TORONTO -
Omar Khadr's family was among about 75 people gathered Saturday in Toronto for a rally urging the Canadian government to bring him home as his Guantanamo Bay proceedings draw near.
Khadr is due to be in a courtroom on Monday, where he is expected to be charged again with war crimes. His family is placing little hope on the outcome, but they hoped the rally would put pressure on Ottawa.
"It's pretty late in the ball game right now, (but) we have to do something," younger brother Abdul Kareem Khadr said.
Canada shouldn't wait for the outcome of the military trial or for incoming President Barack Obama to close Guantanamo, Khadr's sister Zaynab said.
"We're hoping that something will happen before he goes to that trial because there will be no justice there," she said.
The family last spoke to Khadr in November and said he still dreams about returning to Canada.
"He's hanging in there," Zaynab Khadr said. "He does not look forward to the trial, but he has hope."
The Toronto-born Khadr, 22, has been held at Guantanamo Bay for more than six years on charges he threw a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan in July 2002 when he was just 15.
Documents have revealed he was subject to severe abuse, such as sleep deprivation and being held in stress positions.
Khadr was a child soldier when he was arrested so his case should have been handled far differently, NDP human rights critic Wayne Marston said at the rally. He said it's time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to act.
"Every other Western combatant has been restored to their country except Omar Khadr," Marston said.
"All the prime minister has to do is pick up the telephone and Omar Khadr would be back here. Nobody's trying to avoid justice. Put the evidence before a Canadian court."
