As many of you know, one of the blackest marks on Gitmo has been the story of Omar Khadr, who has been detained there since he was 15 years old. In other words, a child soldier. Nonetheless, despite a finding by Canada's highest court that his rights have been violated, Ottawa presently doesn't plan to repatriate him.
Prime Minister's Office spokesman Dmitri Soudas told CBC News that there has been "no shift" in government policy regarding Khadr, although the government is still "reviewing" his situation in light of the court ruling.
"There hasn't been a change in position," Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon later told reporters.
The Harper government still maintains that Khadr should be tried in the United States. This despite a Supreme Court ruling that, while finding that ordering Khadr's repatriation would infringe on the government's jurisdiction over foreign relations, nonetheless declared that his rights have been violated.
The Supreme Court's ruling, while stopping short of ordering Khadr's return, is absolutely scathing. It found that Khadr was denied access to counsel, and also gave statements after three weeks of sleep deprivation. However, it found that as egregious as these violations were, they weren't enough to intervene in a foreign affairs matter. Basically, the court told Harper, "You know what you need to do, but we're not going to tell you to do it."
And here I thought that Canadian conservatives had more scruples than their American counterparts. Although there's no word as of yet on when an election will be called, the Liberals have let it be known they'll repatriate Khadr.