Michelle Rempel

Ottawa: The Honourable Michelle Rempel, Shadow Minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, and Pierre Paul-Hus, Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, issued the following statement on returned ISIS terrorists:

“Forty-five days have passed since our Conservative motion on bringing justice to ISIS terrorists was passed in the House of Commons. We expect the government to table a plan in Parliament soon, in accordance with the motion. This plan must immediately bring to justice anyone, including those who are in Canada, or have Canadian citizenship, who has fought as an ISIS terrorist or participated in any terrorist activity.

“Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nadia Murad, has been calling for justice for the Yazidi people who suffered horrific violence by this terrorist organization. We reiterate her request that justice be served to these terrorists.

“Conservatives know it is not enough to merely say ‘never again.’ Action must be taken immediately. As we originally requested, we expect Justin Trudeau’s plan to include the following elements to seek true justice:

  • Focus first on bringing the perpetrators of genocide and terrorist acts to justice, and ensure courts have access to evidence gathered against suspected terrorists.
  • Keep Canadians safe from those who are suspected of committing acts of terrorism or genocide abroad but have returned to Canada, by ensuring that security agencies are adequately resourced to provide high levels of monitoring and surveillance of their activities in Canada.
  • Encourage greater use of tools to place conditions on those suspected of terrorist or genocidal activities, such as peace bonds, which can include conditions such as wearing an electronic monitoring device, returning to and remaining at their place of residence at specified times, and controlling social media use. Liberals are making it harder for security officials to monitor suspected terrorists by changing the rules around peace bonds.
  • Processes to bring perpetrators of atrocity crimes to justice are slow, fail victims, and prevent them from returning home. Canada should lead immediate reforms to ensure justice is swift. The government should also support initiatives which are taking concrete action to bring justice and treatment to women whose bodies, through rape, have been used a weapon of war.

“The Prime Minister’s plan, which our adopted motion says he must table, needs to address the government’s failure to act. We expect justice to be served to anyone who left our country to join this horrific terrorist group.”