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Revoke the citizenships of those who dupe the vetting process
Ottawa must enforce its immigration and citizenship laws — or lose the trust of Canadians
Testifying in late August about a terror plot thwarted in July, Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc commended the intelligence and law enforcement services for their efforts. “This is the way that the investigative and national security system should work,” LeBlanc said. But in the hearings, he faced questions about the immigration vetting process and how two alleged terrorists, both born abroad, were able to get into Canada, and one receive full Canadian citizenship, given their alleged ISIS connections.
In July, the RCMP arrested Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son Mostafa Eldidi, 26, for allegedly being “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.” The hearings also heard allegations that the senior Eldidi, who obtained Canadian citizenship just before his arrest, may have appeared in a 2015 ISIS propaganda video dismembering a human body.
These developments threaten one of Canada’s main accomplishments — an immigration system widely accepted across the political spectrum and society. While more effective front-end screening is important, maintaining our national consensus on immigration will also require we can effectively deal with those who sometimes slip through the vetting process. That requires enforcing the laws that exist.
