QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Revocation of Citizenship
October 8, 2024
Minister, I give you credit: It took you longer than most of your colleagues to blame Prime Minister Harper for your failures; it took you 45 minutes.
On July 31, the RCMP announced the arrest of a father and son who were planning to carry out a terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, in the Toronto area. The father had been granted Canadian citizenship in May of this year, and not by Stephen Harper. Two weeks after those arrests, you told reporters:
. . . I’m also going to take the next step, which is to start the preliminary work with the evidence at hand to look at whether the individual in question’s citizenship should be revoked . . . .
Minister, what is the status of the work under way to revoke this individual’s citizenship? Will his citizenship be revoked, yes or no?
Thank you, senator, and thank you for highlighting my patience. I would also highlight that Mr. Harper gave citizenship to an imam named Adil Charkaoui. That is something that happened; you can check the record.
The reality of this, senator — and you’ll appreciate this — is that there is an ongoing investigation and prosecution. The chronology and the timeline that you’re citing from is one that I gave to committee. That is all that I am currently at liberty to discuss. I think we have to be very careful in not compromising or even attempting to compromise the ability of the prosecution to effectively prosecute the case in question.
And I agree with you: Canadians are entitled to answers. If we do find facts that enable us to act upon section 10 of the Citizenship Act, we will certainly do so.
That’s all I asked for, yes or no. Your government acknowledges this individual is a member of ISIS. You acknowledge that. He carried out gruesome attacks in a 2015 ISIS propaganda video. He should never have been allowed to set foot in our country, let alone be granted Canadian citizenship.
Minister, how did it happen that this individual was allowed into our country and granted Canadian citizenship?
We are currently looking at a number of those elements. I have undertaken to the committee in question that we would produce a report as to what might have happened within the department, including the Canada Border Services Agency. That report, to the extent the information can be disclosed publicly, will be given to committee. We will be happy to take questions on that.
I would also caution members here in the Senate, to the extent they are talking about alleged facts that have not been prosecuted at this time, that I think the last thing they may want to do — precisely for the security of Canadians — is to not assume that the allegations are true or false but to let the prosecution do its work for the safety of Canadians.
