”I think it’s been a while but I’m happy it’s here,” said Omar Khadr outside an Edmonton courthouse after a judge ruled the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner has completed his sentence.

(Terry Reith/CBC)

His eight-year sentence would have expired last year had Khadr remained in custody.

But the clock stopped in 2015 when a judge freed Khadr on bail pending his appeal of his military conviction in the U.S.

Chief Justice Mary Moreau says the Youth Criminal Justice Act gives judges flexibility to consider bail conditions as part of a sentence.

The Supreme Court of Canada had already said Khadr’s punishment for alleged acts committed in Afghanistan when he was 15, was to be a youth sentence.