TORONTO - American authorities are expected to hand videotapes of Omar Khadr to the Canadian government this week now that the head of the military commission has signed off on their release.
Khadr's Canadian defence team, meanwhile, served three affidavits on the government today in support of its Federal Court application to force Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to make a decision on the prisoner's transfer from Guantanamo Bay to Canada.
The government has a month to respond but the lawyers say they were hoping the hearing would be expedited.
Toews has demanded access to the tapes of two mental-health assessments done of Khadr prior to his trial two years ago in Guantanamo Bay.
One assessment was by Dr. Michael Welner, the prosecution's star witness at Khadr's military commission trial in October 2010.
Welner concluded that 25-year-old Khadr was an unrepentant and dangerous jihadist.
The other was by a U-S military psychologist -- Maj. Alan Hopewell -- who considered Khadr to be defensive and manipulative, but also mentally stable, upbeat, and an independent thinker who sees himself as a Canadian.
Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured badly wounded in Afghanistan in July 2002.
He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay a few months later -- almost a decade ago.
