The Consequences of Penalties

"We have been clear: Canadian citizenship is a privilege that carries both rights and responsibilities."
"Dual nationals who commit the most serious crimes, those who seek to harm Canada and Canadians, will face serious consequences: we will move to revoke their Canadian citizenship."
"The [political opposition] NDP and Liberals opposed this, yet the overwhelming majority of Canadians agree with us that those who commit the most serious crimes of state forfeit their right to Canadian citizenship."
Kevin Menard, spokesman, Citizenship & Immigration Minister Chris Alexander

Jordana Globerman/Postmedia News     Hiva Alizadeh was sentenced in 2014 to 24 years in prison for possessing explosives with the intent to endanger life for the benefit of a terrorist group. The Canadian government now wants to revoke his citizenship.

The process of revoking the citizenship of an Iranian-Canadian held in an Edmonton penitentiary, sentenced for terrorism, has been initiated. Hiva Alizadeh, the first Canadian targeted by a new law that permits the federal government to strip citizenship from Canadians convicted of terrorist offences has been informed that as a citizen of both Canada and Iran he will be deported to his country of birth. He has 60 days to respond to the notice received from the government.

Hiva Alizadeh swore his oath of citizenship in 2007. Citizenship acquired, he then left Canada only to return two years later. His absence for that two-year period was explained by him as having represented a prolonged visit with family in Iran. Canadian winters in their harshness depressed him, and this was presented as one of the reasons he left the country for two years.

Doubtless authorities would have been none the wiser had a member of Ottawa's Muslim community not informed them that Mr. Alizadeh had informed him he was not in Iran for that period of time, but rather in Afghanistan to take training in Islamist jihad, as a man who had pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda Islamist group.

Tammy Hoy/CP   Hiva Alizadeh said in court, “People over there want us to hit from within.”

Later, during his trial on charges of terrorism, Alizadeh admitted that he had been instructed to return to Canada for the purpose of finding recruits with whom terrorist attacks against Canada and the West could be accomplished. "People over there want us to hit from within", he stated. An RCMP investigation labelled Project Samosa revealed the inner story, and Alizadeh was arrested with his co-accused, Misbahuddin Ahmed and Khurran Sher, along with Awso Peshdary who was arrested but not charged.

They were held to be part of a terrorist conspiracy, plotting violent acts against Canada and Canadians. The RCMP had seized detonators that had been custom-designed and -built by an expert at bomb-making at a terrorist training camp. Instructions on how to manufacture remote control bombs were also found. In September of 2014 Aliezadeh had pleaded guilty to the possession of explosives with the intention of endangering life to benefit a terrorist group.

"You are now a convicted terrorist. You have betrayed the trust of your government and your fellow citizens. You have effectively been convicted of treason", pronounced the presiding judge, and sentenced him to an additional 18 years' imprisonment. And then Bill C-24 was passed and came into law on May 29. The Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act applies to terrorists and also to those convicted of treason and espionage.