The Laws of the Land

Revelations relating to the two men arrested after accusations of plotting an al-Qaeda-linked and -inspired plot to attack a VIA Rail train from Toronto to New York have interesting ramifications. That is, some current legislation enabling those accused of some criminal offences to seek official pardons has turned out to be an impediment to discovering background information that would aid intelligence when pardons are meted out to those for whom it is inappropriate.

Failed refugee claimant Raed Jaser, convicted of a handful of offenses after arriving in Canada with a fake passport (the fake passport alone would represent grounds for refugee claim rejection) was successful in achieving a pardon for his crimes. Which meant that the charges for which he was accused and convicted were no longer on record associated with his name. And no longer constituted a warning to the board that accepted him as a landed immigrant.

The internal review of the immigration files of Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier highlighted that failing on behalf of Mr. Jaser, spurring the government to charge officials to draft legislation that would effectively ban foreign nationals with no official standing in Canada, from seeking the use of the pardons system. Had that common-sense stipulation been in effect to begin with, Mr. Jaser would never have become a landed immigrant.

"It seems to me that if you're inadmissible as a foreign national, that should preclude you from applying for a pardon. And I've discussed this with Vic Toews [the Minister of Public Safety]. We intend to pursue legislative remedies to plug that loophole. If a foreign national is inadmissible, they basically don't have legal status in Canada and they shouldn't be able to apply for a pardon. I think that's the way to come at it. They shouldn't be able to benefit from an extraordinary privilege like the pardon system", explained Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.

Both men had been accepted as landed immigrants last year, even though the RCMP allege their plot for an attack on Canadian soil had been initiated a year ago. The review was interested in attempting to ascertain the timing involved. Whether the intelligence and police investigations and their possible lapse in communicating between themselves led to the scenario where, though under criminal suspicion, the pair managed to attain legal status within Canada regardless.

A situation that has been discounted with the finding that CSIS began its investigation and later the RCMP began its own, after the two had been given permanent resident status. The Immigration and Refugee Board had determined in 1994 that Mr. Jaser was not a genuine refugee. In 2004 an attempt was made to deport him; the United Arab Emirates where he was born, Jordan where he had lived and Germany which had given him temporary residence all refused to accept him.

Mr. Esseghaier achieved his permanent residence status through a Quebec skilled worker program, a route taken by many aspiring to take up legal residence in Canada through the academic fast track system. He arrived in 2008 on a student visa. And Mr. Esseghaier has demanded that any lawyer who represents him in his criminal trial on charges of terrorism must use the Koran to make his case.

Up to the present no legal aid lawyer has professed to being capable of presenting a case for his defence based on the Koran. "I want that the lawyer help me to change the reference of my case from the laws used by humans to the laws of the holy book. I cannot take a lawyer who is not able to fulfil my need", he explained in an interview.

Under the laws of the land -- and possibly any country would qualify in this regard -- anyone who plans to do violent injury to others will be held guilty if there is sufficient evidence and the case can be concluded on that evidence. Using the Koran, which Mr. Esseghaier and most ardent believers feel was written by the hand of god himself, the faithful are instructed to go in the name of Islam and commit jihad.

The god of Islam instructs to jihad as a pillar of faith; the laws of a democracy instruct that to commit an act of terror is a capital offence.