New ‘ tools’ coming for security agencies
Terror suspects would be easier to track
OTTAWA — The federal government is poised to make it easier to track and arrest potential terrorists.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday the government is planning to give police and national security agencies “additional tools” that would make it easier to monitor threats, as well as charge and prosecute people planning to carry out attacks on Canadian soil.
Harper was short on details on the proposal first referred to in his speech to the House of Commons last week when he urged Canada to join airstrikes against Islamic State extremists in Iraq. Government officials wouldn’t say Thursday when Canadians would have a look at those measures.
A U. S. news report this week said Canadian and U. S. intelligence officials were concerned about Islamic State- inspired “knife and gun” attack plans against Canadian and U. S. targets in Canada.
“Our national security agencies monitor these kinds of threats,” Harper said at an event in Whitby, Ont. “We’re going to bring in additional tools to make it easier for our security agencies to monitor these kinds of threats and to charge and prosecute people when appropriate. We are going to move forward on those matters.”
Harper wouldn’t comment on the specifics of the report, but said “these threats are very, very real.”
“We have an organization in the form of this Islamic State … that is not only now present over a vast range of territory in both Iraq and Syria, flying its flag, ( but is) openly promoting the concept of international jihad — that is international terrorism — against targets across the world, including targets in this country,” he said.
An NBC news report Wednesday said Canadian officials were considering increasing security around buildings given intelligence suggesting individuals, inspired by or connected to Islamic State, were planning attacks on Canadians.
The report quoted unnamed intelligence officials saying Canadian authorities were monitoring “hundreds of people” in Canada who have either gone to Syria to link up with terrorist groups and returned, or who have attempted to make the trip.
Opposition MPs wanted answers Thursday about the report, and why the information came from U. S. intelligence sources, rather than their Canadian counterparts who had testified before a Commons committee on Wednesday.
“Canadians can rely on their intelligence, on their law enforcement community … to keep them safe. This being said, we have to remain vigilant because there is a threat,” Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said in the Commons. “While we have airstrikes over there ( in Iraq), we are keeping Canadians safe here.”
Government and law enforcement officials wouldn’t say if security was being increased around federal buildings and symbolic sites, such as Parliament Hill. The RCMP said it regularly reviews security around Parliament Hill, but “for operational reasons, specific details about the security measures cannot be provided.”
The NBC report came on the heels of an appearance at a Commons committee by Blaney and two of the country’s top security officials — RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson and CSIS director Michel Coulombe — answering questions about Canadians joining terrorist groups at home and overseas. Paulson told MPs on the public safety committee the RCMP has 63 investigations into about 90 people who have gone abroad, intend to go, or returned from time with a terrorist group overseas.