Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham used a rare power to keep former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdurahman Khadr in Canada, according to a report by The Globe and Mail.

The newspaper reports that Graham asserted a power known as prerogative to keep the 21-year-old from getting a Canadian passport.

Khadr was denied a passport this spring, and is planning to appeal.

His lawyer, Clayton Ruby, said the decision to block Khadr from getting a passport is a breach of his Charter rights.

Prerogative is commonly used by the Governor-General for decisions such as dissolving Parliament. However, it is extremely rare for a Crown minister to use it in particular cases.

The Globe says partly censored legal documents show Canadian Passport Office officials met several times last winter with Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials to discuss how to keep Khadr and his family from getting Canadian passports. All are Canadian citizens.

Khadr and his immediate family have links to extremists.

His father, Ahmed Khadr, 57, was accused of being an al Qaeda financier with close ties to Osama bin Laden. He died in a gun battle with coalition forces near Afghanistan last October.

Khadr himself has admitted attending a training camp in Afghanistan. He spent some time at Guantanamo Bay, as did his younger brother, Karim.

Both now live in Toronto with their mother, Elsamnah, and sister Zaynab, who have been placed on a passport control list for repeatedly losing their passports and requesting replacements.

Khadr was detained by the United States, and returned to Toronto in December after a year-long stay at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He claimed U.S. authorities took all of his travel documents and dropped him off in Afghanistan to fend for himself.

Months later however, he said he lied and was actually working as an undercover agent for the CIA.