A Canadian Senate staffer on Parliament Hill says she was stopped in her tracks when she came face-to-face with Omar Khadr, the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who was convicted in 2012 of killing a U.S. medic in Afghanistan in 2002.
Jacqui Delaney, a staffer for Conservative Senator Leo Housakos, tells Newstalk 580 CFRA’s The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll that she was giving a cousin and her husband a tour of the Senate’s public gallery June 19, when she saw someone familiar.
“Out came a man and a woman holding hands and it stopped me in tracks,” she says, “and I thought ‘is that Omar Khadr?’”
Delaney says she followed the man to confirm her suspicions and recognized his damaged left eye.
“We asked our security to review the video of people going in and out of the gallery and the last they said was, ‘We can neither confirm nor deny but it certainly matches his description.’”
LISTEN NOW: @JacquiDelaney joins @billcarrolltalk to talk about her encounter with Omar Khadr on Parliament Hill. #TheMorningRush
— 580 CFRA (@CFRAOttawa) August 21, 2018
According to the Globe and Mail Khadr–who is not barred from the public areas of Parliament Hill–was in Ottawa with his wife following a conference she was attending the day before. Khadr’s trip to the Hill June 19 came on the same day the Prime Minister was scheduled to speak at an invite-only event marking the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, to which Khadr was not invited.
The report claims the Liberal government took steps to keep Khadr away from the event, which he never attended. The newspaper admits it is unknown whether Khadr had intended to attempt to get into the event.
The Prime Minister’s Office tells CFRA, in an emailed statement, "The Prime Minister did not meet with Omar Khadr, nor did any senior Ministers."
Khadr spent 10 years in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before pleading guilty in the death U.S. Sgt. Christopher Speer during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr was returned to Canada, recanted his confession, and appealed his U.S. conviction. He is presently on bail awaiting the appeal decision.
Delaney, who, for full disclosure, told CFRA she worked on a one-hour Sun News special about Khadr in 2012, says the encounter left her feeling uncomfortable and unsafe.
"Put aside that it's Jacqui Delaney," she says. "I came face-to-face with a convicted terrorist at my workplace."
As the staffer who saw Mr. Khadr in the Senate and alerted security, I can assure Mr. Edney that it has NOTHING to do with his religion or demonizing him. I came face to face with Khadr and it shook me to the core. I have a right to feel safe at work. https://t.co/gGmeTJnM9f
— Jacqui Delaney (@JacquiDelaney) August 21, 2018