OTTAWA – Canadians are split on the Harper government’s decision announced Monday to honour an agreement allowing confessed killer Omar Khadr to return to Canada, according to results of a poll conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global National.
The Ipsos Reid survey found that 49 per cent of the population did not want the Toronto-born Khadr, who confessed to the 2002 killing of a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, to serve any part of his sentence in Canada.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the government would actually allow Khadr, who was 15 years old at the time of the crimes, to be repatriated.
"The U.S. government has accepted that Omar Khadr return to Canada and we will implement the agreement reached between Mr. Khadr and the United States," said Cannon in the House of Commons in response to questions from Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe.
The decision follows years of court battles in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government refused to repatriate Khadr, maintaining that he was facing charges of "serious crimes."
According to the poll’s findings, only 25 per cent believe Khadr should serve all of his sentence in Canada, while 26 per cent believe he should serve some of it in this country. It adds up to 51 per cent who believe he should be repatriated.
A majority of Canadians in Atlantic Canada (61 per cent), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (59 per cent) as well as in Quebec (57 per cent) said they want him to return to Canada, while a majority of Albertans (58 per cent), British Columbians (54 per cent) and Ontarians (52 per cent) said they do not believe Khadr should serve any part of his sentence in the country.
John Wright, senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid, said he believes the numbers suggest Canadians are closely following developments in this story and do not have a favourable opinion of Khadr, who recently pleaded guilty to the crimes, after initially maintaining his innocence.
More than two-thirds of respondents in the survey, or 69 per cent, said that, "Khadr probably is guilty and this plea bargain is too generous, and that the Canadian government was right not to have offered him any assistance up to this point."
Only 31 per cent said he should have been offered more government assistance because he was probably "not guilty and was forced into this plea bargain as his only option to be released someday after serving his sentence."
Wright added that the numbers show that the government’s approach to the file has been consistent with a strong opposition to Khadr’s repatriation in Conservative-held ridings.
"From a political standpoint, they have managed the file according to the public opinion that has been displayed to date," said Wright. "The public is simply not accepting of Mr. Khadr’s immediate return to this country, and that gives the government some leverage in this matter."
Cannon’s announcement also follows revelations of discussions between U.S. and Canadian officials about Khadr’s release into Canadian custody in a year through a diplomatic note sent by the federal government to the U.S. government.
The note indicated that the Canadian government was "inclined to favourably consider" Khadr’s transfer to the country. But when questioned about the note, Cannon said in the Commons that this did not mean his government participated in negotiations on sentencing.
"The government of Canada was not part of the plea negotiations," Cannon said in response to a question from Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh. "In fact, the chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Navy Capt. John Murphy, when asked about whether Canada was part of this deal, Capt. Murphy said that the agreement was between the U.S. government and the defence."
The opposition parties have all been calling for Khadr’s repatriation, noting that he was a child soldier at the time of the crimes.
"You know, whether I like the guy or not, that is not the issue," Dosanjh told reporters. "Canadians have rights under the Charter of Rights, under our Constitution. You could be the most vile person on this Earth, (but) if you are a Canadian citizen, you have certain rights and one of those rights is to be able to come back to this country, either after serving some sentence or before serving the sentence. You are, after all, a Canadian. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. And that is what this government has failed to understand."
The poll surveyed 1,046 adult Canadians online between Oct. 29 and Nov 1. A sample of this size generally has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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