“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.