Dennis Edney, lawyer for former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, dead at 77
CBC
Dennis Edney, a lawyer who played a critical role in the release of former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Khadr, has died at 77.
An obituary published in the Edmonton Journal said Edney had dementia and died Saturday.
The soccer-player-turned-lawyer took on many high-profile cases throughout his career. But his Scottish accent became known across the country as he spent more than a decade acting in defence of Khadr, who was detained in the infamous U.S. military prison in Cuba as a teen.
"Dennis was a great lawyer and friend. In all my years in the legal profession, I've never met a lawyer more dedicated to his clients," said Alberta Court of King's Bench Justice Nathan Whitling, who was a lawyer on Khadr's legal team with Edney.
Edney was born in Dundee, a coastal city in eastern Scotland. A Scottish tabloid profile of Edney in 2012 said he was a lorry driver's son.
"What has made me a fighter, taking on governments, is my own Scottish character. We don't like to see the underdog being picked on," Edney told the Daily Record.
He left home at 17 and became a low-level professional soccer player in San Francisco. He was also a truck driver and a carpenter before he set his sights on law and went to Northumbria University in England.
Edney was nearly 40 in 1987 when he became a criminal lawyer and made Canada his permanent home. His obituary said he embraced Edmonton as his home for most of the last 45 years.
"Dennis put his heart and soul into everything. His legal practice reflected his passion for justice and his indomitable spirit," the obituary said.
Edney's legal practice focused on criminal and human rights law and he appeared in front of the Supreme Court of Canada numerous times. Edney and Whitling were widely celebrated as paragons of pro bono — or unpaid — work. He was a co-recipient of the 2008 National Pro Bono Award.
Edney became a constant irritant to Ottawa officials when he took on the legal representation of the young Guantanamo Bay detainee, often calling out then-prime minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government.
"Mr. Harper doesn't like Muslims," Edney said in 2015 after a Supreme Court hearing.
The Toronto-born Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops in 2002 following a firefight at a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of an American special forces soldier. Khadr was accused of throwing the grenade that killed the soldier.
Edney has said he cold-called Khadr's family in Toronto to ask if they had legal representation when the boy was initially detained. Edney travelled to Guantanamo and met Khadr, whom he described as shattered and withdrawn.
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