Commentary
The federal government’s immigration policy, including increasing the number of newcomers to 500,000 per year, has elicited much criticism of late. The effect so many newcomers have had on a tight housing and rental market has been noted repeatedly.
But one of the primary concerns about Canada’s refugee and citizenship system relates to national security and public safety. What has made the matter worse are a series of new revelations about alleged terrorist plots tied to the ISIS terrorist group being planned on Canadian soil.
The elder Eldidi obtained refugee, landed immigrant, and citizenship status despite having appeared in an ISIS propaganda snuff film in which he dismembers a prisoner (this occurred back in 2015). Despite “red flags” and “indicators,” he was nevertheless granted the aforementioned privileges.
- The pressure to allow so many more into Canada led some departments to advise those responsible for security screening to “skip” certain stages. How this was seen as acceptable is anyone’s guess;
- If CSIS, the main body that does security screening, did indeed miss something it is most likely tied to a huge caseload and limited resources (again linked to the artificial 500,000 number the Liberals have aimed for);
- Screeners simply do not have the time to trawl all databases to make an informed decision, including the so-called dark web. (It is worth noting that given ISIS’s penchant for propaganda videos—I saw them regularly when I worked on counterterrorism at CSIS—I reject the claim that this particular film would not have been more widely available to anyone who needed to know what ISIS was doing).
As far as the implications of the Eldidi case go, there are a few. The intelligence on the father-son team came from an allied service, likely the French. Our friends in the spy world are already asking serious questions about our commitment to national security: Can you imagine if the newly minted citizen Ahmed Eldidi crossed the border into the United States to execute his plans? We cannot and must not rely overly on the goodwill of our international partners.
Does someone have to die before we get more serious?
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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