A Christian university in Edmonton has offered to admit former Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr if he wins his bid for freedom next month after 12 years in custody.

“What better way to prepare someone for success in life than with education,” said Dan Vankeeken, vice-president of The King’s University, in an interview Tuesday as he visited Toronto.

Although the Khadr case has been highly politicized and has divided Canadians, Vankeeken says the university’s decision has been well received by the community.

More on Omar Khadr at thestar.com

“It has been largely positive — only a couple of random emails from people not connected to King’s saying, ‘Why are you giving free education to a terrorist?’ ” he said.

“Well, it’s not free. Someone has to pay for it, and we don’t think he is a terrorist. Even if he was, if the criminal system says he is safe to be released, we have no reason to not accept him if he met the requirements.”

Khadr’s Edmonton lawyer, Dennis Edney, and his wife, Patricia, have agreed to pay for Khadr’s education and offered to have him live with their family if the 28-year-old is granted bail.

“I have a great deal of respect and confidence in him,” wrote Patricia Edney, who works as a manager for the addiction and mental health program of Alberta Health Services, in a letter to the court.

“We are a family that make a point of being together, for example evening meals and weekends at the lake, and would welcome Omar into our family ways,” she wrote.

Khadr has also received offers of help from community agencies, including Edmonton’s Islamic Family and Social Services, to ease his reintegration into society

Edney said Khadr had asked to stay in Edmonton with him and his wife, two sons and two dogs, rather than living with his mother and siblings in Ontario, if he were released. He stays in touch with his family by phone or during the occasional prison visit.

Professors from The King’s University have been educating Khadr for the past six years, including providing instruction in Guantanamo Bay, where he was sent in 2002 following his capture in Afghanistan.

The federal government, which has consistently portrayed Khadr as an unrepentant terrorist and murderer, has not yet responded to the bail request, but a spokesperson for the public safety minister said the federal government would “vigorously defend against any attempt to lessen punishment.”

Khadr’s bail application on March 24 relates to his U.S. appeal of his Guantanamo conviction.

The Toronto-born Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 in a military court in return for an eight-year sentence and chance to return to Canada, which he did in 2012.

He later recanted, saying he believed the plea deal was his only way out of Guantanamo, but had no memory of the firefight in which he was shot and then detained at age 15.

Meanwhile, his U.S. military lawyers launched an appeal of the conviction in Washington, challenging the legality of the Pentagon’s charges against Khadr — including a murder charge for the fatal wounding of U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer.

Before attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, only the killing of what is known as “a protected person of war” such as a medic or civilian — not a soldier — was considered a war crime.

Guantanamo’s trials, however, are governed by a new U.S. legal process known as military commissions, which introduced not only “murder in violation of the laws of war” but also war crime charges such as “conspiracy.”

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Other Guantanamo convictions have already been quashed by the U.S. courts.

Khadr’s lawyers are arguing that he should be entitled to bail while his appeal is being heard, a process that could drag on longer than Khadr’s entire sentence.

In addition to applying for bail, Khadr will also apply for parole in June.