Tories Call for Answers on How Alleged Terrorist Plotters Got Into Canada

Conservatives' House leader Andrew Scheer in a file photo. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The Conservatives are calling for an investigation into how a Toronto father and son charged by RCMP in connection to a domestic ISIS terror plot were admitted into Canada.

At a press conference on Aug. 6, Conservative MP and House leader Andrew Scheer called for the House public safety committee to reconvene to “investigate all the aspects of this disturbing and shocking event.”

Scheer said Tory MP and public safety critic Frank Caputo also wrote a letter to Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc requesting that the details surrounding the terrorist plot be “made public so that Canadians can get answers.”

The suspects, Ahmed Eldidi and his son Mostafa Eldidi, were arrested in Richmond Hill, Ont., on July 28, according to a July 31 press release from the RCMP. The two face nine different terrorism charges, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the terrorist organization ISIS, also known as the Islamic State or Daesh.

The father and son were arrested at a hotel in Richmond Hill following a month-long investigation. The two were in possession of an axe and a machete at the hotel when they were arrested, according to the RCMP.

While the pair were in the “advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto,” the RCMP said their arrest means there is no further threat to the Canadian public.

Scheer said Ahmed Eldidi had been admitted into Canada and later given citizenship, which he said represented a “colossal failure” of the federal government’s national security system.

“Canadians have a right to know what went wrong; how this individual gained entry into Canada and obtained Canadian citizenship,” he said. “Canadians also have a right to know if there’s anyone else in Canada with similar backgrounds who were granted entry into our country.”

Scheer said details about the incident have not been made public, which is why, he argued, a reconvening of the public safety committee is “critical.” He added that LeBlanc would be the first witness called to testify if the committee is recalled, followed by any officials that “oversee these types of applications in these types of security screenings.”

“For Canadians to have confidence in our immigration system, we need to know now, and in every case, every application and the due diligence and proper screening is done clearly,” he said. “That was not done in this situation, and lives were almost lost.”

In March, the RCMP also laid two terrorism charges against a security guard accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and firing gunshots inside Edmonton City Hall two months prior. In his manifesto, suspect Bezhani Sarvar mentioned several issues such as Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, inflation, and multiculturalism.