Syria-bound, now returned
RCMP confirms that would-be terrorist youths are back in Quebec
Eight months have passed since a group of Quebec youths packed their bags and boarded planes to the Middle East, allegedly to join ISIS or other terrorist groups, disappearing to an uncertain fate.
Now, however, the Montreal Gazette has learned that two of the youths have quietly returned to Quebec, under the watchful eye of the RCMP.
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,” reads the document. “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 for additional information about the two youths this week — 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 any details.
The Combatting Terrorism Act, passed in 2013, made it a crime to leave the country or attempt to leave the country to engage in terrorist activities — crimes that come with penalties of 10 to 14 years in prison, but that are often difficult to prove.
“The RCMP does not confirm if certain individuals are the subject of an investigation unless criminal charges are laid,” said RCMP spokesperson Annie Delisle.
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 — and I’ve been saying this for a while — 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 do return to Canada.
In Quebec, four people are currently 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 — most 18 or 19 years old — who left in January. One of the men — Imad Rafai — updated his Twitter account in May, placing his location under the ISIS flag in Raqqa, Syria, while one of the youths has reportedly died, though the RCMP has not confirmed his death.
The two who returned to Quebec would be the first known returnees from the Islamic State to the province, with all that implies for their psychological well-being, depending on what they saw and experienced there.
Lorne Dawson, a professor of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo, estimates that six people meanwhile have returned to Ontario from Syria — however briefly.
Four Bangladeshi boys had flown to Lebanon, en route to Syria, but were intercepted by their fathers and returned home. According to Dawson, they then attended Ryerson University for a year before leaving for Syria again. At least two of them are now dead, Dawson said.
Then there was Ahmad Waseem who returned to Canada after being injured in Syria. He spent a few months in Windsor, Ont., under constant surveillance and questioning by the RCMP and CSIS, Dawson said. His mother took away his passport, but he obtained a fraudulent passport and returned to Syria. Reports, complete with gruesome photographs, suggested he had been killed in Syria, but the RCMP in June issued an Interpol alert for him nevertheless. A friend of Waseem’s from Windsor, meanwhile, is believed to be in Turkey.
The two unidentified Quebecers are therefore the only known returnees from Syria still alive and in Canada.
“We can name six who have returned to Ontario,” said Dawson, who has secret clearance with the RCMP and CSIS to conduct research on radicalization leading to violence. “But we weren’t aware of any returnees outside of Ontario.”
Dawson speculated that given the short time frame between leaving and returning to Canada, the two Quebecers may not have made it to the Islamic State at all — having gotten cold feet or been turned away at the border.
“Unless you have a connection with someone or sustained communication with an ISIS 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.”
It is also possible that they have become useful informants for the RCMP, Dawson suggested, or that they are considered dangerous, so the RCMP is reluctant to publicize their return or enlist anyone’s help in re-integrating them into their communities. That is a mistake, Dawson said. The federal government and policing authorities pay a lot of lip service to the importance of softer, preventive approaches to countering terrorism, he said, but seem to be following a hard line with anyone who is already radicalized.
“As far as I know they are doing nothing other than law enforcement measures with returnees and there are no plans in place to do anything else.”
To deal with the potential consequences of high-risk travellers (HRTs), since 2014 the federal government has established an “HRT Case Management Committee” which meets every few weeks to keep track of Canadians who have joined terrorist groups abroad or who need to be kept off of outbound planes.
Then in May, it introduced the Prevention of Terrorist Travel Act, which allows the government to cancel, refuse or revoke the passports of HRTs. At the time, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney raised the prospect of battle-hardened youths one day returning to Canada.
“Our government has seen the troubling evidence of Canadians travelling overseas to participate in terrorist activities, particularly with the so-called Islamic State,” Blaney said. “We cannot ignore the danger posed by high-risk travellers looking to travel to places like Syria, only to potentially return back to Canada with training and experience necessary to threaten the safety of Canadians by engaging in jihadi terrorism here at home.”
The federal government has yet to figure out what to do with HRTs who return home, other than try to put them in jail, Dawson said.
Surveillance and prosecution, where possible, may be feasible with only two returnees, but if and when the number increases, Canada would be wise to think beyond prosecution in dealing with radicalized youth, as other nations have done, he said.
Denmark, the United Kingdom and cities like Boston and Minneapolis provide good examples of how to re-integrate radicalized youths, Dawson said, providing jobs, housing, counselling and/or vocational training for returnees. The Montreal deradicalization centre holds the most promise for these efforts in Canada, he continued — as long as they are put to the task.
“Without a plan we know some (returnees) will re-integrate on their own, but often people who are coming back are disengaged but not deradicalized. They’ll come back with radical views after a tour of duty in Syria, demoralized but they may still be avid proponents of the ISIS world view and will continue to spread that view.”
Or they will come back with mental health issues — like posttraumatic stress disorder, Dawson continued.
Alternatively, individuals who are successfully re-integrated can provide powerful counter-narratives to the pull of ISIS and radical violence.
“We absolutely have to get involved in re-integrating these individuals in society, whether the police like it or not.”