Passports of Canadian jihadists should NOT be revoked

Last month, the government of Canada announced they were revoking the passports of several Canadians who were in Canada but were suspected of planning to leave the country to fight for the Islamic State. The authorities would not release the names of any of the 90 people who were being watched by the RCMP and CSIS.

There is some confusion between denying the issuance of or revoking the passport of a Canadian citizen and revoking Canadian citizenship. Recently, laws were introduced to allow the government to revoke Canadian citizenship on the grounds the citizen has committed terrorist acts or was a member of a recognized terrorist group that have made threats against Canada. Not all Canadian citizens can have their citizenship revoked; only those who have citizenship in another country are eligible to be stripped of their Canadian citizenship. It is against international law to deprive a person of citizenship if that revocation renders the person stateless. And the only plausible reason for taking away the citizenship of someone is to be able to remove them from Canada. Those who have no other citizenship cannot be deported because there is no place they can be legally deported to. This is not the same thing as depriving a Canadian citizen of the right to be issued or possess a passport. Canadians by birth as well as dual citizens can have this right taken away under various circumstances. Specifically, the passport of a Canadian citizen can be revoked if the person uses the passport to commit abroad what would be an indictable offence in Canada. The ability to take away the passport of someone who intends to travel to commit a non-terroristic crime makes some sense. For example, Canada should not allow known Canadian pedophiles to travel to Thailand for no purpose other than to engage in sexual acts with children. The theory goes these are Canadian citizens and should be dealt with in Canada rather than allowing them to travel for the purpose of committing serious crimes. But, contrary to the way the media often portrays it, acts of terror are not the same as serious but ordinary crimes. To the shock of the left who think Canada, with its diversity and multiculturalism, is too nice ever to have acts of terror committed on its soil, Canada was subjected to two unrelated terrorist attacks within the space of three days.

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On Monday morning, Martin Rouleau, a convert to Islam, sat in his car in the parking lot of a strip mall in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, just south of Montreal. The mall contained an office run by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Department of National Defense. After about two hours, he saw three soldiers walking through the parking lot. Rouleau aimed his car at them, striking two of the members of Canada’s military. Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53, was critically injured and later died. The second soldier, whose name was not released, was hospitalized with less serious injuries. Among the many 911 calls received after the soldiers were mowed down was one from Rouleau. He said he did it “in the name of Allah.” After a brief car chase, Rouleau lost control of his car while attempting to avoid a spike belt. His car flipped and he emerged from the overturned vehicle brandishing a large knife. When he made a move against the officers, he was shot and killed. Yesterday morning a man drove up to the war memorial located close to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Carrying a shotgun under a blanket, he approached one of the two soldiers guarding the memorial and shot him. Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a 25-year-old reservist from Hamilton, Ontario, was shot in the chest and later succumbed to his injuries in an Ottawa hospital. The terrorist then stormed the Centre Block and ran down the wide corridor close to the rooms where Conservative and NDP MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings. Kevin Vickers, the Sergeant-at-Arms, a position which has always been viewed ceremonial, retrieved his gun from a locked box, lay down on the floor and fired three shots at the terrorist who was pronounced dead at the scene. He was later identified as Michael Abdul Zehaf-Bibeau. The son of an Algerian father and French Canadian mother, Zehaf-Bibeau, like Rouleau, was a recent convert to the religion of peace. While the attack was taking place, there were reports that now appear erroneous that there was more than one terrorist. The result was much of downtown Ottawa was locked down. Security in legislatures and public buildings across the country was beefed up. Of the 90 people the authorities said they were watching, steps were undertaken to take away their Canadian passports. But the government refused to say how many of the 90 had been stripped of their documents in an attempt to prevent them from leaving the country. After these two terrorist attacks, it was confirmed both Rouleau and Zhehaf-Bibeau had their passports revoked. In Rouleau’s case, he was arrested during the summer while trying to leave Canada for Turkey where he would then make his way to Syria to fight for ISIS. His case was referred to a Crown prosecutor who determined there was insufficient evidence to lay charges. He was then released. Passports of these Muslim terrorists should not be confiscated. Let them leave the country and join the enemy. Sure there will be a good chance they will kill innocent people such as Christian and Yazedi babies and children but without our country having troops on the ground, the odds are astronomical they will take the lives of Canadians. Had Rouleau been allowed to fly to Turkey, WO Vincent would still be alive. Had Zhehaf-Bibeau been allowed to leave the country, Cpl. Cirillo might still be alive. Although we were lucky both the lives of Rouleau and Zhehaf-Bibeau were ended rather quickly, there would also have been a good chance they would have received their much wanted martyrdom in Syria without putting any Canadian lives in danger. The government is always saying its main function is to protect the lives of its citizens and its institutions such as our democratically elected parliament and our way of life. Now is the time to prove it; let these Islamic scum leave. Just don’t let them back in the country.