"Abdurahman Khadr's lawyer to argue passport denial a rights violation," from CP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
TORONTO (CP) - A prominent Toronto civil rights lawyer said Monday that Ottawa's decision to deny Abdurahman Khadr a Canadian passport is a violation of his charter rights.Khadr's lawyer, Clayton Ruby, is asking a Federal Court judge to overturn the decision and issue his client a passport. Ruby said former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham's decision to intervene and deny Khadr's 2004 application was "disgraceful."
"The idea that you can withdraw a passport, which is a constitutionally protected right to travel, . . . without authority, in secret, never writing down what the law is and just say to a Canadian, 'You don't get a passport,' is inconsistent with our constitution," he said Monday.
Khadr won the right last year to fight the federal government in court after being denied a passport because of national security concerns and a potentially negative public reaction.
He says he grew up in an "al-Qaida family" and was counselled by his father to become a suicide bomber.
Khadr suggested Monday that past was behind him.
"I've done everything to right myself and that's the best I can do," he said outside court.
"Really, the people that will never like me, they'll never like me whatever I do. . . . I made my efforts to become a normal person again."
Oh, Khadr. You poor devil. You poor misunderstood soul. We like you. We really like you. I would like you better if you devoted the rest of your days to fighting against your old jihadist friends, and I don't particularly think you should be globe-trotting unless you are doing that, but don't take it personally, old man. I just have this strange aversion to seeing office workers get blown up when airplanes suddenly fly into the office wall, and to imagining my grandchildren stepping off the sidewalk to let a Muslim pass. You'll have to pardon me, I'm funny that way. But I like you. I really do.
Frankly, I'd rather be depriving Abdurahman Khadr and the remnant of his family of their Canadian citizenship than denying them passports. One-way tickets back to Abdurahman's late and unlamented terrorist father's Egyptian fatherland is what they deserve.
Where was Mr. Khadr born? Perhaps he should apply for a passport from that country. If he is a Canadian then then he should be issued a passport with the hopes he'll go somewhere where he can live under Sharia. No one should be kept in a country if he wants to leave but if he goes to wage jihad then consider him an enemy combatant. If he really has turned against Jihadism, then let him prove it.
Provoslavni:
I have no problem in giving Khadr a passport to allow him to leave the country. Unfortunately Canada doesn't have a one way passport out of the country.
This is the Khadr family the remnants of which bravely returned to Canada, in spite of the possibility, as the mother expressed it, that Canadian cultural influence might cause her sons to become homosexual. But as Canadian, the family was entitled to free health care, which was needed for one of the younger boys wounded in Afghanistan. Ah, Canadians. Your tax dollars at work. This is also the same family that attends a mosque in the east end of Toronto, the imam of which has refused to condemn terrorist actions perpetrated in the name of Islam. There was a front page article on him in the National Post a few months back.
Now this Abdurahman Khadr fellow may have sincerely repudiated jihad and for all I know may have suffered estrangement from his family and other former associates for doing so. And while I'm all for giving those who are sincerely contrite a second chance, including the right to travel without restriction, why is it that I'm getting this uneasy feeling? Could it be that I am, at least in this sense, an Unbeliever?
"Unfortunately Canada doesn't have a one way passport out of the country".
Perhaps it's time one was invented. Western countries are going to need this type of travel document in the near future when the deportations start in earnest.
And besides, I'd rather have them use these types of one way tickets as opposed to the one-way tickets the Jihadis are currently using.
William:
One of the reasons mother and daughter Khadr didn't want to return to Canada from Pakistan - they realized they would have a hard time getting new passports from the Canadian government. I believe they "lost" several passports while in Pak - the Canadian government refused to issue them another set and only offered them one way travel documents to return to Canada. Unfortunately, we as yet don't have a way of keeping such rabble out since the children were born here. A one way ticket out of the country would be a nice idea.
As Chatillon stated above, the reason they wanted (had) to return to Canada is that the youngest son was wounded and left paralyzed after the gunfight where his father was killed by Pakistani forces. Nothing like leaching off infidel financed health care.
Prosolovani:
I am not sure where Khadr was born, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't on Canadian soil. Had he been, say, a notorious drug dealer or hood of some other sort and born on one of the Caribbean islands, Canadian immigration would have punted this character by now, even if he'd arrived as an infant and knew no other home than Canada. (The Khadr clan's various members have lived out of Canada for a substantial period of time since acquiring citizenship -- primarily in Al-Qaeda training camps.) To suggest, as Clay Ruby has done, that he's being victimized due to his religion or ethnicity is a joke.
One of the problems with the Khadr family, particularly the Khadr women, is that, as Johnb correctly notes above is that they seem to lose their passports with great frequency and also attempt to smuggle computers laden with jihad-related information back into Canada after returning from abroad. As for any hesitancy to return from Pakistan, I don't know that they weren't happy to hightail it out of their. The Pakistani government was holding Daddy Khadr as a terrorism suspect way back during former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien's (aka Cretin) watch when the gormless former idiot successfully pressured the Pakistanis to release this "innocent" raiser of funds for Muslim charities.
Abdurahman's remaining living brother (two were killed in battle in Afghanistan, as was Daddy Khadr) is currently a guest at Gitmo, and is facing charges of having murdered a US army medic while in custody in Afghanistan.
I have a hard time believing Abdurahman's changed any himself.
Khadr Family Saga is a disgraceful and ridiculous example of PC[and Dhimmitude] gone mad! Get rid of the lot of 'em to the nearest Sharia Hellhole. Hopefully a change of govenment
in Canada might make this more possible.
Waterdragon:
A correction - as far as I know all of the Khadr children are alive. The oldest is Abdullah who is apparently on the run in Pakistan, Omar is sitting in Gitmo, Abdul Karim returned to Canada after being shot in the spine in the raid where his father was killed (Abdullah was on an errand and wasn't present).
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/khadr/family/tree.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/khadr/
How much you wanna bet that those lost passports turn up in possession of the next cell to blow up a train station or subway. Those women should be held criminaly liable for whatever terror act their passports helps makes possible. As for poor suffering Abdurahman... the US has very generous family reunification provisions in its immigration law so maybe he ought to be "allowed" reunification with his brother at Gitmo.
johnb:
I guess I stand to be corrected. I thought at least one of the sons perished beside daddy, if not two. But, now that you mention it, I do recall the stories about Mama Khadr demanding that her poor baby's medical expenses be covered by the public purse immediately on his return, notwithstanding the fact that they had left the country for more than the six month maximum that disqualifies Ontario residents from receiving benefits under the provincial plan.
I also remember a psychologist initiating an investigation under our child protection laws on the basis that Ma and Pa Khadr were clearly unfit parents. Know anything about that?
Proslovani: my aren't you quick on the uptake. The Khadr women wear full face veils. It doesn't take much of a stretch of imagination, even for a Canadian silly servant working for Customs & Immigration to figure the likelihood that the "lost" passports were sold to the highest cross-dressing jihaddi bidder.
Water,
But surely Canadian law doesn't allow passports with veils on?
Even that seems too stupid for Canadian pols.
Geoff
Waterdragon:
Regarding the psychologist, I do remember something at the time but I haven't seen anything since. It certainly hasn't made the main news.
I'm beginning to think that the anti PC, anti Multi Cult, anti ACLU crowd are in reality racists and anti semites who are merely using the new war on Jihad to roll back the hands of time.
Why's that. Because the antisemites (Atzlan for instance) have the same rants and agenda..
Canada's Muslim funded news paper Toronto Star and its anti American, ant Christian and anti Jewish editor named Haroon Siddiqui relentlessly fight for the rights of this Khadar. Who knows Saudi money can do wonders!