Just Desserts

"[The law] sends a very clear message already to those who have grown up here or immigrated here who think it's just natural that they should be able to go as Canadian citizens with their Canadian passport off to a theatre of war like Syria and join a barbaric group like Daesh [Islamic State]."
"No one, however misguided, can be in any doubt now about whether that kind of move should be taken lightly. It shouldn't be. It's a serious crime."
"Where there is a conviction and it's a dual national, you will lose your citizenship."
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Chris Alexander, Canada

There have been instances in the near past when Canadian Muslims have left the country with no intention of returning, scorning their Canadian citizenship, using social media to publicly boast that the life they left behind in Canada is not one that held any value to them, that the call to jihad, to move to those areas of the world in violent turmoil, hold far more attraction to them than the freedoms they spurned in favour of living out the psychopathic dreams of unfettered violence for which they are rewarded as mujahedeen battling in the name of Allah, reserving their deserved place in Paradise.

Farah Mohamed Shirdon appears in a passport burning video released on YouTube. In English, Shirdon issues threats against the West before burning his passport and stomping on it. (YouTube)

For them, the penalty of losing citizenship is a laughing matter, no sacrifice whatever. For others it may represent a lost opportunity to return to Canada to be enabled to carry out instructions given them by their superiors in jihad, to wreak mayhem and vengeance in their home countries, as a symbol of Islamism's universal reach and punishment meted out to those who spurn Islam, deserving death to relieve them of a life the jihadists sneer is not worth living, in any event.

Bill C-24 is expected to pass into law within the next several weeks. It represents legislation that has received royal assent, and that would permit the government to revoke the citizenship of any Canadians convicted of terrorism, if they are dual citizens. The power to revoke landed immigrant status from any engaged in terrorism is already ensconced in the law. The purpose of the new law is to extend the current one, enabling authorities to annul citizenship.

To qualify for this distinction in abandonment, one must be a dual citizen of Canada and another country, must have been convicted of a serious terrorism offence as defined in Canada's Criminal Code, and must be sentenced to at least imprisonment of five years' duration, whether the convictions take place within Canada or outside the country. Those convicted of treason, espionage and of being members of "an organized armed group in an armed conflict with Canada" qualify.

By reasonable inference and extension these provisions will embrace those who choose to go abroad to join the Islamic State group, committing their gruesome atrocities in Iraq and Syria. The legislation  would apply to offences "before or after the coming into force" of the law. The decision to revoke citizenship translates to a deportation order which can be appealed only if a judge decides a "serious question of general importance", exists.

This is legislation specific to the current, Conservative-led government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. It is legislation opposed by both the New Democratic Party and the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberal immigration critic stated: "We think a Canadian is a Canadian, and we should not have two classes of Canadians, some of whom could be deported and have their citizenship taken away." On the other hand, there are likely many Canadians who think differently, and wonder whether this legislation could apply as well to the infamous Khadr family.

As an example of a Muslim Canadian whom the Liberal Immigration critic might defend, one might wish to look at Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh who became a Canadian citizen in 2007 and who travelled to Afghanistan that same year to swear allegiance to Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and where he studied bombmaking, returning to Canada to recruit: "People over there want us to hit from within", he had stated.

Last month he pleaded guilty to possessing explosives meant to endanger life in Canada to benefit his pledge to the terrorist group. For his troubles he was sentenced to 24 years in prison. He would most certainly qualify for revocation of citizenship and be without status in Canada as a result; in effect he engineered that position for himself. It's doubtful that his regrets go beyond being caught.

According to court records, a CSIS notation that resulted from the intelligence agency questioning Mr. Alizadeh about his contacts with a "person of interest" to them, this statement resulted: "Mr. Alizadeh stated that he believed that it is OK to have martyrdom or beheading videos on a website, and it is up to the viewer to decide if they believe them or not." 

The international community most certainly has been given valid reason to believe the videos of beheadings latterly seen on social media express the grotesque, inhumanely murderous values of the Islamic State jihadis.