(Ottawa) Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc says his government is investigating how two men suspected of having links to a terrorist group abroad were allowed to enter Canada.
Last week, Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, 26, were arrested in Richmond Hill, Ont. They face nine separate terrorism charges, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group.
RCMP announced the charges last week and said the two men were “in the advanced stages of planning a serious and violent attack in Toronto.”
Most of the charges relate to activities that allegedly took place in Canada, but Mr. Eldidi Sr. is also charged with one count of aggravated assault outside Canada.
Mr. LeBlanc says the departments of Public Safety and Immigration, which work together to screen candidates for immigration to Canada, are working to establish a timeline of events surrounding the accused men.
“When you’re faced with a circumstance like this, the Department of Immigration and the Department of Public Safety will obviously look at, as I said, all of the circumstances, particularly the chronology and the timeline from which certain information may have become available,” said Minister LeBlanc.
RCMP confirmed that the father is a Canadian citizen, while his son is not. A spokesperson said Wednesday that police are awaiting confirmation on Mostafa Eldidi’s status.
Conservatives are demanding the federal government tell Canadians what they know about how Eldidi Sr. was allowed to immigrate to the country, suggesting the alleged links should have been discovered sooner.
“Canadians have a right to know what measure failed. How did this person enter Canada and obtain Canadian citizenship? Canadians also have a right to know whether… there is someone else in Canada with a similar background who was allowed to enter our country,” Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer said at a news conference Tuesday.
Mr. LeBlanc countered that the government will have more to say about the timeline of events, but he warned that it would be irresponsible to release information that could interfere with the criminal investigation and the prosecution’s ability to conduct a successful trial.
The Conservatives also asked the House of Commons on Tuesday to recall its Public Safety Committee to investigate the situation, calling on the Bloc Québécois and the NDP to support this request.
On Wednesday, NDP MP Alistair MacGregor sent a letter to the committee chair asking for a meeting to examine the issue.
He wrote that there were “serious questions” about how the suspect was able to enter Canada, become a citizen and “remain undetected for many years.”