TORIES WOULD BAN TRAVEL TO TERRORIST HAVENS
OTTAWA — With the shadow of the Mike Duffy trial looming larger than ever, Stephen Harper kicked off the second week of the federal election campaign with a headline-grabbing effort to crack down on homegrown terror threats.
Harper, keen to show off his bona fides as the experienced incumbent, promised to make it a crime for Canadians to travel to specific countries or regions where they could fight alongside groups officially identified by the federal government as terrorist organizations.
He said a re-elected Conservative government would establish “declared areas” — regions of the world where terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hold control and use their base to recruit and train followers.
Forgoing casual campaign garb for the more prime ministerial suit and tie, Harper made his announcement at a news conference in Ottawa, flanked by Canadian flags.
He said national security agencies would track Canadians who travel to those “declared areas” and those who return would be required to prove they were in the region for humanitarian reasons or as a journalist covering the conflict.
Similar laws exist in Australia, which has designated parts of Iraq and Syria as no-travel zones.
New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair dismissed Harper’s announcement as a campaign gimmick, suggesting it would have very little real effect on curbing terror.
“There’s very little evidence to show that this is going to have any concrete effect,” Mulcair said while campaigning in Vancouver.
“I don’t know of too many flights between Toronto and the war zones, most of them are going through other countries, so it won’t make a big difference practically speaking.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau called Harper’s announcement a diversion designed to take the attention of Canadians away from his government’s failed economic plan. But, he added, Harper would have to answer a lot more questions than he did Sunday about any policy that proposes to take rights away from people.
When asked about the ramifications of his proposed anti-terror measure, Harper struck a defiant tone.
“There is no right in this country to travel to an area under the governance of terrorists; that is not a human right,” he said to a barrage of partisan applause.
“That is something that we have to nip in the bud before trained terrorists return to this country.”