National Security - International Terror

Here's an item that's truly improbable in its broad concept of what constitutes a violation of a citizen's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms within Canada. It truly boggles the mind. Its convoluted and amazingly benighted reasoning leaves one gasping in disbelief.

That a convicted felon - someone who has been charged, judged and convicted of terrorism in a country to which Canada has a strong historical connection; incarcerated there, then returned to Canada to take up citizenship here again, has a "right" to be issued with a Canadian passport.

That Canada would, in any event, harbour a known terrorist, a man whose purpose it is to spread terror through bloody violence against a close associate-country of Canada's, and give him the sustenance and comfort of refuge is reprehensible in the extreme. That person's citizenship should be revoked.

As a native of Algeria who obtained Canadian citizenship in 1993, and who chose the path of violence and terror, he is clearly not suited to life within a democratic society. If for no other reason than that he has rejected, through his violent associations and activities the very democratic freedoms that have sustained him as a Canadian citizen.

Fateh Kamel, a known terrorist, sentenced to prison in 2001 by a French court for terror-related crimes does not present as a model Canadian citizen. In fact, an internal report from the Department of Foreign Affairs describes him as "the leader of an international network whose purpose was to plot terrorist attacks and procure arms and passports for terrorists throughout the world".

Fateh Kamel, 47, of Algerian extraction, brought his alienated hatred of the West and western values to Canada, and used his residency here as a springboard for enabling terrorist groups abroad to infiltrate societies they meant to destroy with the assistance of Canadian passports, and armaments helpfully supplied by him. He was trained in one of Afghanistan's terror training camps, and while living in Montreal busied himself with the theft of money, credit cards and passports in support of jihad.

After his sojourn in France within the penal system there, he returned to Montreal and in June of 2005 applied for a Canadian passport, planning to travel to Thailand on business. Two senior Foreign Affairs officials recommended in a memorandum to their minister that the application be denied. On the basis that terrorism "is recognized as a serious threat to national security"; noting also that the French court had aligned the man with Algeria's Armed Islamic Group, along with Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist terror group active in Thailand.

France has a lifelong ban from its territory for Fateh Kamel in recognition of his part in plotting terror bombings. To issue a Canadian passport to the man would enable him to travel to any country in the European Union and from there give him unimpeded access to France. To permit an individual of his pedigree to carry a Canadian passport would be tantamount to admitting that Canada recognizes the "rights" of terrorists, and would, by extension, make worthless the passports carried by all Canadians.

Yet a Federal Court judge, Justice Simon Noel, ruled that the federal government, in refusing to issue a passport to this degenerate and vile human being, violated his Charter rights. Effectively striking down a section of the Canadian Passport Order introduced in 2004, empowering the Minister of Foreign Affairs to refuse or revoke a passport under certain circumstances. This is utter lunacy, madness of the first order.

What, exactly, are our priorities and our obligations under our laws? To sustain order and good governance, to protect the country and its citizens, to co-operate with our allies. But our federal court justices uphold the rights of criminal malefactors, violent jihadists whose single-minded purpose is to destroy our freedoms, while at the same time enjoying them.

O Canada!