Obama Guantanamo
Khadr spent 10 years in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)

Canadian intelligence officials obtained evidence from Khadr under "oppressive circumstances," such as sleep deprivation, during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2003, and then shared that evidence with U.S. officials, said the Supreme Court of Canada in a 2010 ruling.

After 10 years, mostly in Guantanamo, Khadr signed an agreement that would allow him to return to Canada in 2012 to serve the remainder of his sentence. He pleaded guilty to five war-crime charges and received an eight-year sentence from a U.S. military commission.

While other countries repatriated their prisoners from Guantanamo, critics argue the Conservative government under Stephen Harper did little to hasten Khadr's return, despite pleas from his lawyers and civil rights groups.


Khadr was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his war crime convictions, of which he argued that his admissions of guilt were made under duress.

'Never was angry'

Lawyers for Khadr, who now lives in an apartment in Edmonton, had been seeking $20 million in a wrongful imprisonment civil suit against Ottawa.

"I never was angry or upset about what happened. It's been hard you know, finding jobs or going to school and stuff with my past reputation," he said. "So this is going to help me move forward."
Khadr said he doesn't believe the apology will make people forget his past, but will help them think "that maybe there's more to what happened and maybe look more into it and understand more of what happened."

'I have a lot of experience with pain, and I have an appreciation of pain.' - Omar Khadr

He said there have been a couple of occasions where job applications have been rejected because of his controversial history.

"They come back and they don't want to do it for no good reason. Sometimes they say people are not comfortable with your past, and I understand people's livelihood. But I would also like to be able to move forward without having that."

"I think it would make it easier for them with this apology to hire me or consider hiring me."
Although Khadr would not comment on reports of the settlement, he said that "this is not a time for celebration" but a time for "reconciliation, remembrance, healing."

"I really hope that the talk about settlement or the apology does not cause people pain and if it does, you know, I'm really sorry for the pain."

Khadr arrives at Edmonton court
Khadr said that he just wants 'to be a normal person' and finish his nursing program 'to relieve people from pain.' (Terry Reith/CBC)

Asked if he was talking about the Speer family, Khadr said yes, and that he was "really sorry for their pain" and that causing them pain "is not my intention."

The lawyer for the widow of Speer had said Tuesday an application has been filed so that any money paid by the Canadian government to Khadr will go toward the widow and another U.S. soldier, Sgt. Layne Morris, who lost an eye, during that firefight in Afghanistan.

A wrongful death and injury lawsuit against Khadr in 2014 was uncontested by Khadr or his representatives. In 2015, a U.S. judge granted Speer and Morris $134.2 million US in damages.

Khadr family influence


​Khadr said he's still in contact with members of his family, who are controversial for their extremist views.
He said he's "very different" from them, and that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family.

"Sometimes maybe it's my responsibility to have a good influence on them, because everybody is worried that they're going to have a bad influence on me. But that's my contribution to have a positive influence on them."

Khadr said he has no ill feelings toward those Canadians who have strong negative opinions about him, but that it's easy to make conclusions about someone without knowing them.

"All I ask is for them to make an informed opinion about me. But take the time, get to know me personally and then whatever you choose, whatever opinion you want to make of me, I will respect that."


Khadr also told CBC News  that he just wants "to be a normal person" and finish his nursing program and work in hard-to-serve communities, where he'd like to specialize in relieving people from pain.

"I have a lot of experience with pain, and I have an appreciation of pain," he said.

He said his goal is to concentrate on the future — he doesn't want to forget the past so much as not dwell on it, because he can't change it.

"This is how I survived," he said. "I try to focus on the things I can change."​

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