Revamp making it easier to pull passports
New policy seeks to block ‘extremist travellers’ from joining terror groups
As it struggles to stop Canadians from joining terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, the government is introducing measures allowing officials to more quickly revoke passports from suspected extremists, the National Post has learned.
A senior government source said the policy expediting passport revocations on national security grounds would be announced Thursday by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney and Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander.
The change comes two weeks after Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Michel Coulombe told the Senate national security committee the number of Canadians who had left for Syria and Iraq had jumped 50 per cent in the past few months.
To prevent them from leaving, police have been alerting officials to cancel the passports of “extremist travellers,” but the government source said the current procedure was too time-consuming and that authorities needed to be able to act more speedily.
“With the growing number of radicalized Canadians travelling abroad to fight with ISIL, this government will take action to ensure our national security agencies can swiftly and urgently revoke the passport of any threat to Canadians and our allies,” the source said.
The policy is the latest of a number of changes being brought in by the Conservatives amid alarms from counter-terrorism agencies. Bill C-51, which expands police and intelligence powers, passed third reading in the House on Wednesday.
Before the vote, Blaney tabled the CSIS annual report, which warned that the call of violent jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant was “resonating with some individuals in Canada,” causing significant security troubles.
The CSIS report mentioned the “threat posed here by frustrated extremists who have been unable to join the fight abroad.” But despite the dangers of grounding would-be foreign fighters, the report said allowing them to leave was not a solution.
Once abroad, they may become even more radical and acquire status allowing them to recruit others, it said. They could use their foreign contacts to set up networks in Canada or attempt to stage attacks at home.
“Even if a Canadian extremist does not immediately return, he or she is still a Canadian problem,” Coulombe wrote. “Just as Canada expects other nations to prevent their citizens from harming Canadians and Canadian interests, we too are obliged to deny Canadian extremists the ability to kill and terrorize people of other countries.”