Syria- bound youths back in Canada, report says
MONTREAL Eight months have passed since a group of Quebec youths packed their bags and boarded planes to the Middle East, allegedly to join ISIL or other terrorist groups, disappearing to an uncertain fate. Now, however, two of the youths have quietly returned to Quebec, under the watchful eye of the RCMP, the Montreal Gazette has learned.
In documents obtained through access to information legislation by Postmedia, the RCMP revealed that in fact two of the eight wouldbe foreign fighters were already in its sights before they left, and that two of them have come back.
“The RCMP is aware that a total of eight individuals from the Montreal area left Canada in January 2015 with the intention of travelling to participate in terrorist activities,” the document reads. “Only two of these individuals were known to the RCMP prior to their departure. We know that two of the eight individuals have since returned to Canada with the remaining six believed to be in Syria.”
The information is contained in briefing notes that RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson had in his possession March 6, as he addressed the House Public Safety Committee in Ottawa.
That was the day Paulson presented for the first time the cellphone video shot by Michael Zehaf- Bibeau moments before he stormed Parliament in October, with 18 seconds edited from the beginning and end.
Asked this week for additional information about the two youths — how they made their way back to Canada, and whether they are under investigation or the subject of criminal charges — neither the Quebec RCMP nor the national headquarters would provide details.
The return of the two youths was news to Herman Okomba-Deparice, the director of Montreal’s new centre for the prevention of radicalization leading to violence, and the man charged with helping re- integrate any returnees into society.
“I have no knowledge of this,” Okomba- Deparice said. “But I think I should be involved. The problem ... is that we have to ensure that people who return are not a threat to national security and don’t become agents of radicalization. That’s one of our roles.”
Indeed, the revelation raises long- simmering concerns over what to do with radicalized youths, if and when they return to Canada.
In Quebec, four people are detained or under a peace bond because they are suspected of terrorist activities. Another 10 youths attempted to leave the country in May but were intercepted at Trudeau airport and had their passports confiscated. They are believed to be in the care of their parents.
Then there were the six men and two women who left in January. One of the men — Imad Rafai — updated his Twitter account in May, placing his location under the ISIL flag in Raqqa, Syria, while one of the youths has reportedly died, though the RCMP has not confirmed his death.
The two unidentified Quebecers are the only known returnees from Syria still alive and in Canada.
Lorne Dawson, a professor of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo, speculates that given the short time frame between leaving and returning to Canada, the two Quebecers may not have made it to ISIL at all — getting cold feet or being turned away at the border.
“Unless you have a connection with someone or sustained communication with an ( ISIL) recruiter, they won’t help you across the border. If you just show up on your own you’ll likely get killed or at best, just sent back.”
To deal with the potential consequences of high- risk travellers ( HRTs), since 2014 the federal government has established an “HRT Case Management Committee” which keeps track of Canadians who have joined terrorist groups abroad or who need to be kept off outbound planes.