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Pakistani immigrant declared security threat, to be deported, while another ordered back into custody
TORONTO — Mohammed Aqeeq Ansari stockpiled firearms, made trips to Pakistan to visit a cleric who fought “jihad” in Afghanistan and wrote provocatively about his beliefs on the Internet. His Facebook page showed a Toronto bank tower and the caption: “If I only had a plane.”
In a decision announced Monday, the Immigration & Refugee Board found that Ansari was a member of a terrorist organization and a danger to Canada’s security. It ordered him deported to Pakistan, the country he left when he came to Toronto as an immigrant eight years ago.
Anna Pape, the IRB spokeswoman, confirmed the decision but said a written ruling explaining the reasons was not yet available, although it was expected any day. “This is all the information available at the moment,” she said.
Ansari’s lawyer, Derek Lee, could not be reached for comment.
Stewart Bell/National PostMalik is being held in custody in Lindsay, Ontario
Meanwhile, another Pakistani citizen arrested in Toronto, Jahanzeb Malik, was ordered to remain in custody because of the threat he posed to Canadians. A hearing on whether to deport him for allegedly plotting to bomb the United States consulate in Toronto was to begin Tuesday.
The ruling in Ansari’s case followed hearings in February and March at which the Canada Border Services Agency alleged he was a long-standing member of the Pakistani sectarian terrorist organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, or SSP.
The CBSA linked him to the SSP through his association with cleric and former jihadist fighter Ilyas Ghuman.
Officials said Ansari had been involved with the terror group since before coming to Canada and since then had been soliciting funds and promoting its goals online.
He had also “purchased a large number of firearms in a very short time,” CBSA officer Jessica Lourenco testified, noting he had spent $20,000 on guns and ammunition in 2012 while he was unemployed and living in his brother’s basement in Peterborough, Ont.
Testifying by video link from the detention centre in Lindsay, Ont., Ansari denied the allegations, portraying himself as a gun lover who supported Ghuman’s religious school in Pakistan. He said his comment about the Scotia Plaza tower was a joke.
Stewart Bell/National PostMalik also allegedly tried to convince the officer to help him make a bomb that was to be used to blow up the U.S. consulate in Toronto.
Ansari has been held in custody for seven months while federal officials moved to deport him. He does not face any criminal charges but is instead being sent back to Pakistan because he is not a Canadian citizen and, as a member of a terror group, is inadmissible to Canada.
According to testimony at his hearings, Ansari arrived in Canada in 2007, but his legal troubles began three years ago when the home where he lived with his brother was raided by Ontario Provincial Police, who found his gun collection and extremist materials such as jihadist songs.
Before the firearms charges were resolved, Ansari was arrested once again, this time for walking off with a stack of newspapers for Ahmadiyyah Muslims, a persecuted minority in Pakistan. That charge was withdrawn, as were all but one of the firearms charges. He received a conditional discharge and returned to Pakistan for a month.
Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team launched an investigation, Project Seashell, that concluded he was an SSP member.
The case was passed to the CBSA and Ansari was arrested on Oct. 24, as Canada was grappling with the deadly attacks in Ottawa and Quebec.
On Twitter, he had depicted the killings of the Canadian Forces members as a “false flag” operation, and claimed police had planted a knife on one of the suspects, Martin Rouleau-Couture.
“We are the Muslims and we are coming for you,” he wrote in another online post, the CBSA said.
While he denied the allegations, Ansari said he had “no objection” to being deported to Pakistan, which he called “my country.” He said he had wanted to “start a career, start my life in Canada because I was informed Canada was a country where you had freedom to express your views. … I never had any ill intentions of breaking the law.”
He was not associated with Malik, whom IRB member Harry Adamidis ruled Monday was a flight risk and a danger to the public. But while Adamidis ordered Malik to be detained, he said he was troubled by the lack of evidence brought forward by the CBSA to justify holding him.
“I’m not entirely comfortable with that,” he said.
Malik has been held since his arrested on March 9, after an RCMP national security investigation. Adamidis said he expected more at the next detention hearing June 8. “There is no evidence on record. This is problematic and should be remedied.”
The CBSA said the evidence would be presented at the inadmissibility hearing beginning Tuesday. The undercover RCMP officer who investigated Malik was expected to testify.
During Monday’s hearing, Malik shook his head and laughed. He said he was unaware he would be having a hearing until he was called from his cell, forcing him to abandon his Sudoku puzzle. Asked if he wished to speak, he said, “I’m going to keep silent.”
National Post
Pakistani immigrant declared security threat, to be deported, while another ordered back into custody | National Post
TORONTO — Mohammed Aqeeq Ansari stockpiled firearms, made trips to Pakistan to visit a cleric who fought “jihad” in Afghanistan and wrote provocatively about his beliefs on the Internet. His Facebook page showed a Toronto bank tower and the caption: “If I only had a plane.”
In a decision announced Monday, the Immigration & Refugee Board found that Ansari was a member of a terrorist organization and a danger to Canada’s security. It ordered him deported to Pakistan, the country he left when he came to Toronto as an immigrant eight years ago.
Anna Pape, the IRB spokeswoman, confirmed the decision but said a written ruling explaining the reasons was not yet available, although it was expected any day. “This is all the information available at the moment,” she said.
Ansari’s lawyer, Derek Lee, could not be reached for comment.
Stewart Bell/National PostMalik is being held in custody in Lindsay, Ontario
Meanwhile, another Pakistani citizen arrested in Toronto, Jahanzeb Malik, was ordered to remain in custody because of the threat he posed to Canadians. A hearing on whether to deport him for allegedly plotting to bomb the United States consulate in Toronto was to begin Tuesday.
The ruling in Ansari’s case followed hearings in February and March at which the Canada Border Services Agency alleged he was a long-standing member of the Pakistani sectarian terrorist organization Sipah-e-Sahaba, or SSP.
The CBSA linked him to the SSP through his association with cleric and former jihadist fighter Ilyas Ghuman.
Officials said Ansari had been involved with the terror group since before coming to Canada and since then had been soliciting funds and promoting its goals online.
He had also “purchased a large number of firearms in a very short time,” CBSA officer Jessica Lourenco testified, noting he had spent $20,000 on guns and ammunition in 2012 while he was unemployed and living in his brother’s basement in Peterborough, Ont.
Testifying by video link from the detention centre in Lindsay, Ont., Ansari denied the allegations, portraying himself as a gun lover who supported Ghuman’s religious school in Pakistan. He said his comment about the Scotia Plaza tower was a joke.
Stewart Bell/National PostMalik also allegedly tried to convince the officer to help him make a bomb that was to be used to blow up the U.S. consulate in Toronto.
Ansari has been held in custody for seven months while federal officials moved to deport him. He does not face any criminal charges but is instead being sent back to Pakistan because he is not a Canadian citizen and, as a member of a terror group, is inadmissible to Canada.
According to testimony at his hearings, Ansari arrived in Canada in 2007, but his legal troubles began three years ago when the home where he lived with his brother was raided by Ontario Provincial Police, who found his gun collection and extremist materials such as jihadist songs.
Before the firearms charges were resolved, Ansari was arrested once again, this time for walking off with a stack of newspapers for Ahmadiyyah Muslims, a persecuted minority in Pakistan. That charge was withdrawn, as were all but one of the firearms charges. He received a conditional discharge and returned to Pakistan for a month.
Meanwhile, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team launched an investigation, Project Seashell, that concluded he was an SSP member.
The case was passed to the CBSA and Ansari was arrested on Oct. 24, as Canada was grappling with the deadly attacks in Ottawa and Quebec.
On Twitter, he had depicted the killings of the Canadian Forces members as a “false flag” operation, and claimed police had planted a knife on one of the suspects, Martin Rouleau-Couture.
“We are the Muslims and we are coming for you,” he wrote in another online post, the CBSA said.
While he denied the allegations, Ansari said he had “no objection” to being deported to Pakistan, which he called “my country.” He said he had wanted to “start a career, start my life in Canada because I was informed Canada was a country where you had freedom to express your views. … I never had any ill intentions of breaking the law.”
He was not associated with Malik, whom IRB member Harry Adamidis ruled Monday was a flight risk and a danger to the public. But while Adamidis ordered Malik to be detained, he said he was troubled by the lack of evidence brought forward by the CBSA to justify holding him.
“I’m not entirely comfortable with that,” he said.
Malik has been held since his arrested on March 9, after an RCMP national security investigation. Adamidis said he expected more at the next detention hearing June 8. “There is no evidence on record. This is problematic and should be remedied.”
The CBSA said the evidence would be presented at the inadmissibility hearing beginning Tuesday. The undercover RCMP officer who investigated Malik was expected to testify.
During Monday’s hearing, Malik shook his head and laughed. He said he was unaware he would be having a hearing until he was called from his cell, forcing him to abandon his Sudoku puzzle. Asked if he wished to speak, he said, “I’m going to keep silent.”
National Post
Pakistani immigrant declared security threat, to be deported, while another ordered back into custody | National Post
