EDITORIAL: We need better checks for immigration claims
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Shortly before Christmas, disturbing new details emerged at a court hearing for a Toronto man who, along with his son, now faces war crime allegations.
Ahmed Eldidi and his son, Mostafa, appeared in a Newmarket court.
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The father is now charged with war crimes “against a protected person in a non-international armed conflict.”
According to Global News, the former Amazon driver is accused of dismembering a prisoner in Iraq almost 10 years ago and has become the first suspected ISIS member to face war crimes charges in Canada.
Eldidi is charged with four counts of war crimes, including torture and murder, under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. The crimes are alleged to have occurred between November 2014 and June 2015 when ISIS was at its peak of activity.
Shockingly, the older Eldidi was able to come to Canada in 2018 as a refugee and was granted Canadian citizenship in May 2024. His son arrived in 2020 and was granted refugee status two years later. He does not have citizenship.
According to Global News, a video allegedly shows the elder Eldidi dismembering a prisoner with a sword. Father and son were arrested at a hotel north of Toronto. The RCMP claimed they were in the advanced stages of plotting a terror-style assault on an unspecified target in Toronto.
Conservative MP Larry Brock told the House of Commons committee on public safety that an attack was imminent.
“We were within a hair’s breadth — minutes, hours or potentially days away — of a mass casualty event in the Toronto Jewish community,” Brock told the committee in August.
Yes, we should be thankful to police and security agencies for thwarting the attack. But the arrests raise serious questions about our system of investigating those who make refugee claims and those who apply for citizenship.
A person who police now allege has a sick and brutal past, and who now faces war crimes charges, was allowed to enter this country and work here for six years. He drove a delivery truck through our peace-loving neighbourhoods unmolested.
It is a chilling thought that in a free society such as ours, he had access to any home at any time.
We need tighter background checks and higher standards for immigration to this country.
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