Leading Canada Toward Security From Fanatic Jihadis

"They may return to Canada or other countries imbued with knowledge, skills and experience gained in terrorist operations and training camps."
"Not all extremist travelers who return to Canada represent a terrorist threat. However, some have the credibility to encourage and recruit aspiring violent extremists in Canada and it is possible that some returnees could plan and carry out terrorist attacks in Canada."
2014 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada

"Passport Canada will actively invalidate the passports of foreign fighters as they are made known to Canadian authorities."
Jason Tamming, press secretary, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney

"[Canadians have a] serious blind spot [in recognizing violent extremism imperils national security]."
"Almost any attempt to fight terrorism by the government is portrayed as an overreaction or an assault on liberty. It is a peculiar position, given that terrorism is the ultimate attack on liberties."
Richard Fadden, head, CSIS [Canadian Security and Intelligence Services], 2009

Twitter   Ahmad Waseem, a jihadist whose brief return to Canada was cause for concern.

Mr. Fadden is no longer head of CSIS. When he spoke back then he spoke of his awareness of the national security status imperilled by violent extremism in an atmosphere where the public, civil liberties groups, academics and those involved in some areas of national security tended to make little of terrorists and those involved in jihad, preferring to refer to government efforts to fight extremism as endangering liberty by their actions.

A year later he gave public warning that federal and provincial politicians were being lobbied by foreign agents attempting to influence Canadian politics. With CSIS, he was involved in the intelligence pact that Canada was engaged in called the Five Eyes grouping, including the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.More latterly he has been in a vital post with the Department of National Defence as deputy minister.

He leaves that post for an appointment in the Prime Minister's Office when from January 19 he becomes the national security adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Joining him will be David McGovern who has been a senior adviser to the Privy Council Office for the Border Action Plan Implementation and Regulatory Co-operation Council, to become deputy national security adviser. These appointments directly related to the rising threat of global terrorism and its impact on Canada.

"Pulling Fadden out of DND after only a year and a half and putting him in as (National security adviser) signals that the PM feels he needs strong, experienced advice from an adviser trusted by the Canadian security and intelligence community leadership and known to Canada's allies at a time of heightened threats."
"He digested lots of threat-reporting and allied discussions during his time as CSIS director. So he is attuned to the issues."
Wesley Wark, security and intelligence scholar, University of Ottawa

There are dozens of jihadist veterans scattered across the country who harbour the potential to advance their terrorist agenda within Canada, presenting the nation with atrocities such as those which have left their bloody footprint in Paris this past week. "The government is aware of about 80 individuals who have returned to Canada after travel abroad for a variety of suspected terrorism-related purposes", a report released by Public Safety Canada stated in August.

The "paramilitary exercises" they engaged in abroad, their presence at extremist schools and camps, their commitment in raising funds for terrorist groups, all mark them as potential dangers to Canada. Those who have returned to Canada may or may not engage in jihad here, repeating what they focused on abroad. "People over there want us to hit from within", Hiva Alizadeh of Winnipeg who swore allegiance to al-Qaeda when he trained in Afghanistan informed an associate on his return to Canada.

Tammy Hoy/CP   Hiva Alizadeh: “People over there want us to hit from within”

He began the work of putting together a network of recruits and exploring firearms and explosives with which to arm them. The RCMP was alerted to the conspiracy and stopped it in 2010 by arresting the man who is now serving a 24-year sentence for his efforts on behalf of al-Qaeda. The two deadly attacks in Canada in October have raised the internal awareness of danger by self-radicalized 'lone wolves', but like the attackers of Charlie Hebdo and the Paris Kosher supermarket where the jihadists were trained in Yemen and Syria, Canada has similar jihadis with similar links.

Video: Attacks a part of terrorist recruiting campaign, says prof

In his October 2014 testimony before the Public Safety and National Security Committee, current CSIS director Michel Coulombe stated that though not all 80 extremists who returned to Canada were hardened fighters but "all of them could potentially be a threat, definitely"; hardly reassuring words. There is an estimated 30 jihadis from Canada in Syria and Iraq, in total some 130 Canadian jihadis are thought to be engaged in terrorist activities outside Canada.

The RCMP is involved in a High Risk Travel Case Management Group to track extremists abroad and on their return to Canada. Government action  has made it more difficult for extremists to leave Canada by seizing their passports. After which those who are under surveillance are carefully monitored, but there are no guarantees that security agents are capable of anticipating every possible threat that turns into an incident in real time; the October events told us as much.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States of September 2001 Canada enacted special laws for apprehension of suspected jihadis that became a cause celebre of the liberal-left in Canada, in some instances making it difficult for government and security to proceed with their plans to safeguard the country.

While there is a universal wish not to make grave errors in accusing the wrong people of terrorist activities, perhaps it should also be taken under urgent consideration that erroneously charging an innocent man may in the end, be a risk that all governments will have to commit to however reluctantly, to ensure that mass slaughters such as the two that took place in Paris last week don't become commonplace.