Ottawa to restore citizenship of convicted terrorists

Canadian Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau.

Canada's Liberal government is scrapping parts of controversial legislation brought under the previous Conservative government, which gave Ottawa the power to strip Canadian citizenship from dual citizens convicted of terrorism, spying and high treason.

The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday that it will restore the Canadian citizenship of anyone who had it revoked under Bill C-24, which came into effect in May 2015.

One of the first beneficiaries of the new legislation will be Zakaria Amara, a member of the so-called Toronto 18 terrorist group, who had his Canadian citizenship revoked in September.
Amara, a Jordanian-Canadian, pleaded guilty to plotting to set off a bomb in downtown Toronto and was sentenced in 2010 to life in prison.

Under the old Conservative law he would have been deported to his native Jordan after finishing serving his sentence in Canada.

Asked about the optics of restoring Amara's citizenship, Immigration Minister John McCallum said that it was a "question of principle" for the government.

"We believe very strongly that there should be only one class of Canadians, that all Canadians are equal, that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian from coast to coast to coast," McCallum told reporters in Ottawa.

The government would still be able to revoke citizenship from those who misrepresent who they are during the immigration process or who are guilty of citizenship fraud, McCallum told reporters.