PENTICTON — A Squamish woman who left Canada in 2015 to marry an Islamic State fighter she met online pleaded guilty Thursday to leaving the country to participate in a terrorist group’s activities.Kimberly Gwen Polman, 53, entered the plea in BC Supreme Court about a month before her jury trial was scheduled to begin. The dual Canadian-US citizen remains out of custody.Her lawyer, David Ferguson, said in an email Thursday that the plea represents Polman "taking responsibility for her actions in 2015.""It's been a long road since to get to this point," Ferguson said.He noted she has the support of her family and community resources, and accepts she will be sentenced later this year. A date for that hearing is expected to be set before the end of the month. The maximum sentence for the conviction is 10 years..The RCMP’s national security enforcement team arrested Polman on July 5, 2024, laying two terrorism charges: leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group, and participating in the activity of a terrorist group.She pleaded guilty only to the first count. Court documents show she left BC on July 21, 2015. The second count, which alleged she actively worked for ISIS in Syria between July 25, 2015, and July 27, 2019, was not part of Thursday's plea. The Vancouver Sun reported that prosecutors did not immediately comment on whether the remaining charge will be stayed or withdrawn.Polman's trial had been slated to run from November 16 to December 11, following her September 25, 2025, election for a trial by judge and jury..Born in Hamilton, Ont., to an American mother and a Canadian father, Polman was raised as a reformed Mennonite before converting to Islam. According to the Vancouver Sun, she worked at an Islamic school before using her US passport to fly from Vancouver to Istanbul. Under the guise of a two-week Austrian vacation, she travelled to meet the man she later married, who smuggled her into an ISIS camp.Polman claims she eventually repudiated the terror group, telling the New York Times in 2016 that she wanted to come home — a request US authorities denied.Kurdish forces detained her in March 2019. She spent nearly four years languishing in a northeastern Syrian camp before the Canadian government repatriated her in October 2022. Ferguson noted she spent those camp years "not knowing whether she would ever return to Canada.".UN special rapporteurs claimed in 2022 that her detention conditions amounted to torture, as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Polman's family maintains she endured physical and mental trauma during the war and feared the terror group, though these claims are not legal findings.Canada flew her home that October alongside Oumaima Chouay, a Montreal woman held in the same camps. They were not co-accused, but did face nearly identical criminal charges related to similar circumstances. Chouay pleaded guilty on July 21, 2025, to participating in the activities of a terrorist group. The Court of Quebec sentenced her to one day in custody, on top of 110 days already served, and three years of probation. The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said she was the first person in Canada convicted for providing family support to a terrorist entity as a spouse.Global Affairs records released to Global News put the October 2022 operation that brought the two women back at $10,863, including almost $2,800 for emergency blankets and first-aid kits shipped to Syria. The wider return of eight women and their children in 2022 and 2023 cost at least $170,000. Hotel bills at the Montreal Airport Marriott — covering the women, children, and escorting officials — featured business-class travel, room service, chocolate bars, candy, and wine. One room topped $1,000 for two nights following a $95 wine tab, though documents do not attribute that tab to Polman. Global Affairs stated it absorbed immediate costs "to support the safe return and well-being of the women and children repatriated to Canada.".The repatriation debate extends beyond Canada. In May, Western Standard posted an Australian television panel on Islamic State brides, noting Polman's Vancouver trial was still pending..Before laying criminal charges, the RCMP secured a terrorism peace bond against Polman, which a Chilliwack judge ordered on November 7, 2023.A 122-page RCMP summary from that case, dubbed "Project Stiletto" and cited by Global News, alleged Polman trained with an armed female ISIS branch called Katibah Nusaybah. The force claimed she worked in a medical unit, moved weapons, acted as an informant for the group's police, and married two ISIS members.Most colourfully, the RCMP alleged she belonged to a circle of older women dubbed the "Sexy Seniors." None of those allegations were tested at trial, nor were they part of her Thursday guilty plea.
