Alarm raised as Canadian youth join the Islamic State
An image grab taken off a video on January 20, 2015, reportedly released by the Islamic State (IS) group through Al-Furqan Media, one of the Jihadist platforms used by the militant organisation on the web, shows a black-clad militant in an undisclosed location. PHOTO | AL-FURQAN MEDIA |
What you need to know:
- In Quebec City, Blaney’s provincial counterpart, Lise Theriault, offered a toll-free number to call to report suspected cases.
- On Wednesday, an Alberta family revealed that their 23-year-old daughter had flown to Syria.
MONTREAL, Saturday
Concerned about a growing number of Canadian youths traveling overseas to join jihadists, and lacking an immediate alternative, political leaders have asked parents to keep a more watchful eye on their children for signs of extremism.
“These situations are disastrous,” Quebec premier Philippe Couillard said Friday, a day after Canadians learned that six of their own, aged 18 and 19, including two young women, had left for Syria via Turkey mid-January.
All of them were born in Canada to immigrant parents who said they sought to instill Western values in their offspring. One father even confiscated his son’s passport to try to keep him from taking a flight.
They are not the first to venture abroad to join Islamic State jihadists. On Wednesday, an Alberta family revealed that their 23-year-old daughter had flown to Syria.
She had taken an online course to study the Koran but instead learned from her teacher — a suspected IS recruiter — how to get to the IS-controlled city of Raqa in Syria to join the extremist group.
ALL KILLED
Others left months earlier, and some have since died, such as a former University of Ottawa student John Maguire, who was reportedly killed in December near Kobane, and four cousins from Calgary whose deaths devastated their families, which had fled conflict in Somalia to start new lives in Canada.
Pending the passing of new legislation granting sweeping new powers to Canada’s spy agency to thwart terror plots and disrupt suspected extremists’ travel plans, such as preventing them from boarding a plane to join a banned group abroad, Ottawa has called on Canadians to simply remain vigilant against radicalisation of friends and family.
“We all have a duty” to act to prevent them from leaving, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said Thursday.
“When an individual wishes to travel for terrorist purposes, the family is aware of it,” he said. “So it is important to report this information to authorities to avoid the situation becoming a criminal one and also to save lives.”
In Quebec City, Blaney’s provincial counterpart, Lise Theriault, offered a toll-free number to call to report suspected cases.
