The shocking Islamic State-inspired mass casualty terror plot targeting Toronto has scores of loose ends.
Foremost among them: How did the alleged father-son terror tag team get into Canada? When did they arrive? Under what circumstances? And were they vetted?
On Wednesday, law enforcement announced that they had thwarted what RCMP Supt. James Parr described a targeted attack in its “advanced” stages.
Father and son Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, 26, were arrested in their third-floor room at a nondescript Richmond Hill hotel last weekend.
The Mounties said the duo — devotees of the Islamic State death cult — are charged with participation in the activities of the terrorist group. Father and son are also charged with facilitating terrorist activity and conspiracy to commit murder.
It is suspected the Eldidis planned on targeting the city’s Jewish community.
Law enforcement did not have any answers about the Eldidis on Wednesday except to say they are Canadian citizens.
“The recent discovery of two accused ISIS-affiliated terrorists in the advanced stages of planning a terror attack on Canadian soil is deeply disturbing,” Conservative Public Safety critic Frank Caputo told The Toronto Sun.
“Canadians have every right to demand answers. The Liberal government must be transparent with the public and answer all questions surrounding this alarming threat to Canadians.”
A spokesman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada offered this: “Due to privacy legislation, we cannot comment on individuals.”
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi and his son had not been on the national security radar until early July when the pair came to the attention of authorities.
Global News reported that father and Scion had travelled to Syria to join ISIS around 2015. The network reported that the Eldidis were videoed in front of an ISIS flag.
During its brief reign as a caliphate, the terror organization slaughtered thousands, sold sex slaves and engaged in an endless stream of crimes. The Mounties charged the father with committing a violent, aggravated assault while overseas.
In an open letter to Minister of Public Safety Dominic LeBlanc, Caputo demanded answers.
“What is even more shocking is that this individual was allowed to return to Canada and to freely walk the streets for nearly a decade before being arrested,” Caputo wrote.
“It is completely unacceptable that Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi was allowed to return to Canada without facing arrest; this situation raises important questions about how many other ISIS fighters have returned to Canada without repercussions and may be living in our communities.”
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More shocking, Caputo claimed, was the stunning revelation from Global that the elder Eldidi appeared in an ISIS propaganda video that shows him apparently dismembering a person.
“It is even more incomprehensible that your government did not prevent him from returning home without being arrested.”
As the country grapples with explosive growth due to immigration, concerns are growing that malevolent actors are slipping into the country.
The alleged Toronto terror plot is the third such incident involving Canadians in the past three weeks. On July 22, Zachareah Adam Quraishi, 21, of Airdrie, Alta. was gunned down when he attacked Israeli soldiers with a knife.
The following week, former Edmonton gas jockey Khalid Hussein, 29, was caged for terror-related offences in London. He was an acolyte of hate preacher Anjem Choudary who was sentenced to life in prison.
“Canadians deserve to know how this occurred and whether other ISIS fighters have been allowed to return to Canada in the same way,” Caputo wrote in his letter.
“Your government must release information on how Eldidi managed to get back into Canada without facing repercussions for his [alleged] terrorism, and how many other ISIS fighters are believed to be walking free in Canada.”