Immigration Minister Marc Miller has professed to be “as disgusted as any Canadian” by the fact that Ahmed Eldidi, recently arrested for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on an undisclosed target in the Toronto area, was able to gain citizenship in this country.
Eldidi and his son, Mostafa, were arrested north of Toronto recently and charged with a total of nine terror-related charges. One of the charges the older Eldidi faces relates to an incident alleged to have taken place outside Canada. It concerns a video allegedly showing him dismembering the body of a person who has been tied up.
The House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security voted this week to further probe how Eldidi was allowed into this country and how he was able to secure Canadian citizenship.
“The government has a lot of explaining to do,” said Conservative MP Frank Caputo.
No kidding.
The RCMP has said the pair were allegedly in the “advanced stages” of planning the attack. Global News reported police here were tipped about their plans by security forces from a country that’s an ally of Canada.
Officials in the Ministry of Immigration and Citizenship have refused to share details of when and how Eldidi received his citizenship, citing privacy concerns.
Neighbours at the east-end Toronto home where the pair lived have told reporters they came here within the last three years.
This is part of a pattern by the Liberal government. In 2022, it announced a plan to bring in half a million newcomers a year by 2025. That’s more than twice the number who arrived in 2014-15. The year before Justin Trudeau became prime minister, this country took in 240,775 newcomers.
It would seem the vetting of the Eldidis didn’t just fall between the cracks. It disappeared into a black hole of oblivion, only to surface recently when an allied country kindly informed us of their alleged background.
All the posturing by Miller is so much sound and fury. It signifies nothing. The Eldidis will no doubt be caught in a lengthy legal squabble, for which Canadians will fund.
Whoever vetted the elder Eldidi’s citizenship application should be fired, but won’t. Canadian citizenship is devalued by his very presence in this country.