The Khadrs can call Canada home despite their past ties to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday, after days of public demands for his government to strip the Toronto family of their citizenship.
Mr. Martin told reporters in Halifax that the Khadrs enjoy the same rights and freedoms as other Canadian citizens. Maha Elsamnah, widow of al-Qaeda supporter Ahmed Khadr, returned to Canada last Friday from Pakistan along with her 15-year-old son Abdul Karim, who was injured last year in a gun battle with U.S. forces. Another son, Abdurahman, returned to Canada last fall after being released from U.S. custody in Afghanistan.
"When you break the law or obviously threaten the nation, then there are means to dealing with that and obviously [the government] would exercise those means -- but fundamentally, there are rights of citizenship," Mr. Martin said.
The family applied for public health insurance in Ontario this week, even as an on-line petition circulated demanding that they be stripped of their citizenship. In an interview, Ms. Elsamnah said she has picked up health-care forms for Karim, who remains in a wheelchair after suffering a bullet wound to his spine, kidneys and spleen.
"We've just been to the [Ontario Health Insurance Plan] office. That's it. They said we have to fill out forms," Ms. Elsamnah said, adding that her son was not a fighter in the battle and was unarmed when shot.
The family has no prognosis for Karim's chances of walking again. Ms. Elsamnah said her son will have trouble waiting out the three-month residency term required to qualify for publicly funded health care.
Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman confirmed yesterday that the family will be entitled to publicly funded health care as long as Ottawa allows them to stay.
"It's not my decision to make," he said. "The law is well established here. The Canadian government determines eligibility for Canadian citizenship and the [Ontario] Health Insurance Act, regulation 552, determines further eligibility."
Ms. Elsamnah, of Palestinian heritage, came to Canada in the mid-1970s. Her six children are all Canadian citizens.
"I'm proud of what we are and I'm proud we're in Canada now," she said yesterday, although she has been critical of Canadian social values in the past. "Believe me, I will not force myself on anyone as a Canadian citizen. . . . I'm demanding for my kids? Is that wrong? Is that a crime?"
The RCMP would not say yesterday whether the family is being investigated under the anti-terrorism act introduced following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"We can't say yes or no," said Sergeant Gilles Deziel, citing the Privacy Act. "We never confirm there's an ongoing investigation."
Conservative MP Stockwell Day was among those calling for a closer examination of the family's background.
"Our entire anti-terrorism legislation is now seen as a joke," Mr. Day said. "They have triumphantly admitted to breaking anti-terrorism laws. They should not have been allowed into Canada. At the very least, they should be brought in for questioning."
Canada has revoked citizenship for about 50 people since 1977, including six war criminals from the Second World War era.
