Once again -- Khadr was not convicted of terrorism.

And the government is paying to compensate a citizen it jerked around for 13 years, allowing him to be interrogated without legal representation, most likely tortured, and tried as a minor for a trumped-up war crime. It never questioned how the U.S. military sought only a guilty verdict, with no side making any effort to seek legitimate evidence that Khadr actually threw the grenade that killed Speer.

Some conservatives are consoling themselves by declaring, "This never would have happened if Harper was still prime minister." (The same Harper who couldn't keep Khadr from returning to Canada -- sure.) Most likely, Harper -- even without a legal leg to stand on -- would have exhausted every available avenue fighting Khadr's lawsuit, before inevitably losing and being on the hook for something like $30-$40 million.