Friday’s announcement that Canadian resident Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had been arrested as he was crossing the border to commit a terrorist attack in New York revealed, once again, the severe and continual shortcomings of Canada’s immigration system. All day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, was nowhere to be seen.
Even his usual vague noises about how the glorification of violence is never acceptable were absent. There was no press announcement, no reassurance that policies or security would be strengthened to keep ISIS sympathizers out of our country. Instead, Trudeau appears to have spent the day tweeting about the paralympics.
The U.S. Department of Justice report alleges that the 20 year-old Khan, a Pakistani citizen who had been residing in Canada, was arrested, Wednesday, attempting to enter the United States with the intention of carrying out a mass shooting at a Jewish Center in New York on Oct. 7, the anniversary of Hamas’s brutal attack on Israelis. According to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Khan allegedly had the goal of “slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible.” The fact he was residing in Canada reveals potentially serious holes in our immigration system.
How and when Muhammad Shahzeb Khan entered Canada is still unclear. Through which immigration program had he gained admission? Was he here on a student visa? Minister of Immigration Refugees and Citizenship, Marc Miller has, so far, chosen not to respond to questions.
This latest foiled terror attack comes on the heels of another which was planned for August and disrupted in its advanced stages in late July. The two attempted attackers, Ahmed Eldidi, an ISIS member who appeared in one of their execution videos, and his son, Mostafa, each made their way through Canada’s immigration system, it would seem, without breaking a sweat.
The sheer speed of the father and son’s admissions into Canada and their naturalization should cause alarm. The father had a temporary resident visa approved in January 2018 and entered Canada the following month. Easy-peasy. He was granted refugee status one year later, in February of 2019, became a resident in 2021, and was granted citizenship in May of 2024. A month later, CSIS discovered he was a potential national security threat who should never have been let into the country in the first place. Is our Office of Immigration vetting people backwards?
Let’s face it — Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and their immigration system have made Canadians less safe.
As the U.S. Department of Justice complaint against Khan points out, as early as Sept. 21, 2014, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, a spokesman for ISIS at the time, sent out a recorded statement asking sympathizers to attack citizens of the countries that participated in the Global Coalition to defeat ISIS, of which Canada is a member.
In 2014, when this murderous proclamation went out, Canada was under the Conservative leadership of Stephen Harper. No doubt responding to this increasing threat and the very public and heart-wrenching honour killings of members of the Shafia Family, the Conservative party started tightening the immigration process.
At the time, the changes Harper proposed for immigration, had the Conservatives maintained leadership, were bemoaned as “less compassionate and more economically focused than it was under previous Liberal governments.” Harper wanting new immigrants to see their entrance to Canada as a “privilege” and “not a right” was also apparently seen as a bad thing.
Conservative MP Kelli Leitch infamously suggested there may be an overarching set of Canadian values that could be tested for during the immigration process, a claim that was roundly mocked by many, including the serially unfunny This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Of course a values test is of limited use, as one can simply lie, but perhaps her concern was well-placed, and additional screening or preferencing immigration from certain countries over others at the time wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Hindsight is a remarkable thing.
Since 2015, when the torch was passed, Trudeau’s Liberal government has moved in the opposite direction. Trudeau sloppily encouraged asylum seekers to cross our borders, perhaps to differentiate himself at the time from Trump. Either way, it became a mess that had to be cleaned up by both Canada and the United States.
Under Trudeau, the crucial role of guiding Canada’s immigration system has now changed hands five times in nine years. The portfolio was tossed around from John McCallum to Ahmed Hussen to Mark Mendicino to Sean Fraser, and, finally, to Marc Miller, like a hot potato. There has been no continuity. There has been no long-term oversight. One might guess this is a file this government does not take very seriously.
Canada needs to slow immigration for a number of reasons: lack of housing (it’s unfair to bring immigrants here when they have nowhere to live), rising unemployment, increasing social unrest, and decreasing social cohesion. At the very least, Canada needs to slow immigration from countries whose residents are currently hostile to Canada and the United States. This isn’t rocket science, and the notion that even discussing immigration in any way makes you a racist needs to be put to bed once and for all. There are countries with governments and citizens who hate our way of life and want to destroy it, and they are quite vocal about it. Canada needs a government that is mature enough to recognize this reality in order to keep citizens safe. This does not make us less empathetic. It makes us smart.
National Post