OTTAWA -- Canada is working to prevent homegrown terrorism by revoking known extremists’ passports and citizenship, and developing “exit control” tools, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Sunday.
In an interview on CTV’s Question Period, the minister said violent jihadists are not welcome as Canadian citizens and the government is working on further measures to deter would-be terrorists.
“We are removing the passports of those individuals, and if these are dual citizenships, we will remove their citizenship,” Blaney said. “I don’t want to live in a country with someone who disagrees with me and wants to cut my head.”
Blaney also said the government is not ruling out “exit controls” such as recording data on people who leave the country.
Under the Beyond the Border Initiative, Canada and the United States have exchanged information since 2012 on third-party nationals and permanent residents crossing the Canada-U.S. border. However, the initiative does not extend to recording information on Canadian and American citizens.
On Sunday, Blaney hinted that those limits may soon change. “We are actually working on tools,” he said. “It is important to make sure that we keep track of [people leaving the country], just to know when they leave, where they are going.”
Blaney also said the government is looking to work with other countries, including Turkey, to limit the movement of people traveling to Islamic State territory.
The family of Mohamuh Mohamed Mohamud, a Hamilton, Ont. man who reportedly died fighting for ISIS, said he entered Syria through Turkey.
“If they leave the country, they don’t go directly to Syria,” Blaney said. “So we need to work with all the other countries to keep track of them, to be able to know where they are and, eventually, to intercept them.”
Canadian mission in Iraq
Canada currently has 69 Canadian special ops forces in Iraq, providing training to Kurdish forces fighting ISIS. However, the mission is set to end Oct. 5, at which time the government must decide whether it will extend and possibly expand Canada’s military presence.
Liberal foreign affairs critic Marc Garneau said his party is concerned about how the mission may evolve after the Oct. 5 deadline.
“It’s a brand new ballgame because we don’t know what the role will be. We’ve clearly been given indication from the Prime Minister that it will be expanded,” Garneau said Sunday.
On Friday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper reaffirmed his support for American airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. “There is no reluctance here,” Harper said. “We do not stand on the sidelines and watch. We do our part.”
If the Canadian government proposes its own airstrikes, the Conservatives say they will allow a vote in the House of Commons on the possible elevation to a “combat mission.”
Both Garneau and NDP defence critic Jack Harris said their parties do not support Canadian airstrikes.
But retired major-general David Fraser, who once led the mission Afghanistan, said firm action is needed against ISIS. He describes the organization as more dangerous than the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
“We’re fighting a philosophy. You can’t just go out and destroy an individual and finish this off. You’ve got to go and get at the root of where it achieves its financial ability to prosecute it ideas,” Fraser said.
“They are just the most brutal threat that we’ve ever seen,” he said.
Based on interviews by CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife
