TORONTO — A Canadian man who returned home after spending 10 years at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay is desperate to be a normal, contributing member of society, his lawyer said. Brydie Bethell said Sunday her client, 26-year-old Omar Khadr, could barely believe he was finally back in Canada. The last Western detainee at Guantanamo, Khadr was transferred from the US military prison in Cuba to a maximum security facility in Ontario on Saturday, where Bethell visited him over the weekend. The son of an alleged Al-Qaeda financier, Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to killing a US soldier in Afghanistan and was eligible to return to Canada from Guantanamo Bay last October under terms of a plea deal. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government had long refused to request the return of Khadr, the youngest detainee held at Guantanamo. The reluctance was partly due to suspicions about the Khadr family, which has been called “the first family of terrorism." Amid intense secrecy, the Toronto-born Khadr was flown to Canada and was taken to Millhaven Institution in Ontario for a period of assessment — normal procedure for new inmates — before authorities decide where he will serve out the remaining six years of his eight-year sentence for war crimes. John Norris, another lawyer for Khadr, said he will be eligible for parole as early as the summer of 2013. Bethell said when she visited him over the weekend, he was “just sparkling." “He's been dreaming about this moment for 10 years, so it's profoundly momentous for him," she said. Bethell said during his time in prison, he has been studying various subjects with the long-distance help of a tutor in Edmonton, Alberta, and the first thing he wanted upon his return to Canada was a pen and paper so he could get his homework done. “He's so committed to his education," she said. The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in 2002 in Afghanistan, and was detained at the Guantanamo prison set up on the US naval base in Cuba to hold suspected terrorists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He received an eight-year sentence in 2010 after being convicted of throwing a grenade that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer. Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said the US government initiated Khadr's transfer and suggested that Canada had little choice but to accept him because he is a Canadian citizen. It will be up to Canada's national parole board whether to release him, Toews said. Toews, who has said Khadr is a known supporter of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and a convicted terrorist, called for “robust conditions of supervision" if Khadr is granted parole. Toews said in his written decision that he reviewed all the files forwarded by the US government and said the parole board should consider his concerns that Omar “idealizes" his father and “appears to deny Ahmed Khadr's lengthy history of terrorist action and association with Al-Qaeda." Toews also said that Omar Khadr's mother and sister “have openly applauded" his father's “crimes and terrorist activities" and noted that Omar has had “little contact with Canadian society and will require substantial management in order to ensure safe integration in Canada." Defense attorneys have said Khadr was pushed into fighting the Americans in Afghanistan by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, whose family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly when Omar Khadr was a boy. The Egyptian-born father was killed in 2003 when a Pakistani military helicopter shelled the house where he was staying with senior Al-Qaeda operatives. Omar's youngest brother lives in Toronto and is paralyzed after being shot in the attack that killed his father. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed off on Khadr's transfer in April. Panetta said in Ottawa earlier this year that sending Khadr back to Canada would be an important step because it would serve as an example to other detainees who are looking to return to their home countries or other places. Some Guantanamo detainees have been reluctant to agree to plea deals after noting that Khadr had remained in Guantanamo despite being eligible to leave since last October. — AP
