He is the only western citizen remaining in Guantanamo Bay detention camp, his juvenile status ignored, his constitutional right to due process denied and his hope that the federal government would seek his extradition dashed. And so the suffering of Canadian Omar Ahmed Khadr continues.

Accused at the age of 15 of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier in Afghanistan, Khadr has spent the last horrendous eight years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yet, almost two years ago, the Pentagon accidentally released documents that revealed that although Khadr was present in the house, there was no other evidence that he had thrown the grenade. In fact, military officials who originally reported that another militant had thrown the grenade just before being killed, later rewrote their report to implicate Khadr.

The Khadr name is no stranger to the national news. On November 13, 2009, the Supreme Court of Canada was asked to rule on whether the Canadian government should repatriate Khadr. That was after the Federal Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that, under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the government is obliged to demand Khadr’s return to Canada.

The Canadian government was also told that Khadr’s treatment at Guantanamo violated the Geneva Convention — an international agreement, penned in 1949, that is supposed to govern the treatment of people captured or wounded in wartime.

Khadr’s lawyers argued to this country’s Supreme Court that Canada has a responsibility to protect its citizens; they told the courts that the government is duty-bound under the charter and international law to seek Khadr’s immediate repatriation.

Dennis Edney, Khadr’s Canadian lawyer for six years, says that the government’s failure to comply and its intransigence on this issue show the world that human rights is not a priority for the Harper administration.

“The government is saying that it is not accountable under the law,” Edney said in an interview. “It chooses to breach the laws and use Omar as a shield.”

Flabbergasted at the federal government’s refusal to act, Edney said he believes that the Conservatives’ display of callous non-concern toward Khadr has damaged the image of Canada as a free and caring nation in the eyes of other countries around the globe.

“I hear this everywhere I go,” he said. “People question: ‘What is Canada doing? Why hasn’t our citizen come home?’ I don’t have any answers to give to them.”

The federal government defends itself by accusing the Supreme Court of interfering with its right to make decisions on foreign policy; it says that repatriating Khadr would open up the “flood gates” to more international problems.

“They (Canadian government) think that every citizen in the world is going to ask Canada for help now,” Edney said.

Khadr’s fate in still unknown; he might face a military commission, which is often described as a closed-door kangaroo court, or enter the U.S federal court system, which would likely give Guantanamo detainees the right to due process.

But what about due process here in Canada?

Every citizen of Canada has the right to due process — rights afforded under the charter, the Criminal Code and common law — to all persons accused of crimes. This serves to prevent the abuse of state power and to guarantee the right to remain silent, the right to a fair trial and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Throughout the last eight years, during which Khadr has been illegally detained, abused, forced into stress positions, threatened with sexual violence, and denied adequate medical treatment, and now his supposedly inviolable Canadian rights are being trampled.

Khadr, who was born in Toronto and spent much of his childhood moving back and forth between Canada and Pakistan, may indeed have killed an American soldier and it is well known that his family had connections to Osama Bin Laden. Khadr’s father, Ahmed Said Khadr, of Peshawar, Pakistan passed away in 2003 but was also no stranger to authorities. The Canadian government considered him the country’s highest-ranking member of al-Qaida. When Khadr was captured eight years ago, officials thought he was extremely valuable because they believed he could offer answers about the al-Qaida hierarchy.

Edney says, however, that Khadr should not be judged by his family’s alleged activities and that the Canadian government must also be held accountable for its actions.

Khadr’s treatment by the Harper government should concern Canadians — certainly those who believe in a free and democratic country, a country that upholds human rights and does more than pay lip service to the charter.

“It’s tough for him (Khadr) to keep his hopes up because he feels abandoned and what’s happening is beyond the rule of law,” Edney said. “But he has no anger; he just keeps hoping that Canada will come to his aid.”

In a poll earlier this year, 64 per cent of Canadians supported repatriating Khadr to Canada, up from 41 per cent in June 2007.

Many of the questions surrounding the Khadr case baffle Edney, a defence attorney noted for his involvement in high-profile human rights cases. For example, how can a 15-year-old boy caught in the crosshairs of war be charged with murder and war crimes.

Still, of one thing, Edney is certain and resolute: What this case is truly about is “accountability.”

It has been reported that the Canadian government has spent over $1.3 million to ensure that Khadr remained in Guantanamo.

As Khadr awaits more legal decisions on his case, and the Conservative government digs in its heels, the fate of constitutional rights and the rule of law in this country also hang in the balance.