HANNAFORD: Obviously, immigration screening is completely fouled up

In 2015, the Islamic terrorist group ISIS released one of their revolting propaganda videos, in which a man was shown hacking away at another man suspended from a crane. It is not clear whether the man hanging from the crane was alive or dead. It is alleged however, that the person wielding the sword was one Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, now 62.Subsequently Mr. Eldidi moved to Canada and was granted Canadian citizenship.Then two weeks ago he was arrested along with his son, and arraigned on terrorism charges. The details have now been placed under a publication ban. However, apparently edged weapons were collected by the police at the scene of the arrest. The two remain in custody.How can anything this stupid, happen?Seriously, this is beyond incompetence. If you merely apply for a loan, your bank will do a better background check on you than Canada’s immigration office did on these people.And we have to believe that by the way. We must because the alternative is to believe that Citizenship Canada knowingly overlooked Eldidi’s alleged ISIS connections and the vicious sadism of which he is suspected, that they further considered them to be of no consequence, or may even have looked the other way for reasons too nefarious to contemplate.Much as we deplore the government led by Justin Trudeau, it strains belief to suppose that even he would countenance such a thing or that members of the civil service would comply with it, were they so instructed.For the Conservative opposition, Andrew Scheer has demanded an emergency meeting of the House of Commons Public Safety Committee, to ascertain how somebody with a resume like Eldidi’s could slip through the net. Although the Trudeau Liberals will think that a tiresomely partisan overreaction, it is absolutely the right place to start. Apart from any mayhem Eldidi is accused of contemplating, the chilling thing here — loaded with unfortunate implications — is that a Canadian passport usually gets you easily across the US border. But now that the process of getting one has been shown faulty — unable to filter out people you don’t want — one could hardly blame the Americans for getting super-sensitive about Canadian passports. Uncontrolled immigration on the southern border should not imply approval for uncontrolled immigration in the north.Let us say however, that the committee does meet, what might it find?The unspectacular truth is this. There was no malice. No ill-will. No obscure (or nefarious) motives.This is just how this Liberal government does things — almost everything, unfortunately.For, what the Trudeau Liberals love is the grand gesture… the photo opportunity that supports some supposedly illustrious aspiration to greatness and goodness… especially in the marked off areas that mean something to the inner circle — climate change for example, or trans rights and in their peculiarly masochistic way, finding things for which they can apologize on behalf of people who are not responsible for them.Thus, ‘we will plant two billion trees,’ ‘we will build a dozen submarines,’ ‘Let us keep the flags at half mast for six months to apologize for the murder of indigenous children at Kamloops.’These big pictures they will happily announce. But, they’re not details people. They have no interest in the ‘doing’ of government.You know, the dull quotidien duties of office, in which financial statements are balanced, people are accountable for their work and getting it right is the necessary first step in getting it done.It is an eternal amateur hour.Civil servants, long resigned to knowing that they labour as one who digs a hole for dirt to fill another, are chivvied to support government goals by earnest young partisans operating way above their experience or expertise, yet appointed to ministerial staff positions. Bad decisions are taken. Mistakes get made.So, there are no trees, there will never be a dozen submarines and if there are bodies buried at Kamloops, proof has yet to be produced. But by the way, for a mere $60 million we can build a COVID app to manage international arrivals. ‘Don’t worry it’ll work fine, we know these people.’In this case, the Public Safety Committee will almost certainly find that to meet the Trudeau Liberal government's insane priority to bring in half a million people a year — half a million prospective Liberal voters, a cynic might say — the word went out to cut corners and dispense with some of the regular steps in checking. It is almost certainly that simple.And also, that dangerous. People might have got killed.

HANNAFORD: Obviously, immigration screening is completely fouled up

Related Stories