Friday, August 14, 2009
Court order to the Canadian government to bring Omar Khadr home still stands
OTTAWA – The Conservative government has lost its appeal of a court decision ordering it to bring Omar Khadr home to Canada from the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Federal Court of Appeal ruled today that the government offered no compelling reasons why it should not comply with an order to request that Khadr, 22, be repatriated to Canada.
"There is no legal or factual foundation upon which this Court can conclude that the decision not to request Mr. Khadr's repatriation is justified," the court ruled.
...
Canadian government to be held accountable for its bungling on the Suaad Hagi Mohamud case
...
Mohamud’s lawyer, Lucas Naikuni, said outside of court that he plans to sue the Canadian and Kenyan governments, along with KLM Airlines, whose officials stopped Mohamud from boarding a flight home May 21. He called it a “malicious prosecution.” “This is an embarrassment, that a developed country like Canada can do this to a citizen,” he said in an interview with the Star. “We had to go to DNA testing – we had to go that far?”
We’ve heard “whispers” and innuendo in the media from government sources there was more to the story then what the media was reporting (which it must be pointed out, also was the chatter in the Maher Arar case, and led to nothing), so at the very least, if the Canadian government gets sued, and forced to defend itself, it’s going to have to put up or shut up on those “unofficial whispers”. I applaud her lawyer for intending to do this; the only way the Harper Conservative government can be held to account right now apparently is through the court system.
...
Better living conditions in other solar systems?
...
The Sun does not seem like the perfect star for a system where life might arise. Although it is hard to argue with the Sun's ‘success' as it so far is the only star known to host a planet with life, our studies indicate that the ideal stars to support planets suitable for life for tens of billions of years may be a smaller slower burning ‘orange dwarf' with a longer lifetime than the Sun ― about 20-40 billion years. These stars, also called K stars, are stable stars with a habitable zone that remains in the same place for tens of billions of years. They are 10 times more numerous than the Sun, and may provide the best potential habitat for life in the long run.
...
Posts
