The Commons Public Safety Committee on Tuesday agreed to summon Liberal cabinet members for questioning over how two men arrested on terror charges could enter Canada. The suspected failures in immigration security checks comes after Parliament spent millions on fingerprinting and other screening, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The committee voted unanimously to cross-examine Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc on security checks. “Of course all Canadians are alarmed by what we have learned,” said Conservative MP Jamil Jivani.Residents in the Greater Toronto Area “are particularly concerned given the terror plot was targeting the region where we live and work,” he said.The RCMP on July 28 arrested Ahmed Eldidi of Scarborough, ON, and his adult son Mostafa. Mounties said the pair were plotting a “serious, violent attack” at an undisclosed Toronto location and were charged with conspiracy to commit murder.The Court imposed a publication ban to conceal evidence in the case pending trial, including proof of the Eldidis’ alleged links to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. ISIS has been blacklisted in Canada since 2014.“We are very grateful law enforcement has done its work to address the case and foil the attempted terrorist plot but ultimately there are a lot of questions remaining,” said Jivani.“Are there threats out in the county right now produced by the same systemic failures that allowed Eldidi to not only enter the country but also obtain citizenship? Canadians deserve answers.”“The commitment to our national security is paramount,” said Liberal MP Jennifer O’Connell, parliamentary secretary for public safety.Parliament in 2013 funded an immigration biometrics program to screen all foreigners entering the country including visa applicants, foreign students, landed immigrants and refugee claimants. Costs to 2020 totaled $213.9 million.“The five most frequent countries of citizenship for the application intake were Nigeria (12%), Pakistan (10%), Jamaica (9%), Iran (9%) and Colombia (8%),” said a 2020 biometrics evaluation on Canada-US immigration information sharing initiatives. The immigration department said it had compiled a database of photographs and fingerprints on 1.2 million foreigners let into Canada. It also gained access to the US Department of Homeland Security’s 200 million-person database. Security checks were of “crucial importance,” said the evaluation.“Matches to the RCMP’s real time identification system can reveal negative or positive information about an applicant’s previous encounters in Canada which can be used to inform immigration decision-making,” said the report.
