The government will consider revoking the citizenship of a Toronto man accused of plotting a terrorist attack for ISIS, Immigration Minister Marc Miller said on Wednesday.
Miller told reporters he had begun “preliminary work” to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to rescind the suspect’s Canadian citizenship.
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, was arrested at a hotel north of Toronto on July 28 as he and his son were allegedly planning an attack in the city.
In addition to being charged over the alleged Toronto plot, Eldidi was accused of an aggravated assault the RCMP said was committed overseas in 2015.
Sources have told Global News the charge refers to the dismemberment of a prisoner shown in a propaganda video released by an ISIS branch in Iraq.
Although police said Eldidi is a Canadian citizen, the government can revoke the citizenship of those who misrepresented their pasts when they immigrated.
On its website, the government calls it “an important tool for maintaining the integrity of Canadian citizenship.”
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The powers have been used against Nazis who lied about their involvement in the Holocaust when they came to Canada, as well as modern day war criminals.
Miller said his department would look at the immigration and citizenship timeline of the “individual in question.”
“Who knew what, when and how? I hope to be able to provide answers and in a relatively short timeline about what happened,” he said.
“I’m just disgusted as any Canadian, but I have a responsibility to get to the bottom of it, and I will.”
The criminal proceedings against Eldidi and his son, Mostafa, 26, could limit how much he can share, but Miller said he wanted to ensure the safety of Canadians.
“Again, I think Canadians deserve answers. I’m going to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
“I’m also going to take the next step, which is to start the preliminary work, with the evidence at hand, to look at whether the individual in question’s citizenship should be revoked.”
The RCMP said the father and son were “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto” when they were arrested.
An axe and machete were allegedly seized at the scene.
The Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security voted on Tuesday to call ministers to testify about the Eldidi’s immigration history.
The son is not a Canadian, meaning he can be deported if the Canada Border Services Agency successfully brings a case to the Immigration and Refugee Board.
The alleged terrorism plot has served as a reminder that ISIS remains a threat five years after it was defeated in Syria in 2019.
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The United Kingdom has revoked the citizenship of ISIS members, but the issue has been politically divisive in Canada.
In 2015, the previous Conservative government enacted a law allowing immigration officials to strip convicted terrorists of their Canadian citizenship, provided they were also nationals of a second country.
During the election campaign that first brought him to power, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed to repeal the law, using the slogan a “Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
Once in office, the Liberals struck down the law, and returned citizenship to those impacted by the abandoned legislation.
But the government retained the authority to take citizenship away from those suspected of a “false representation, fraud or knowingly concealing material circumstances” during the immigration process.
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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