Remembering Dennis Edney

Lily Stearns is the chief archivist of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians. Dennis Edney appeared as the keynote speaker at the CSULR's 2015 symposium on Civilian Internment in Canada.

News of the death of Edmonton lawyer, Dennis Edney, on December 30th, came as a shock to those of us who had heard Edney speak in Winnipeg regarding his involvement as defense lawyer for Omar Khadr, or at the Canadian Society for Ukrainian Labour Research symposium held in 2015 at which Edney was the keynote speaker

The Omar Khadr case was exceptional for many reasons. Khadr was involved in a skirmish between American soldiers and local insurgents which took place in a small village in Afghanistan in 2002. When the gunfire ceased and the dust settled, among the bodies was a badly injured 15-year old boy, Omar Khadr. He was captured and taken to the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. He remained here for several years during which he endured sustained and brutal torture by his captors in an effort to extract a confession from him that he had thrown a hand grenade which resulted in the death of an American soldier. Under torture, Khadr admitted to throwing the grenade, which he later retracted, saying he had no memory of the event.

Khadr was given several Canadian lawyers to represent him. However, he did not feel they had his interests in mind and dismissed them. Dennis Edney, an Edmonton lawyer, had heard of Khadr’s case and the special circumstances of his arrest and detention, and offered his services on a pro bono basis (no charge) to Khadr’s family, which they accepted. Edney met Khadr in Guantanamo. He found Khadr “shattered and withdrawn”, damaged mentally and physically. In a private conversation with us -- years later -- he said that on his way home, he found himself overwhelmed at what he’d heard, and wound up in the airport, weeping over Khadr’s testimony.

Who was Dennis Edney? He was born in Scotland, still possessing a lilting Scottish accent after decades living in Canada. He was the son of a truck driver, tried a variety of occupations until he decided to pursue a career in law, graduating from the University of Northumbria, England, with a law degree in 1987. He came to Canada, met and married an Edmonton woman, and settled down, one would think, to a typical lawyer’s life. But Edney was not a typical lawyer. For one thing, he was a maverick. He made his own rules, followed his own path. He described himself as a stubborn, hard-working Scot. But he was more than that. Edney was marked with a strong sense of justice (or injustice), and an equally strong identification with ordinary human beings, which led him to undertake Khadr’s defense.

There were many legal (and moral) entanglements with regard to Khadr’s case. The most obvious ones being Khadr’s age (at 15 he was a minor); he was a Canadian citizen, born in Toronto and entitled, his lawyers argued, to certain rights as a Canadian citizen under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and he confessed to a crime extracted under extreme torture. In the U.S. military commission which was established in 2005 to prosecute Khadr for “war crimes,” Edney was appointed Khadr’s legal representative. Through Edney’s efforts, Khadr was transferred from Guantanamo to the U.S. Khadr’s trial before the military tribunal took place over several years, during which time Edney and his legal colleagues tirelessly challenged the evidence presented against Khadr. Eventually, Khadr was sentenced to 8 years in prison, Khadr agreeing to plead guilty so that he could be transferred to a prison in Canada. In reviewing the case, the Supreme Court of Canada upheld Edney’s argument that Khadr’s rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated, and it ordered the Canadian government to have Khadr returned to Canada which the Conservative government then in power challenged. In a unanimous decision in 2010 the Supreme Court further ruled that the participation by Canadian officials in Khadr’s interrogation in 2003 under “oppressive circumstances” violated Khadr’s rights (the information which the Canadians received was turned over to the U.S. officials). Eventually, Khadr received an official apology from the Canadian government and financial restitution. He was freed on bail in 2015, and secured his complete freedom in 2019.

In 2015, Edney accepted CSULR’s invitation to speak at our symposium, which had as its theme, Civilian Internment in Canada. For those in attendance, many of them victims of internment themselves or related to people who had been interned, it must have been a curious experience to hear Edney speak about the importance of the rule of law, and relate it to their own experiences. For Edney, it was an opportunity to hear first-hand of the experiences of people who, without a trial and without legal representation, were plucked up and sent to camps -- some for the crime of being “foreign”, many for expressing an opinion contrary to the government in power. Perhaps he thought, some things never change.

Dennis Edney was many things, but above all he was intensely passionate about law, justice, and the rule of law. He was courageous: caring enough about the issue to take the case on without fee. He represented humans at their finest. The Khadr case and many others serve as a reminder of how fragile our rights are, how easily they can be taken away. To paraphrase English poet, John Donne, we should not only ask, for whom does the bell toll, but we should remind ourselves that it might be tolling for us. Donne continues, “any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.” To be involved in mankind means to care about every human being. This was Dennis Edney’s legacy to us.