Justice Minister please fulfill Canada’s long overdue obligation to Omar Khadr

Dear friends of Omar, Shortly after the 2015 federal election when Vancouver M.P. Jody Wilson-Raybould was appointed as Minister for Justice, she received a mandate letter from Prime Minister Trudeau outlining her responsibilities as Justice Minister and Attorney General. “…You are expected to ensure our legislation meets the highest standards of equity, fairness and respect for the rule of law…that the rights of Canadians are protected, that our work demonstrates the greatest possible commitment to respecting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms…” Free Omar is focusing for the next two weeks on our goal – to get 1000 messages to the Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould – to remind her on her responsibility. We need your help. A simple message like this is fine: “Please fulfill Canada’s long overdue obligation to Omar Khadr by providing compensation and apologising for the abuse he suffered”. Or you can copy and paste from our Template Letter (below). Thank you for your support! The Free Omar Campaign ___________________________________ It would be very helpful if you could c.c or b.c.c. us in the email (freeomar.ca@gmail.com) when you contact the minister, so we will be able to keep track! ____________________________________ Template Letter Dear Minister Wilson-Raybould: For 14 years, Canada allowed grave violations of Omar Khadr’s fundamental rights. We not only abandoned him as a child but allowed him to suffer a decade of torture and abuse in Guantanamo before his long-delayed repatriation. << The U.S. Supreme Court (2006) ruled that the U.S. Pentagon military commissions which “charged” and “sentenced” Omar were unconstitutional; << The Federal Court ruled (2005) that Canadian agencies (including CSIS) had violated Omar’s Charter rights by turning information obtained by torture over to his U.S. captors to be used against him in his “trial” << The Supreme Court of Canada (2008) ruled that the conduct of Canadian interrogators violated Omar’s fundamental human rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and principles of fundamental justice. Despite these rulings, since Omar’s release on bail from a Canadian prison almost 3 years ago, we have continued to abandoned him and deny him justice. We call on you Minister Wilson-Raybould to offer a long-overdue apology to Omar and finally award him compensation for Canada’s shocking dereliction of responsibility. ___________________________________ Contact the Minister: The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada 284 Wellington Street Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H8 Email: mcu@justice.gc.ca 1-613-957-4222 If you are in Vancouver, you can drop in to her office for a visit! Suite # 104 1245 West Broadway Vancouver, British Columbia V6H 1G7 Telephone: 604-717-1140 Fax: 604-717-1144