Midweek podcast: A 'totally unprecedented' G20

There's never been a G20 like this before.

Later this week Hamburg, Germany will host the leadersof the world's topleading economies for a two-day summit.

• Trudeau meets with Irish PM, to have audience with Queen ahead of G20 summit

But it's some of the side acts, including a face-to-face meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, renewed concern overNorth Korea, Turkey and Russa'sopposing views on Syria, and what'sshaping up to be aMerkel-Trump showdownover the Paris climate agreement, that could be the most interesting headlines.

Tom Bernes, a former Canadian representative at the IMF and now a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said the G20 was set up to promote multilateral economic cooperation, but Trump's protectionist approach could act as a hindrance.

"For the first time, we're looking at the possibility that in fact there's a rollback of agreements within the G20," said Bernes, who is already in Hamburg for the summit.

"This is totally unprecedented."

Bernes said the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. president puts the institution'seffectiveness atmanaging globalissues at risk.

"Nobody is expecting, unfortunately, big progress at this meeting. The biggest hope is that maybe we at leaststay where we are and there's no rollback of past progress, which is a pretty sad objective," he said.

"I don't think anybody is under any illusions that DonaldTrump is going to change his mind on the environment and on trade. What would be useful, though, is a sign of respect and a willingness to work to overcome differences of views. That would be a major step forward."

Omar Khad's settlement

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is already overseas for the G20 and has largely ducked one of the biggest domestic stories.

• ANALYSIS | Why will Omar Khadr receive $10.5M? Because the Supreme Court ruled his rights were violated

On Tuesday a government officialrevealed Ottawa will apologize and pay $10.5 million in compensation to OmarKhadr, the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner.

Khadr, who confessed to killing a U.S. army medic when he was 15, had been seeking $20 million in a wrongful imprisonment civil suit against Ottawa.He was repatriatedto Canada in 2012 toserve the remainder of his sentence and was released in May 2015 pending an appeal of his war crime convictions, in which he argued that his admissions of guilt were made under duress

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2010 that Canadian intelligence officials obtained evidence from Khadr under "oppressive circumstances," such as sleep deprivation, during interrogations at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 and thenshared that evidence with U.S. officials.

"There is a bit of redemption or vindication there for him, that now finally Canada is recognizing its responsibilities and accepting accountability," said Paul Champ, a human rights lawyer who helped fight for Khadr's cause at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2008.

"The Canadian Supreme Court has found in his favour three times, and I think that he no doubt still felt that he was being mistreated by the government of Canada because they weren't accepting those decisions, despite the fact he had been mistreated and abused."

Tuesday's news received swift reaction from some Conservative MPs.

Public safety critic Tony Clement rejected the argument that Khadr was a child soldier because he "admitted his guilt." Clement called it "completely inappropriate" that the government would strike a deal to compensate and apologize to Khadr, forcing the Speer family to relive the ordeal.

The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation has started an online petition slamming the settlement.

"I think people's opinion about the situation depends on whether you focus more on what Mr. Khadr did, or what happened to him afterwards. No matter what happened to him afterwards, there are a lot of Canadians that are shocked that an individual who killed an American soldier and was fighting against Canadian interests is now getting $10 million courtesy of Canadian taxpayers," said federal director Aaron Wudrick.

Wudrick said he doesn't dispute that Khadr was mistreated after he was incarcerated, but is concerned with the amount of the settlement.

"This is the equivalent of a lottery winning, and we can't forget that whatever Mr. Khadr has gone through he does now have his freedom, he does now have a second chance at life. We can't say the same for the victim."

Champ said the settlement isn't out of line with what other Canadians who have been wrongfully imprisoned receive.

"There's been so much heightened political rhetoric around his case for the last 10 years, people politically exploiting his situation to raise fears and concerns and so forth for their own narrow political gain, that we have this controversy when there really shouldn't be," he said.

"Continued attacks on this settlement really erodes our respect for the rule of law."