Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus
That may well be the case but I would argue that there should not have ever been a settlement. The entire debacle should have been resolved by due process through the courts. The sad thing is that this guy continues to be a pawn of the government to this day. Pretty boy Justin wanted this to go away as quietly as possible whether it was right or not to settle.
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When your own Supreme Court says that you violated Khadr's Charter rights, then literally the only thing left to fight for in a lawsuit from the Government's side is the size of the settlement. There isn't a lower court judge in the country that could hope to find in favour of the Government and not have the SCOC overturn on appeal.
So while the Government could very well have chosen to take it to trial regardless, you can bet that pretty much every lawyer advising the PMO was telling them to settle. And, FWIW, $10.5 million is what the Harper government paid to Arar following his torture. That is not a precedent setting result, and his case was far more egregious on the part of our officials, but it still sets a guideline.
IMO (and IANAL, obviously), the only likely benefit the Government would have gained by fighting it to the very end in court is political. It would have downloaded anger about the sum Khadr is getting paid onto the judiciary while allowing Trudeau, the Liberals and CSIS to shrug their shoulders and say "blame the judges". But that, IMNSHO, would be a deliberate waste of the courts' time.