With Omar Khadr back in the country, a debate has been sparked over his parole and his reintegration into society and some lawyers are concerned about recent comments made by the public safety minister.

The convicted war criminal was repatriated to Canada on Saturday, after spending almost a decade at a U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay. He was taken to the Millhaven Institution in Kingston to carry out the rest of his sentence, but he will be eligible for parole next year.

Public Safety minister Vic Toews put out a statement about Khadr's return to Canada, including his own concerns about the criminal and the case.

Toews said it is up to the parole board to decide on Omar Khadr's parole, but at the same time he listed concerns he has about the convicted criminal.

Some Canadian lawyers are saying that a politician should not be making those kinds of comments when a case is still to be presented to the parole board.

"It appeared to me the comments were directed as to what the minister thought the parole board should do in a case that the parole board has not yet heard," says the president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, Norm Boxall.

"As I read [the statement], I was left with the impression that he was of the view that the parole board would not grant parole," Boxall says.