Canadian ISIS Fighters and Supporters and the Irony of the Khadr Exception

• Author: Leah West
• Profession: SJD, Assistant Professor, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, Carleton University
• Pages: 189-212

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Canadian ISIS Fighters and Supporters

and the Irony of the Khadr Exception

LEAH WEST*

A. INTRODUCTION

ere are between forty and fty Canadians currently held by the Syrian

Defence Forces (SDF) in Northeast Syria. e majority of the Canadians

are under the age of twelve, children whose parents are alleged members

or supporters of ISIS. ey and between fteen to twenty adult women

are detained in one of two overcrowded detention camps: Al Roj and

AlHol. Public reporting also conrms that four Canadian men are cur-

rently imprisoned by the SDF, Canada’s ally in the ght against ISIS, for

their alleged membership in ISIS and the crimes they committed as part

of the brutal terrorist organization: Jack Letts, Mohammed Ali, Abou-

bakr Siddique, and a fourth man whose name has never been published.

Mohammed Khalifa, a Saudi-born Canadian citizen was detained from

March  until he was transferred to the United States in October ,

where he was charged and pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material

support to a terrorist organization resulting in death. While in custody,

* SJD, Assistant Professor, Norman Paterson School of International Aairs, Carle-

ton University. Many thanks to Jake Norris for his fantastic research assistance

with this piece.

 US, Justice Department, “Leading ISIS Media Figure and Foreign Fighter Pleads

Guilty to Conspiring to Provide Material Support to a Terrorist Organization,

Resulting in Death” ( December ), online: www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/leading-

isis-media-gure-and-foreign-ghter-pleads-guilty-conspiring-provide-material.

 

190

Khalifa, Ali, and Letts spoke to reporters about their actions in Syria and

claim to have spoken with foreign investigators since their detention in

the spring of .

To date, nine Canadian men have been charged in absentia for terror-

ism oences under the Criminal Code, ve of them for their activities with

ISIS in Syria. To date, no women have been charged in absentia, but three

women have been charged with attempting to leave Canada to participate

in the activity of a terrorist group (ISIS). us, there is a precedent for

charging Canadian adults who travelled from Canada to Syria to join ISIS

with criminal oences. However, none of the adult Canadians currently

detained by the SDF for their alleged participation in, or support for, ISIS

has been charged with a single crime.

When pressed as to why these Canadians — along with others who

have already returned to Canada — are not facing charges for terrorist

activity, Prime Minister Trudeau and former Public Safety Minister Ralph

Goodale made clear that the government’s intent is to prosecute them.

 Stewart Bell, “As Fate of ISIS Prisoners in Syria Grows More Unpredictable,

RCMP Has Still Not Charged Any of the Canadians” Global News ( October

), online: globalnews.ca/news//kurdish-forces-rcmp-canadians;

Maryam Shah, “U.K. Citizenship S tripped from ‘Jihadi Jack,’ Leaving Him with

Only Canadian Citizenship” Global News ( August ), online: globalnews.ca/

news//jihadi-jack-citizenship-revoked/; Kelly McEvers, “How It Ends:

e Brother” Embedded, NPR podcast ( April ), online: www.npr.org/

transcripts/.

 John Maguire, Khadar Khalib, Farah Mohamed Shirdon, Hasibullah Yusufzai,

Ahmad Waseem, Maiwand Yar, Ferid Ahmed Imam, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, and

Omar Ould Hamaha. Maguire, Yusufzai, Shirdon, Khalib, and Imam are report-

edly deceased, although Maguire and Imam are still wanted by the RCMP. See

RCMP, “Wanted by the RCMP,” online: www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/wanted. For a

discussion on this point see Michael Nesbitt & Dana Haag, “An Empirical Study

of Terrorism Prosecutions in Canada: Elucidating the Elements of the Oences”

() : Alberta Law Review  at .

 At the time of writing, only Rehab Dughmosh has been convicted of this oence.

See R v Dughmosh,  ONSC . Haleema Mustafa’s trial was pending and

Sabrine Djermane was acquitted at trial. See Katie Nicholson, “Ontario Woman

Facing Terror-Related Charges Granted Bail” CBC News ( March ), online:

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/haleema-mustafa-bail-.; R c Jamali,  QCCS

. See Addendum for update.

 See Addendum for update.

 Canada, Parliament, House of Commons Debates, th Parl, st Sess, No  (Nov-

ember ) at  (Hon Ralph Goodale); Rachel Gilmore, “Canada Struggling

to Prosecute Returned ISIS Fighters” iPolitics ( November ), online: http://