Nobody should be celebrating the fact that Omar Khadr, a convicted terrorist, is walking free as a multi-millionaire.
Khadr is now free to communicate with his extremist family who radicalized him, he’s free to travel anywhere in the world, he’s free to do anything.
True North’s Andrew Lawton’s latest:
An Alberta judge, who was appointed by Justin Trudeau, has ruled that convicted murderer and Al-Qaeda affiliate Omar Khadr’s war crimes sentence has expired.
Because of the ruling, Khadr is now eligible for a new Canadian passport and will be able to travel freely.
“All those conditions that were restricting his liberty up to this point are now gone, so for example he can apply for a passport, he can talk to his sister, he can travel around the world or around Canada without having to seek permission,” said his lawyer, Nate Whitling.
Khadr was originally detained at Guantanamo Bay after being found responsible for the murder of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Christopher Speer, among other terrorism-related charges.
Khadr, whose father Ahmed Khadr was a financier for Al-Qaeda, joined the terrorist group in the early 2000s when he was a teenager.
In 2013, Khadr sued the Canadian government in a $20 million civil case which he eventually won when Justin Trudeau’s government decided to settle for $10.5 million with Khadr for allegedly abusing his rights as a Canadian citizen.
“I can understand Canadians’ concerns about the settlement. In fact, I share those concerns about the money; that’s why we settled,” said Trudeau about the decision.
“The measure of a just society is not whether we stand up for people’s rights when it’s easy or popular to do so, it’s whether we recognize rights when it’s difficult, when it’s unpopular.”
In an exclusive report by Sheila Gunn Reid at The Rebel, it was revealed that Omar Khadr purchased a strip mall in Edmonton for $3 million.
According to an Angus Reid poll, around 71 per cent of Canadians found the decision unpopular and to be the wrong choice. 64 per cent of those polled in the same survey believed that Khadr still remains a “potential radicalized threat”.
Since 2015, Khadr has been free on bail with conditions. He is still currently facing charges in the US for the death of Sgt. Speer, but Khadr’s lawyer is convinced that the charge will soon be dropped.
“We think that these convictions will eventually be overturned,” said Whitling.
In December 2018, Khadr sought a passport to visit his controversial sister who defended the 9/11 attacks in 2004.
“Sometimes innocent people pay the price. You don’t want to feel happy, but you just sort of think, well, they deserve it, they’ve been doing it for such a long time. Why shouldn’t they feel it once in a while?” said Zaynab Khadr.
Now that Omar Khadr has been vindicated of his charges, he will once again be able to freely travel around the world and even visit his family.
The government has agreed to pay for government officials testifying against Vice-Admiral Mark Norman to get outside legal counsel, but have refused to pay for Norman’s.
As many as six Canadian Forces and Department of National Defense officials who will be testifying for the Crown in the Mark Norman case will have their legal fees covered by the taxpayer.
Despite having access to government legal counsel – Cameron Ahmad, Trudeau’s communications director, said that the rules allow for individuals to choose outside counsel.
“As per the Treasury Board Policy on Legal Assistance and Indemnification, counsel has been retained to advise on the matter in question,” Ahmad said.
Norman made a request to the government for assistance to cover his legal fees in 2017. As a government official, Norman was eligible for government assistance.
Norman’s request for financial assistance, however, was denied.
A Justice Department letter leaked to Postmedia revealed the rationale was that Norman is guilty of disclosing confidential information.
Why the government could consider Norman guilty despite not being found guilty and no internal investigation being carried out by the Canadian Forces is not clear.
The Department of National Defense, however, has defended their decision.
“It was done following consultations with the Department of National Defence and Canadian Forces Legal Advisor (DND/CF LA), who reports to the Department of Justice,” The Department told Postmedia.
The Department was also sure to mention that the Clerk of the Privy Council and the PMO were not involved with the decision, contrary to what some have argued.
Norman`s lawyer has accused the government of delaying the release of important documents to her client – preventing the defense from making their case.
It has been estimated that the government has spent $10-$15 million on prosecuting Norman, while Norman has paid for his defense out of pocket.
Even the judge questioned why the government has taken so long to produce the documents, particularly key interviews, which have to go to her before they can go to Norman`s lawyer.
“When am I going to get the materials?”Justice Heather Perkins-McVey asked the Crown.
“Time marches on, and these interviews took place in January of 2016.”
The defence has also still waiting for information from several key PMO officials they subpoenaed..
Norman`s lawyer says that she has yet to receive a single document related to the subpoenas.
From the Manning Networking Conference, True North’s Andrew Lawton sits down with Preston Manning, the founder of the Manning Centre and a tremendously influential figure in Canadian politics.
They discuss the state of the conservative movement in Canada.
Check out our newest product – The True North Field Report
Last week Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the Trudeau government is looking “very, very carefully” at forcing social media companies to censor “toxic communications” on their platforms.
Goodale’s cryptic comments are just the latest refrain from a government that has continually pushed for censorship on social media — where most Canadians spend the majority of their time online.
But what exactly the Liberals’ definition of “toxic communications” or “fake news” is is still up in the air.
What is known is that the Trudeau government has a close relationship and ties with the big tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter, and that the Trudeau government has asked these tech giants to censor content it doesn’t like.
The very day Trudeau took office his government requested Google delete Harper-era webpages from the search engine’s search results.
Has the Trudeau government made a habit of doing this over the past few years, reaching out to Google to ask the tech giant to remove undesirable content from its top search results?
Last year a parody account of Environment Minister Catherine McKenna became popular on Twitter for ridiculing the minister. Government officials then reached out to Twitter to have the account banned for impersonation.
Of course, these are just a couple of examples of the Trudeau government intervening to censor the internet that become public. There are surely many more examples that never publicly came to light.
One such example may have happened last year when Canadian political commentator and conservative libertarian Dan Dicks’ Press For Truth Facebook page was deleted without warning. Press For Truth had 350,000 followers at the time, the biggest independent conservative media outlet Facebook page in Canada. Is it that far-fetched to believe the Trudeau government may have filed complaints to Facebook about Press For Truth before Facebook deleted its page?
Could news outlets and organizations critical of the Trudeau government such as True North, The Rebel, Ontario Proud and Toronto Sun be targeted by the Trudeau government for censorship on social media?
And we’re not just talking about outright bans. In the U.S. it has been revealed that Twitter and Facebook can shadowban or downgrade content they don’t like, essentially throttling undesirable stories from being seen by users.
A little over a year in office, Liberal-connected “non-partisan” think tank Public Policy Forum (PPF) released a major research report. The report ironically inflated the fake news problem in the United States, using false and inflated data to argue in favour of a media bailout in Canada. The Liberal government commissioned PPF’s “Shattered Mirror” report and covered most of the $270,000 in costs.
Since then, Trudeau and various ministers have repeatedly made public statements about “protecting” democracy by censoring fake news on the internet, with some ministers even wondering if the government itself should play a role in policing it.
At the beginning of this year the government finally unveiled its plan to fight fake news. The Liberals announced $7 million to educate Canadians on what to think when consuming news.
But should the Trudeau government, or any government for that matter, be telling Canadians what is and isn’t legitimate news? Furthermore, should the same government be setting up a bailout that will determine which news outlets are and are not legitimate and can receive government money?
The Trudeau government itself is challenged in distinguishing fact from fiction.
Its own mandate letter tracker blatantly and incorrectly claims that the government has completed promises that it’s actually broken, such as supposedly ending the “improper use of omnibus bills.” In reality, just last year the Trudeau government snuck new legislation for deferred prosecution agreements in an omnibus bill (which looks very much like an attempt to help SNC-Lavalin get off the hook for serious bribery charges).
Retiring head bureaucrat Michael Wernick was supposed to be one of the “non-partisan” bureaucrats to be in charge of monitoring foreign interference this election. Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould set up the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol, which Wernick was supposed to be a part of, in order to further combat “fake news” and “orchestrated disinformation campaigns.”
But any pretence of Wernick being a non-partisan civil servant was shot after his involvement in helping the Liberal government pressure former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in the SNC-Lavalin scandal was revealed, not to mention his testimony that reeked of favouritism for the Liberals.
But what was all the more disturbing was government-designated fact-checker Wernick claiming the original Globe and Mail SNC-Lavalin story was fake news.
Should Canadians trust the powerful Wernicks and Trudeaus of this country to tell us what is and isn’t news?
The Trudeau government’s sudden course correction to get tough on illegal border crossings this week is unlikely to stop asylum seekers from illegally crossing the border into Canada and making refugee claims.
Immigration experts who spoke to True North’s Graeme Gordon on background agreed it’s highly doubtful America would renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement.
Learn more: https://tnc.news/2019/03/23/gordon-liberals-belated-plan-to-crack-down-on-illegal-border-crossings-in-doubt/
Check out our newest product – The True North Field Report
What happens next? Will someone get charged by the RCMP? Will Justin Trudeau allow Jody Wilson-Raybould speak?
From the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa, True North’s Anthony Furey and Andrew Lawton discuss the SNC-Lavalin debacle and what Canadians can expect in the coming days.
Check out our newest product – The True North Field Report
Last week, Canadians witnessed an aggressive attempt at a cover up.
The Trudeau government released their election budget but it was overshadowed by the SNC-Lavalin debacle.
True North’s Anthony Furey explains.
Name a more iconic duo. We’ll wait.
True North’s Andrew Lawton and Anthony Furey were live from the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa, ON.
The CEO of Quebec engineering giant SNC-Lavalin says that the company did not talk about potential job losses when asking for an agreement for criminal prosecutions.
“There would be a reduction with us but these are talented folks. They’ll get a job,” CEO Neil Bruce said in a recent interview.
“This thing that somehow they’re going to be unemployed is not true because they are highly qualified, highly experienced people.”
SNC-Lavalin is facing criminal prosecutions for alleged use of bribery to gain government contracts in Libya.
Former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould claims that senior Liberal officials hounded and threatened her for months to see SNC-Lavalin avoid criminal prosecution, with protecting the 9000 jobs in the Montreal area as the stated rationale.
Since coming to light the government has seen the resignation of Wilson-Raybould, Principal Secretary to the PMO Gerald Butts, Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, and Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick.
Most recently Liberal MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes quit the Liberal caucus over the scandal to sit as an independent.
Bruce added in the same interview that the company has no intention of moving its headquarters from Montreal, regardless of the court and government decisions, while adding that the company`s 82% Canadian ownership is a considerable asset.
In the latest development of the SNC-Lavalin scandal Wilson-Raybould has said that she is submitting additional evidence, including emails and text messages she received from senior officials.
“In the course of my testimony, there was a request for me to provide further information… Having taken that request under advisement, I will provide copies of messages that I referred to in my testimony,” Wilson-Raybould said on Thursday.
While the entire defence for the Prime Minister and other senior government officials was to keep SNC-Lavalin headquartered in Canada and protect Canadian jobs, Bruce has effectively negated that defence by reaffirming that SNC-Lavalin will never leave Canada.
“We see ourselves as Team Canada. We are a global champion, one of the few. There’s not many and we’re proud to be Canadian,” he said.