U.S. President Barack Obama will sign a presidential order on Thursday to shut down Guantanamo Bay within a year, raising the possibility that Canadian-born detainee Omar Khadr could return home.
On Wednesday, Obama circulated a draft order calling for the closure of the contentious prison.
A draft copy of the order, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, said that "in view of significant concerns raised by these detentions, both within the United States and internationally, prompt and appropriate disposition of the individuals currently detained at Guantanamo and closure of the facility would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."
Ottawa appeared to send mixed signals about the fate of Khadr, who is Guantanamo's lone western inmate.
While Defence Minister Peter MacKay hinted that the Conservative government may shift its stance on the Khadr case, the Prime Minister's Office said that Ottawa had not changed its position.
"Our position remains the same," the prime minister's spokesman Kory Teneycke told CTV's On The Hill.
"We'll deal with hypothetical situations when, and if, they do appear."
The ambiguous response from Parliament Hill came on the same day that a military judge in Guantanamo Bay adjourned Khadr's case.
Khadr is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002, when he was 15. The Tories have faced intense criticism for not pressuring the U.S. to release Khadr, now 22, so he could face a trial in Canada.
Reports of the imminent closure of Guantanamo Bay came on Obama's first full day as president. According to the Obama White House, closing the jail "would further the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice."
Some of the 250 detainees at the prison in Cuba would be released, while others would be transferred to other facilities, with their trials continuing at a later date.
Earlier on Wednesday, a Gitmo military judge agreed to Obama's request to adjourn the war-crimes proceedings against Khadr -- who has been held at Gitmo for six years -- and five others, for 120 days.
That prompted Khadr's U.S. military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, to say there were no longer any obstacles blocking Prime Minister Stephen Harper from requesting his client's repatriation to Canada.
Kuebler said the adjournment is akin to a dismissal of charges against his client.
"I think the practical effect will be the same, which is this process is done and there is no more ongoing process that Prime Minister Harper can use as a pretext for not acting on Omar's behalf," Kuebler told CTV Newsnet.
Harper has so far declined to request the repatriation of Khadr, saying it's not his place to interfere with another country's legal process.
Kuebler said the judicial process is now effectively over, and Harper's rationale no longer stands.
"I think it creates a real window of opportunity for the prime minister to engage on this issue."
Khadr's older sister Zaynab Khadr told The Canadian Press she had expressed mixed feelings about the news.
"I'm glad my brother is not going to trial, but I really would have preferred he was coming home, and he's not," she said Wednesday.
"He has been there for six years. Delaying justice is not justice at all."
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff called on Harper to soften his stance on the issue.
"I don't pronounce on his innocence or guilt, I just think enough is enough," Ignatieff said in Montreal.
"I want to make it clear -- I don't have an ounce of anti-Americanism in my blood. I have great respect for the constitutional and legal traditions of the United States of America, but I think Guantanamo has been a disgrace to those traditions."
Political 'optics'
Kuebler suggested the decision to temporarily adjourn the proceedings, rather than drop the charges altogether - which he had earlier sought -- was political.
"If they had actually withdrawn charges in the cases that could have been reported as charges being dropped...I think from a political standpoint the optics of a suspension or a stay are preferable," he said.
However, he acknowledged that the U.S. could still decide to bring Khadr back to American soil and proceed with a trial there.
He has argued that Khadr should be treated as a child soldier.
Obama acts fast on Guantanamo
On Tuesday, as one of his first post-inauguration acts, Obama requested an adjournment in Gitmo proceedings for Khadr, and the five men accused of conspiring in the 9/11 terror attacks.
The prosecution in Khadr's case put the request to the judges in his case on Wednesday, and it was approved.
That angered family members of those killed in the terror attacks, who were in Guantanamo for the proceedings.
"Mr. Obama has offered up the lives of almost three-thousand Americans on the ... altar of political correctness," said Don Arias, whose brother Adam died in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
"My brother will not be a sacrificial lamb on that altar."
The motion brought before the court explained that the intent is to allow time for the new administration to review the military commission process, and to look at the individual cases currently before military commissions.
The adjournment allows the administration to evaluate the cases of those who are not granted release or transfer, to determine "whether prosecution may be warranted for any offences."
The review would also lay out the next steps going forward in those instances where prosecution is deemed to be necessary, said the motion.
With files from The Canadian Press
