The initial screening process of asylum seekers illegally entering Canada can take less than two hours, according to migrants staying at the Toronto Plaza Hotel in North York.
“It was more than an hour, and they treat us fine,” says an African woman outside of the hotel.
“They asked different questions, take your passport … search your bag, search your body. Women search women, men search men.”
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The government has explored multiple options to get Canadian ISIS fighters back to Canadian soil, according to a recently released report.
The heavily redacted report outlines possible responses to ISIS fighters in prison in Iraq and Syria and how to potentially bring them back to Canada.
“None of the options are ideal and all present different challenges and risks,” said the report.
The report also highlights that on April 18th, 2018, officials in the Privy Council Office, under then Clerk Michael Wernick, met to discuss the potential “managed returns” of those holding Canadian citizenship now in prison for fighting with ISIS.
The report makes it clear that the government has not had any discussion about prisoner transfers with the governments of Iraq, Turkey, or the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — all of which are holding a number of Canadian ISIS fighters.
This was made clear by notes in the report from Ian Shugart, then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affair, now Clerk of the Privy Council.
“We have no direct contact with the individuals… We have received information about them from their families or from CSIS,” it read.
“However, as part of our due diligence, my officials, in consultation with the interdepartmental community, have evaluated a number of possible options/transfer scenarios.”
The report also makes note of an action taken by Global Affairs Canada on Jan. 10, 2019. Although details are redacted, this is the date Global Affairs made contact with Jack Letts, who is currently in a Syrian prison.
Letts, nicknamed “Jihadi Jack,” is a British man who went to Syria allegedly to fight for ISIS in 2014.
He may not have ever stepped foot in Canada, but he has dual-citizenship through his father, yet the Canadian government has spent time and resources on trying to bring him to Canada.
A British MP even alleged that the Canadian government had a plan to bring Letts to Canada, but was thwarted by the British government.
Other Canadian ISIS fighters who want to return include a man known to have been involved in producing ISIS execution videos, a man who promoting ISIS online and a woman who went there to support her ISIS-fighter husband and does not regret it.
The government estimates “around 60” Canadian ISIS fighters have already returned to Canada. However, law enforcement officials are not able to prosecute them for their heinous crimes.
“We may not be in a position, as each and every one of them comes back to Canada, that we’re at that stage where we can arrest them,” said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Denis Michaud.
It’s unclear if the government has made any more recent plans to bring ISIS fighters to Canada.
A video has surfaced depicting a man claiming that he has arrived in Canada with the sole intention of killing Pakistani-Christian refugee Asia Bibi.
In the video, the individual pledges to send Bibi “to a terrible death” due to her alleged blasphemy against Islam.
“This message is for all the enemies of Islam and to the Jew government who helped her get out of Pakistan,” claims the unidentified man.
In the video, the man continues to sing a hymn to Allah, thanking him for the opportunity to die for his cause.
“To give Asia Bibi a terrible death and to send her to hell I also reached Canada last night. I am ready to die for the respect of Prophet Mohammed, and I will show that.”
True North was one of the first to report on Bibi’s harrowing journey and one of the loudest voices arguing for Canada to take in Bibi.
Bibi recently reached Canada after she was vindicated by Pakistan’s Supreme Court for the crime of blasphemy.
Originally, Bibi was sentenced to death for her alleged crimes until her case was overturned and acquitted upon further review.
Despite the supreme court’s decision, mobs of extremists throughout Pakistan were calling for her death to the point where she had to be put into protective custody. Religious leaders and politicians throughout Pakistan have continued to call for her execution despite the court’s decision.
The video, which was translated by the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) is the latest development in Bibi’s case since she was freed from her former country.
Christians are currently a religious minority in Pakistan, where they make up less than 2% of the population, while the majority of the country (97%) are practicing Muslims.
Asia Bibi arrived in Canada on May 8 to join family members who already reside in the country.
A United Kingdom court has ordered a new contempt of court hearing for Tommy Robinson after a brief session in London today. This means Robinson may end up back in jail, despite having already served 10 weeks for hosting a live stream outside the trial of a multiple sex grooming gang members.
True North’s Andrew Lawton was in the courtroom. Here’s his update.
A father and son have been arrested at the Canada-US border after York Regional Police found explosive materials on a property located in Richmond Hill, Ont – a suburb north of Toronto, according to Global News.
18-year-old Mahyar Mohammadiasl and 47-year-old Reza Mohammadiasl were charged with possession of an explosive device.
On Friday May 10th, York Regional Police executed a search warrant on a home located in Richmond Hill.
When questioned about the incident, Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale claimed the event had “no known connection to national security,” and that the local police were in charge of the investigation.
York Regional Police located “hazardous, explosive materials as well as a detonator device” on the property.
According to a news release by York Regional Police, surrounding residences were evacuated while the police searched the premises. The explosive materials were safely removed.
“Officers with the Ontario Provincial Police and the York Regional Police Explosives Detection Unit attended the residence to ensure the safe removal of the materials. The hazardous materials have been removed and neighbours who were evacuated as a precaution, have been allowed back to their residence,” read the news release.
York Regional Police confirm that they began an investigation after receiving information about a suspect who was investigated by both US Customs and the Canadian Border Services Agency.
It is unclear where the two men were heading at the time of their arrest or what they were planning on doing with the explosive material.
Police did not specify what exactly the materials were or how much was removed.
This remains an active investigation. No terrorism charges have been laid against the two men.
English anti-Islamist activist Tommy Robinson will be in court this week to find out whether he should go through another contempt of court hearing, which could send him to jail, over his live stream outside a Leeds courtroom last summer. True North’s Andrew Lawton is in London to cover the case, given how flawed British press coverage has been of the case.
There’s another reason: Canada and the UK are cohosting a press freedom summit in just a couple of months, yet the UK is the country that sent Robinson to jail for covering a case the mainstream media refused to.
True North is crowdfunding to cover that summit. Please make a contribution here: https://tnc.news/help-us-crowdfund-our-press-freedom-summit-coverage/
Vice Admiral Mark Norman was denied the possibility of returning to his former position by the Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan.
“I believe that for me and for the Canadian Armed Forces the best choice would be for me to go back into my former position,” Norman told the press last week.
The decision comes shortly after the Crown unexpectedly dropped charges against Norman citing new evidence regarding his breach of trust charges.
According to Sajjan, the Vice-Admiral’s former position is currently occupied by another person.
“We currently have a vice-chief of defence staff and he will remain in place,” said Minister Sajjan.
Vice Admiral Mark Norman was accused of releasing sensitive information about a nearly $700 million government shipbuilding contract.
Shortly after learning about the outcome, Norman announced that he was intending on returning to his former post with the Canadian Navy.
Norman was suspended from his position in 2018 by General Jonathan Vance after allegedly playing a hand in leaking the shipbuilding contract information.
Norman’s legal team argued that his case faced political interference and they pressed to call upon key witnesses from the Prime Minister’s Office, such as former Principal Secretary Gerald Butts, to testify before the court.
One of Norman’s lawyers, Marie Henein criticized the Trudeau government underhandedly shortly after the case was scuttled.
“Before we get started, I’d just like to introduce the all-female team that represented Vice-Admiral Norman. Fortunately, Vice-Admiral Norman didn’t fire the females he hired,” said Henein.
In a surprise decision on the part of Crown prosecutors, Vice-Admiral Mark Norman was cleared of any wrongdoing after all charges against him were dropped.
While Vice Admiral Norman will not be getting his former position back, he is set to meet with General Vance shortly.
According to Vance, Norman will be welcomed back into the Navy at a different position level.
Elections Canada is removing over 103,000 non-citizens on the national voters’ registry, but damage to the integrity of previous elections may have already occurred.
When speaking to a Senate committee, Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault said that the identified non-citizens will be removed off the list of eligible voters before the federal election in October, but could not be sure how many had voted in previous elections.
If these non-citizens are on the official list of eligible voters, it means that they could have received a voter identification card, which is now a legal form of voter identification.
“That is not something that we want obviously because it appears as an invitation to vote,” Perrault said.
While as many as 103,000 non-citizens would potentially vote without having earned the right, Perrault explained to the Senate that new technology and access to immigration and citizenship records will allow Elections Canada to do a better job of catching these mistakes in the future.
“We will have tools that we didn’t have in the past to monitor that,” he said. “We will be able to follow up after the election and check if people have attempted to vote or voted while being non-citizens.”
Despite a promise to do better, with a number so high, experts are concerned about the integrity of previous elections.
Over 40,000 non-citizens have been on the official voters’ list since 1997, Perrault says that is at least seven federal elections with thousands of non-citizens having access to voting information.
While some may be honest mistakes, there are many examples of Elections Canada giving non-citizens voting information without justification or explanation.
In October, True North founder Candice Malcolm reported on the story of a recent asylum seeker who received a voter registration card from Elections Canada telling her to register to vote ahead of this year’s election.
“She’s taking ESL classes, we haven’t even been in the country a year and a half, and the Liberals are sending a voter registration card,” her husband said.
While Elections Canada claims their procedures are thorough, there are no measures in place to stop non-citizens who end up on voter registration lists from voting.
Voters are not required to show proof of citizenship, nor are they asked if they are a legal citizen entitled to vote.
With the federal election only months away, many Canadians have reason to worry about voter fraud.
Feminism. Diversity. Gender equality. Should these issues really be at the forefront of our country’s foreign policy?
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer outlined his foreign policy earlier this week, and unlike Trudeau, Scheer was not afraid to identify the real threats and challenges Canada faces today – arctic sovereignty, China, Russia, cyber security and more.
True North’s Anthony Furey explains in his latest video.
BY: LEO KNIGHT
Earlier this week the Director of Public Prosecutions stayed the sole charge of Breach of Trust laid against Vice Admiral Mark Norman. That doesn’t mean he was exonerated as some have suggested. It means the Crown can reinstate the charge within one year.
That won’t, in my opinion, happen in this case. With all the water under the bridge relating to possible political interference, it is likely too dangerous for the government to attempt. So, as a matter of practicality, the issue is over.
As a political matter it is certainly not over.
The question of political interference looms large in this. This is evidenced by the fact that Norman’s senior counsel had to fight tooth and nail to try and get documents relating to the procurement file for the naval supply ship that is at the heart of this. When counsel, Marie Henein did get documents, they were typically so redacted they were useless.
That, in and of itself screams political interference by the PMO and likely the PCO as well. Especially when you consider one lengthy memo written by the Clerk of the Privy Council Office, Michael Wernick, was redacted in its entirety.
Then there’s the government’s apparent refusal to fully reinstate Norman to his former position as the second – in – command of Canada’s military. Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance said in a statement the military has missed Norman and he looks forward to meeting with him to discuss his return to active duty.
Norman said he wants to return to his former position as Vice Chief of Defence Staff, the second highest position in Canada’s military.
But, in a statement to reporters, Minister of Defence, Harjit Sajjan seemed to throw cold water on that notion. Sajjan said, “We currently have a vice-chief of defence staff and he will remain in place. I understand that Gen. Vance, as his immediate superior, will be meeting with him and discussing the next steps. Once those discussions have taken place I’ll have further advice given to me.”
The other piece of this is the quality of the investigation conducted by the RCMP who investigated this matter for over a year. The charge was laid in March of 2018. Yet the stay was entered by Crown in May of 2019. Apparently, it was entered after Norman’s counsel provided evidence gathered from former Cabinet members Jason Kenney, Erin O’Toole and Peter McKay, all of whom had some part in the procurement process which was well underway when the Liberals assumed power in late 2015.
I don’t understand how any credible investigation conducted by the RCMP could have not interviewed Ministers of the Crown who instituted and guided the public procurement process up to and including the awarding of the contract to Davie Shipbuilding.
Nothing happens in a vacuum and surely the RCMP should have been more thorough than it appears they were. Especially in light of the fact that it was information from these three that tipped the scales on the prosecution.
The Mounties for their part defended their investigation releasing a statement that said: “Throughout the course of this criminal investigation, investigators from the RCMP National Division Sensitive and International Investigations section have conducted a thorough, independent and highly professional investigation.”
Well, that just doesn’t seem possible in light of what we now know.
Lastly, there’s Gen. Vance himself. Are his hands clean? On the very evening he relieved Norman of his command, Vance dined with Gerald Butts, then Principal Secretary in the PMO and Katie Telford, Trudeau’s Chief of Staff.
Vance testified that the subject of Norman’s relief of command did not come up at that dinner.
Really? The single major event of that day that would affect the military and the PMO, who tried to cancel the Davie procurement award and give the contract to huge Liberal supporters the Irving family, and the subject didn’t come up? I’m not buying it.
The decision to relieve someone of that rank and stature of command would inevitably result in a media storm involving the military and the PMO and to have Canadians believe the subject didn’t come up beggars belief.
It would seem there’s much left to come out in all of this and I doubt the stay of proceedings is going to end the story.
