TORONTO - The son of a Canadian al-Qaeda operative is taking the federal government to court for refusing to issue him a passport -- a decision he says has left him unable to visit relatives overseas or explore job offers in the United States.

Abdurahman Khadr, whose late father was a close ally of Osama bin Laden, wants a judge to overturn the Passport Office's decision, arguing in newly filed court documents that officials "failed to observe procedural fairness."

The 21-year-old, who has admitted to training at al-Qaeda terror camps, also scolds Ottawa for not telling him specifically why his application was refused.

"To be denied the right of every Canadian citizen to travel freely by a government that keeps its reasons secret is common only in dictatorships and unheard of in Canada," said Clayton Ruby, his Toronto lawyer.

Mr. Khadr, a Canadian citizen, returned to Ontario last November, two years after being arrested by Northern Alliance fighters in Afghanistan and transferred to the U.S. prison for "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

He says he was sent to Cuba to work as a mole for the Central Intelligence Agency. When he suddenly turned up in Sarajevo last fall, the Canadian Embassy there issued him an emergency passport and gave him $5,755 to travel back to Toronto.

He has since repaid the loan, but when he applied for a standard passport last month, his request was denied.

The Department of Foreign Affairs offered no explanation for its decision, but the National Post reported last month that Mr. Khadr's link to al-Qaeda played a prominent factor.

Section 9 of the Canadian Passport Order allows officials to deny a person's application if he is charged with an indictable offence either inside or outside the country, or if he owes Ottawa money for past consular services.

Attending bin Laden's camps is not specifically listed as a basis for rejection, but Bill Graham, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, can deny a request because of other extenuating circumstances.

Mr. Khadr wants to know what those circumstances were.

"Mr. Khadr is a Canadian citizen who provided a full and complete application to the Passport Office, does not stand charged with any offence either in Canada or any other nation, has never been convicted of any crime or served any term of imprisonment, and is not indebted to the Crown for his repatriation costs," reads his notice of application, filed in Federal Court on Thursday.

In a draft affidavit, which has not yet been filed, Mr. Khadr said he is anxious to visit his relatives in Egypt and his aunts and cousins in Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He also claims he has been contacted by numerous unnamed people in the United States "who wish to discuss job opportunities."

"I am the only Canadian I know who has been denied a passport and it makes me feel like a second-class citizen," Mr. Khadr wrote. "I do not know why the Canadian government is treating me this way."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign would not comment on the case because it is still before the court.

The Khadr family has long been a target of worldwide intelligence agencies. Abdurahman's father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a well-known al-Qaeda financier who was linked to the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad that killed 17 people.

He was killed last October in a gunfight with Pakistani authorities that left his 15-year-old son, Abdul Karim, with a severe spinal cord injury.

The Children's Aid Society is investigating whether Abdul Karim's parents are guilty of child abuse for counselling him to become involved in terrorism.

Abdullah Khadr, the eldest of Ahmed's four sons, has been on the run since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Omar Khadr, 17, has spent nearly two years in a cell at Guantanamo Bay, allegedly for killing a U.S. medic with a grenade. He has not been charged with any crime.

Since returning to Canada, Abdurahman Khadr has denounced al-Qaeda, saying he wishes to live as a "good, strong, civilized, peaceful Muslim."