A Federal Court judge has ordered Canadian intelligence to cease questioning Guantanamo Bay's youngest prisoner, in a decision criticizing counterterrorism agents for flouting the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms...
Though the Americans have never clarified his legal status or charged him, agents from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade have travelled to Guantanamo at least three times to speak to Mr. Khadr, with an eye to furthering their own investigations...
The U.S. government may regard Guantanamo Bay as a limbo where standard legal protections for prisoners do not apply, but Judge von Finckenstein said the Charter compels Ottawa's spies to play by the rules even when they travel abroad.
It's embarrassing that it took a court ruling to let Canadian agents know that the U.S.' wilful blind eye to fundamental rights doesn't lessen Canada's responsibility to protect them. But at least Judge von Finckenstein has set the record straight.
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