Alleged attacker appears in court
On Tuesday, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif made his first appearance in an Edmonton court for an alleged weekend rampage that’s being treated as an act of terrorism.
Sharif is accused of ramming a police officer with a car, stabbing the officer multiple times, and then trying to run down pedestrians in a U-Haul van, hitting four people. Miraculously, nobody was killed.
Though Sharif does not currently face formal terrorism charges, he is facing five counts of attempted murder and other charges related to dangerous driving and possessing a weapon.
Here are a few of the issues regarding this case.
What options did police have in 2015 besides arresting Sharif ?
Canadian authorities have increasingly used peace bonds to restrain people who are thought to be terrorist sympathizers, but who haven’t done enough to justify an arrest. In these cases, a judge can issue a court order that imposes such conditions as restrictions on movement or a ban on using computers.
In July 2015, legislation passed by Stephen Harper’s government lowered the threshold required for law enforcement to get a peace bond. Instead of needing reasonable grounds for believing someone “will” commit a terrorism offence, they instead needed reasonable grounds only that they “may” commit an offence.
If Sharif held extremist views, how was he able to obtain refugee status?
Sharif is of Somali descent and arrived at a regulated Canadian border crossing from the United States in 2012 and claimed asylum, according to Goodale.
Later that year, the Immigration and Refugee Board granted him convention refugee status in Canada, which someone gets if they’re unable to return to their home country because of a “well-founded fear of persecution.”
Can Sharif be removed from the country as a security threat?
Canada has a process to deport a convention refugee deemed a security threat, but it requires a “danger opinion” signed off on by a senior immigration official.
Goodale has said no decision on this will be made until the courts have dealt with the Criminal Code charges brought against Sharif — a process that could take years.