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TORONTO — Omar Khadr's family joined a crowd of supporters willing to brave thunderstorms and blustering wind at a rally on Saturday to press for the youngest Guantanamo Bay detainee to be transferred to Canada.
Members of the Khadr family, including younger brother Karim, 19, and older sister Zaynab, 28, endured the inclement weather along with the more than 200 supporters outside the U.S. Consulate in Toronto.
The Toronto-born Omar Khadr, now 21, was arrested as a 15-year-old after a firefight with U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan in 2002. He is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a medic and has spent nearly six years in custody.
“We're hoping to raise awareness of Omar's situation,” Karim Khadr said from his wheelchair on Saturday as friends shielded him with an umbrella.
Karim Khadr, brother of Omar Khadr, who is in Guantanamo Bay military prison, attends a rally in Toronto on Saturday to press for the return of his brother. (Joshua Clipperton/Canadian Press)
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“Hopefully we'll get the support of the Canadian government, but most of all we want the support of the Canadian people, because they're what matters.”
Karim was paralyzed from the waist down in the same gun battle that killed his father in Afghanistan in 2003. He returned to Canada in 2004 with his mother to seek medical attention.
A video of Omar Khadr being interrogated by a Canadian intelligence officer in 2003 at the military prison was released by his lawyers earlier this month.
It was difficult to see the anguish on his brother's face and hear it in his voice, Karim Khadr said, but it was there.
“He had so much hope that Canada would come to his rescue, but then they just turned him down,” he said, adding he wants his brother to faces the charges against him on home soil.
“Hopefully he will be back and the Canadians will do the right thing.”
Omar Khadr has been in U.S. custody for almost six years and remains the lone Western detainee still at Guantanamo. Documentation indicates he was abused during questioning by his American captors.
His trial before a military commission is slated to begin in October.
At Saturday's rally, Zaynab Khadr had a question for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“If it was his son, would he have waited six years to investigate? If there was a case against my brother they wouldn't have waited six [to try him in court],” Zaynab said.
Although the show of support was important to the Khadr family in their fight to bring Omar home, it's not just about her brother, but also what's happening to other prisoners like him, she said.
“Regardless of who he is, or what it is, Guantanamo is wrong,” she said. “What's happening there is wrong and he should be treated fairly and with some justice.”
Speaking on behalf of the federal government, Conservative MP Jason Kenny reiterated the position that Omar Khadr is being treated fairly.
“[The government] has sought and received assurances that Mr. Khadr is being treated humanely and has carried out several welfare visits to verify this. We will continue to do this,” he said in a statement on Saturday.
“Mr. Khadr faces some very serious charges.”
A smaller rally in support of bringing Omar Khadr back to Canada was also held outside the American embassy in Ottawa on Saturday.
A few dozen protesters handed out postcards that will be sent to the prime minister, calling for the government to bring Mr. Khadr back to Canada.
