Canada's opposition parties have come together to seek the release of Toronto detainee Omar Khadr and condemn the U.S. policies that have kept him in Guantanamo Bay for more than five years.

MPs from the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois will hold a joint press conference this morning to urge Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene in the case and denounce Guantanamo's military commission where Khadr is being tried for war crimes.

"To begin with, for five years, he has been languishing with no trial in Guantanamo, he has been subjected to treatment at best degrading and abusive, and at worst, amounting to torture," Liberal human rights critic Irwin Cotler said in an interview with the Star.

"I think he should be brought back here, and the ideal would be for him to enter into a framework of social and physical rehabilitation as befits what should be done for child soldiers, where he could have a religious and cultural support system."

The Khadr case has begun to receive attention both in Canada and internationally in the last few months with critics of Guantanamo drawing attention to Khadr's age. The Toronto-born detainee was 15 when he was captured in July 2002 in Afghanistan, following a firefight with U.S. Special Forces. The Pentagon alleges that Khadr threw a grenade that killed Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer before being shot himself and captured.

Now 21, Khadr is charged with "murder in violation of the laws of war" in Speer's death in addition to attempted murder, conspiracy, spying and providing material support to terrorism.

His lawyers argued this month that the Military Commissions Act, signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2006, didn't intend to try teenagers under the age of 18 for war crimes.

Khadr's military lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler, argued that Khadr should be considered a "child soldier," and benefit from the protections of international law that focus on rehabilitating youths in armed conflict.

Pentagon spokesperson Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon dismissed the argument that Khadr's age should be a factor in his prosecution.

"Canadian law and U.S. law both provide that a person of Khadr's age, alleged to have committed such offences, can be tried as an adult. Age is not a determining factor in detention, nor is it relevant to military commission jurisdiction. If Khadr is found guilty, however, age may be relevant at sentencing."

Cotler, who will issue a written statement today, was the Liberal's justice minister during much of Khadr's incarceration. He said he wrote about the issue in law journals to try to draw attention to the case, but admits the Liberals also did not ask for Khadr's return.

"I don't think much was being done, to be frank, because the issue lacked salience here in Canada. I wrote about it in 2002 and I didn't get any response whatsoever."

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Since coming to power in 2006, Harper's government has steadfastly maintained that Canada will not interfere in the military commissions.

"They don't seem to want to move at all," said Bloc MP Vivian Barbot (Papineau). "We're trying to call attention more and more because we can't be advocating for help for child soldiers on one side and not recognizing on the other side when it happens to one of Canada's citizens," said Barbot, who will appear at the press conference today with the NDP's Joe Comartin, Liberal justice critic Dominic Leblanc and Khadr's U.S. military lawyers.

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