Ottawa

On the agenda

From Canwest’s account of Ignatieff in Quebec City.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff will raise the fate of Omar Khadr — the only Canadian imprisoned in the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay — when he meets Thursday with U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Liberal leader has taken on a campaign, along with other opposition leaders, to repatriate the 22-year-old detainee and recently urged Obama in a letter to release Khadr immediately. But he refused to say if he will use this meeting to ask the U.S. president to pressure the Canadian government to repatriate Khadr.

“I don’t think you ever put pressure on the President of the United States,” he said. “He’s our guest, we will welcome him with friendship and affection and we will have a frank and clear discussion.”

Ignatieff added, he intends to congratulate Obama on his decision to close the U.S. prison camp.

“We want to help Mr. Obama in any way we can to bring the Guantanamo Bay episode to a close and that necessarily means that Mr. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, should come home and face justice in Canada,” Ignatieff told reporters in Quebec City.

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