Open in full screen mode L' lawyer Dennis Edney after the release on bail of his client Omar Khadr, May 7, 2015 Radio-Canada Speech synthesis, based on artificial intelligence, makes it possible to generate spoken text from written text. Attorney Dennis Edney died Dec. 30 at the age of 77, his family announced. He spent the last years of his career defending Omar Khadr, a young Canadian accused of terrorism in Afghanistan and imprisoned at Guantanamo for more than a decade. His legal practice reflected his passion for justice and his indomitable spirit, we read in the obituary. Tragically, dementia took the life of this exceptional man. In the 2000s, Dennis Edney began defend pro bono Omar Khadr, then incarcerated in the American military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. Omar Khadr was arrested in Afghanistan in 2002, at the age of 15, and accused of killing an American soldier. Mr. Khadr's battle in court spanned more than a decade. Dennis Edney argued for him three times before the Supreme Court of Canada. Over the years, he has won three consecutive victories before the highest court in the country, at the end of which the Court notably recognized that its fundamental rights had been violated. Loading ELSEWHERE IN NEWS: Air Canada ranks last for on-time performance in North America Omar Khadr was finally released on bail in 2015. Dennis Edney welcomed him into his home, with his wife Patricia, for the first months of his life in freedom. In an interview with 24•60 in 2016, the lawyer claimed that he and his wife had become relatives, friends, supervisors for Omar Khadr.< /p> Omar Khadr (right) with his lawyer Dennis Edney (Archive photo) According to Alex Neve, who led the English-speaking counterpart of Amnesty International Canada during the Khadr affair, Dennis was a fighter, ready to fight for rights and justice. He salutes her courage and perseverance. He decided to represent Omar Khadr early on, when there wasn't much sympathy for his case, he recalls. < p class="StyledBodyHtmlParagraph-sc-48221190-4 hnvfyV">Alex Neve also emphasizes that Omar Khadr's situation served to remind the general public and the justice system that human rights were applicable in all circumstances . Dennis Edney worked on Omar Khadr's case with lawyer Nathan Whitling, who has since judge of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta. In writing, he says Dennis was a great lawyer and friend. In all my years of legal career, I have never met a lawyer more dedicated to his clients. The organization Lawyers Without Borders also salutes his tenacity. The organization's legal counsel, Moussa Bienvenu Haba, says this saga has left an indelible impact in Canada on the way we do things. And we owe it to Me Dennis Edney. For him, the key element to remember from the Omar affair Kadhr is that we must ensure that, if people are judged, their rights are respected. In an interview on the show Second glance in 2016, he admitted, faced with the scale of the procedures, having considered over the years the idea of stopping defending Omar Khadr. Of course I wanted to give up […] but sometimes you face something so unfair that you can't give up, he confided. He was also already thinking about its impact on the state of human rights in Canada. I hope that when the time comes to leave, I will have contributed to making society a better place, he said at the time.
Air Canada ranks last for on-time performance in North America
By Teilor Stone
Teilor Stone has been a reporter on the news desk since 2013. Before that she wrote about young adolescence and family dynamics for Styles and was the legal affairs correspondent for the Metro desk. Before joining Thesaxon , Teilor Stone worked as a staff writer at the Village Voice and a freelancer for Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, GQ and Mirabella. To get in touch, contact me through my teilor@nizhtimes.com 1-800-268-7116