WARNING: This story includes descriptions of graphic violence
MPs of all stripes have agreed to investigate how a father and son accused of planning a terror attack in Toronto were allowed into Canada despite claims that the father had taken part in a violent terrorist assault overseas.
The House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security voted unanimously Tuesday to study the case and to question the ministers of public safety and immigration and other senior security and intelligence officials.
The committee’s probe will run parallel to the ongoing court case against Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son Mostafa Eldidi, 26. Police have said the two men were “in the advanced stages of planning a serious, violent attack in Toronto.”
Police say the father has Canadian citizenship, while the son does not.
They face nine charges in total, including conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit or at the direction of a terrorist group.
The father is also accused of committing an aggravated assault in 2015 for the benefit of the Islamic State somewhere outside of Canada.
There is a publication ban on the case.
The push to get the committee to study the case was started by Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer, who told reporters last week his party has questions about the immigration screening process for both men.
Part of the Conservatives’ questioning centres on a video which allegedly shows the aggravated assault.
Jihadology.net, a U.S. website that catalogues Islamic State communiques and propaganda, posted what appears to be the video in question on June 16, 2015 — the same day it appeared on an ISIS-affiliated website.
CBC News has viewed the four-minute video, said to have been shot in what the Islamic State called Dijlah province in western Iraq, near the Syrian border.
Entitled “Deterring the Spies #1,” the video is slickly packaged with Islamic State graphics and music. It features the interrogation of a bearded prisoner wearing an orange jumpsuit. The video shows the prisoner lit by a bright light and sitting in a cell as he answers questions shouted by someone off camera.
After a section of readings from the Qur’an, the prisoner then appears hoisted on a wooden frame in the desert, bound tightly with load straps. It is not clear from the video whether the prisoner is alive or dead at this point.
A man dressed all in black, with a cap that features the white Islamic State symbol, uses a long, square-edged sword to hack at the prisoner’s outstretched limbs. His red-bearded face is briefly visible as the video cuts from one angle of the attack to another.
The man behind the Jihadology site — Aaron Zelin, an expert on the Islamic State and a senior fellow at a Washington D.C. Middle East think tank — said the man with the sword isn’t someone he recognizes as a senior or important Islamic State figure.
“It’s not like he is a known personality within the Islamic State or anything,” Zelin told CBC News, noting that his website houses thousands of similarly gruesome videos. “It’s not something that stands out.”
Committee to question security process
The committee’s upcoming meetings likely will raise questions about which officials knew what and when, and zero in on Canada’s immigration process, its security screening capacity and how security officials handle domestic threats.
It’s not yet clear when the older Eldidi received citizenship. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has said it can’t comment on individual cases.
“We need answers,” Conservative MP Frank Caputo said Tuesday. “The government has a lot of explaining to do.”
NDP MP Heather McPherson said cabinet ministers will need to “explain why Canadian citizenship was shockingly granted to a former ISIS fighter.”
The RCMP said the two men were not on the national police service’s radar until early July.
RCMP officials say they prevented a terrorist attack in Toronto after arresting a father and son in a Richmond Hill hotel on July 28. The pair were allegedly planning an attack targeting Toronto. CBC’s Tyler Cheese has the latest on the investigation.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Matt Peggs, commanding officer in Ontario, said police learned about the pair from a tip from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in early July.
“They do have relationships with other countries and their intelligence agencies as well,” he said.
Peggs added that receiving information from allies wouldn’t be unusual in a national security investigation.
“I think the world is very much getting smaller with the speed of information. But there is so much information out there. I think for us, as the police, to have our finger on the pulse of absolutely everything is not possible,” he said.
“We’re fortunate that we have those relationships and the information can be shared.”
The senior Mountie said he couldn’t say more about what CSIS shared with police about the alleged plot. He said police were unaware of the 2015 video until last month and it now makes up part of the case.
A spokesperson for CSIS would only say the service provides intelligence and advice to the government.
“While CSIS has formal relationships with many domestic and foreign partners, we do not comment on the nature of our reporting, investigations, methodologies or activities in order to maintain the integrity of our operations,” said John Townsend in an email.
Peggs said police are still combing through the accused individuals’ electronic devices.
“So who knows what’s going to be uncovered?” he said.
He also praised his team for thwarting what could have been a tragedy.
“It was a success,” he said. “It very much becomes an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation.”
Ottawa working on a timeline
Last week, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government had launched an internal review working on a timeline of events in the case.
During a news conference on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government will share findings “in the appropriate moment.”
A spokesperson for LeBlanc said Tuesday the timeline is not yet complete.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it conducts security screenings with both Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and CSIS.
“CBSA screening decisions are based on the information available at a moment in time,” said a spokesperson.
Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell suggested cuts made by the former Conservative government to the CBSA could be linked to this case.
“I’m glad we’re talking about this” she told reporters.
“We heard under the Harper era, the cuts to CBSA was going to lead to potential risk to our national security. And I think it’s important we have those conversations now.”
The committee will begin its study later this month.