Transfer to Canada

Khadr’s plea bargain said he could transfer to Canada to serve out the remainder of his eight-year sentence after one further year at Guantánamo. The Canadian government, prior to the agreement, had indicated it would be amenable to such a transfer. But the year passed with no sign of his return. The Americans blamed Canada for dragging its heels. Canada suggested the Americans had failed to fill out the proper paperwork. Either way, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews finally signed off on the repatriation, and Khadr was transferred to Canada in September 2012.

Canadian prison authorities immediately classified Khadr as a maximum-security prisoner, despite the fact he had been considered a minimum-security inmate at Guantánamo and one who had never caused any problems. He was incarcerated at Millhaven Institution in eastern Ontario. Khadr’s maximum-security status—which determined his prison programming and his parole chances—was questioned by the federal prisons ombudsman, to no avail.

In April 2013 the federal government, in an extraordinary intervention, overruled the warden of Millhaven to block an approved interview between Khadr and the Canadian Press. Khadr’s lawyers said it was part of the government’s strategy to demonize him as a hardened terrorist.

Khadr was transferred to Edmonton Institution in May 2013 and then to Bowden Institution in Innisfail, Alberta, in February 2014 as a medium-security prisoner. More than a year later, in April 2015, the Correctional Service of Canada classified Khadr as a minimum-security inmate.

Young offender status

In September 2013 Khadr’s lawyers argued in the Alberta courts that the eight-year sentence handed him by the U.S. military commission could only be interpreted as a youth sentence under the International Transfer of Offenders Act. (The military commission did not distinguish between youths and adults). Youth status would require the government to treat him as a young offender and have him serve his time in a provincial facility. The federal government fought the application. It argued Khadr had received five concurrent eight-year terms and that four of them were adult sentences, so he properly belonged in an adult penitentiary. Although he did not speak, Khadr appeared in court for the arguments—his first public appearance since his capture.

Almost a month later, Alberta Justice John Rooke sided with Ottawa. Khadr appealed. In a strongly worded decision delivered in July 2014, the Alberta Court of Appeal said Khadr’s sentence could only be interpreted as a youth sentence. The federal government asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the matter, which it agreed to do. In an unusual twist, the country’s highest court took just 30 minutes following oral arguments on May 14, 2015, to throw out the government’s appeal, confirming Khadr’s youth status under Canadian law.

Release on bail and completion of sentence

In March 2015, Khadr’s lawyers turned again to the Alberta courts to argue he should be freed on bail pending his appeal in the U.S. of his war-crimes convictions. They argued that the appeal was dragging on and might not be dealt with before his sentence expired in October 2018. They also said the 28-year-old Khadr had long been a model prisoner. The government opposed the application.

On April 24, 2015, Justice June Ross sided with Khadr. She ordered both sides back to court on May 5 to set terms for his interim release. On that morning, the government sought an emergency stay of Ross’s decision to grant Khadr bail pending his appeal. On May 7 Justice Myra Bielby rejected the government’s request. Within hours, Khadr was released on bail on conditions including that he wear an electronic tracking bracelet and that he reside with his lawyer, Dennis Edney. In 2017 the Canadian government settled a lawsuit that alleged it had violated Khadr’s rights, among other claims. It apologized to Khadr “for any role Canadian officials played in relation to his ordeal abroad and any resulting harm” and agreed to pay him $10.5 million (Canadian). Although Khadr’s sentence was initially to end in October 2018, his release on bail had frozen the time remaining at about 3.5 years. However, in March 2019 Justice Mary Moreau ruled that his sentence was completed, having applied the time of his conditional release toward his sentence. As a result, Khadr’s bail conditions were lifted.

The original version of this entry was published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .