By Canadian Press

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr speaks in at child soldiers panel

Feb 10, 2020 | 6:13 PM

HALIFAX — Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr has made a rare public speaking appearance in Halifax.

Khadr was part of a panel discussion Monday night on child soldiers hosted by the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative.

He told a large audience at Dalhousie University that he believes he has a role to play in the world although he’s still not quite sure exactly what form it will take.

As a 15-year-old in Afghanistan, Khadr was captured and badly wounded in July 2002 and was accused of killing a U.S. soldier and injuring another.

He was held at Guantanamo Bay Cuba and was returned to Canada in 2013.

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Now 33, Khadr says he’s been in survival mode for the last 17 years and he called the Dallaire Initiative discussion a safe place to be with people who “understand people like myself.” 

Khadr says he hopes people can make a fair judgment of who he has become as a person.

This report by The Canadian Press first published Feb. 10, 2020.

The Canadian Press