Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
TORONTO – The federal government has paid former Guantanamo Bay inmate Omar Khadr 10.5-million dollars as part of a deal to settle his long-standing lawsuit over the violations of his rights.
A source familiar with the situation told The Canadian Press that the Liberal government wanted to get ahead of an attempt by two Americans to enforce a massive U-S court award against Khadr in Canadian court.
Word of the quiet money transfer came on the eve of a hearing in which a lawyer planned to ask the Ontario Superior Court to block the payout to Khadr, who currently lives in Edmonton on bail.
Toronto lawyer David Winer is acting for the widow of an U-S special forces soldier, Chris Speer, who Khadr is alleged to have killed after a firefight in Afghanistan in July 2002, and another U-S soldier, Layne Morris, who was blinded in one eye in the battle.
Tabitha Speer and Morris won a default 134.1-million dollar U-S default judgment against Khadr in a Utah court two years ago, but legal experts have said getting any money Khadr might receive in order to satisfy the Utah judgment would be extremely unlikely to succeed.
It was not immediately clear whether the hearing scheduled for Friday morning would go ahead given the payout.
