Unfit For Citizenship in Canada

"For those individuals who have had their citizenship revoked, the way forward is more  complex. It is difficult to see how they could be restored to citizenship through a simple administrative retraction."
"The effect of which [annulling all actions taken under C-24] would be to restore those persons who have already lost their citizenship to the position they were in prior to [the legalization of] Bill C-24.
Craig Forcese, University of Ottawa law professor

"Those who choose to pursue deadly terrorist activities from or in Canada will pay a very heavy price."
Sentencing Judge

"While incarcerated, he has met with imams for religious counselling ... to discuss Islam and de-radicalization. He has also been involved in efforts to combat the radicalization of others."
Lawyers for Saad Khalid, plotter with Toronto 18, 2006

Stewart Bell / National Post   Toronto 18 members Saad Goya and Saad Khalid at their 2006 arrest in Newmarket, Ontario. Khalid, 29, is the latest to challenge a controversial law that allows federal authorities to strip convicted terrorists of their Canadian citizenship, provided they are also citizens of another country.

The Conservative government, recently defeated in a general election, brought in a controversial bill to remove citizenship from individuals holding dual citizenship, if they are found guilty of terrorism or of fighting with terrorist groups abroad. Canadian citizenship would be revoked, and such individuals would then have only their second citizenship remaining valid.

A number of individuals, charged, convicted and imprisoned for their roles in terrorist plots have now had their Canadian citizenship revoked. And some among them, including the Toronto 18 leader Zakaria Amar, have challenged the constitutionality of depriving them of Canadian citizenship. This is typical of Muslims who believe in and act upon violent jihad; they will exhaust all of the legal guarantees of the countries they betray to benefit themselves and shield them from the consequences of their actions.

The incoming prime minister, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, campaigning on a promise to repeal the now-5-month-old law, is expected to do just that. How it is of benefit to Canada to permit immigrants who achieve landed status to become Canadian citizens and hold on to that citizenship while they serve long sentences in federal prisons for terrorism, is beyond any logical explanation.

In the case of Saad Khalid, now 29, who was born in Saudi Arabia to parents from Pakistan, he was studying at the University of Toronto when he involved himself in the plot to detonate deadly truck bombs at locations in Toronto, playing a "pivotal" role in the plot. A psychiatric assessment stated that his "sense of religiously condoned behaviour superseded his perceived need to abide by secular laws", which is precisely the point.

An appeals court raised his sentence to twenty years in fitting recognition of the gravity of his intended crime. Neither he nor his colleagues in terror deserve the shield of the constitution to allow them to continue carrying Canadian passports. Canadian response to the situation is 50 percent in favour of revoking citizenship of those committing to foreign armed groups.