Serving Justice

"Mr. Khadr's placement in a federal penitentiary is lawful and the habeas corpus application is denied.
"The convening Authority did not specify concurrent or consecutive because it did not rule on each count.
"I conclude that this global sentence, if imposed in Canada, would have been five sentences to be served concurrently, at least one of which was a sentence of eight years."
Alberta Associate Chief Justice John Rooke

"Omar Ahmed Khadr pleaded guilty to heinous crimes.
"The government of Canada will continue to vigorously defend against any attempt to lessen his punishment for these crimes."
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney

Former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr's lawyer asserted it to be his intention on behalf of his client to appeal the ruling of Associate Chief Justice John Rooke who ruled that 27-year-old Omar Khadr remain in the federal Edmonton Institution he has been placed within to serve out his eight-year concurrent sentence.

Justice Rooke's opinion is that the eight-year concurrent sentences comprise one youth sentence for murder, since his jihadist assault in Afghanistan was committed when he was fifteen years of age, along with the four adult sentences he was also charged with and found guilty of. Representing a mixed sentence; one relating to a youth sentence, the other four to an adult sentence.

Under the Criminal Code of Canada anyone charged, found guilty and handed both adult and youth sentences must serve time in a federal penitentiary, ruled Justice Rooke. A ruling welcomed by the federal government, and doubtless by most members of the public who take no pleasure whatever in the knowledge that the Egyptian emigres who made their home in Canada were part of a global jihad.

Dennis Edney, acting on behalf of his client had argued the global eight-year sentences for all crimes represented, in his opinion, a youth sentence under Canadian law. Simply put, he reached that determination on the basis of an adult sentence for murder in Canada being 25 years. "We respect the judge's decision, but we disagree and will ask for a ruling by the court of appeal", he said.

Lawyers acting for the federal government contended that Mr. Khadr's sentence actually represented eight separate sentences, one earned for each crime he was accused of, served concurrently. And since no one can serve both adult and youth sentences, under the Criminal Code Mr. Khadr is set to serve adult time.

It would spare quite a bit of time, public money, and the public patience if the matter were simply laid to rest. Certainly Mr. Khadr is anxious to be released from incarceration, and to be enabled to get on with his life, to accomplish the aspirations he has set for himself. Most certainly, before he is given that opportunity, he should be restrained from rejoining society until he has completed his sentence.