generalspeaking

The Moral Dilemma of Repatriating ISIL Murderers

"Abandoning citizens to indefinite, unlawful detention in filthy, overcrowded and dangerous camps and prisons does not make Canada safer." 
"The lives of Canadians are on the line, and the time to bring them home is now."
Letta Tayler, senior researcher, Human Rights Watch  

"[Canada will] support Canadians in difficulty overseas."
"Syria is an area where we do not have any diplomats or any Canadians on the ground, and therefore we work through intermediaries to try to provide consular assistance as best we can."
"We have a responsibility as a government to ensure that Canadian citizens, particularly employees, are not put into danger, are not exposed to grave situations."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

In this 2017 photo, Kurdish soldiers from anti-terrorism units, background, stand in front of a suspected Islamic State member at a security centre in Kobani, Syria. A new report by Human Rights Watch urges the Canadian government to repatriate all citizens currently detained in northeastern Syria because of suspected ties to ISIS. (Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

"The Conservatives have given the Liberals all the tools they need to hold ISIS terrorists accountable and to protect Canadians."
"We will continue to hold Justin Trudeau accountable and insist that he come up with a real plan to bring the ISIS terrorists to justice."
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the party's public safety critic


"Countries such as France have taken a prosecution approach. Countries such as Denmark have taken a reintegration approach. The Dutch have taken both a prosecution and reintegration approach. Canada has no strategy and no approach at all."
"If you bring them home, there will be a public perception that the government is supporting people who … have possibly been engaged in very serious criminal offences."
"It's politically easier and more expedient for the previous government and for this government not to do much about it."
Christian Leuprecht, international security expert, Queen's University, Royal Military College of Canada

 

Kurdish fighters were admired and lauded for their fierce fighting opposition to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, recognized as the only fighting force with the discipline and determination to vanquish that Islamist medievalist atrocity-loving band of fundamentalist murderers. The Kurdish forces defended and protected minorities in Syria from ISIL persecution and savagery, creating a safe zone for fleeing Syrian Christians and Yezidis who were enslaved and slaughtered by ISIL.

Their 'reward' for courage and determination with the destruction of the Caliphate has been seen in the responsibility relegated to them as wardens of thousands of ISIL prisoners, with no financial support, much less practical-presence support of Western nations that had lauded the Kurdish role in vanquishing the noxiously-deadly aspirations of the ISIL leadership to conquer the forces of moderation in the Middle East, and then to spread their venomous murderous spirit of jihad throughout Europe and North America.

The Kurds have appealed for years to the countries of Europe and North America to relieve them of the onerous, costly, time-consumingly difficult task of guarding the world against escape-prone ISIL fundamentalist determined to regain their lost 'Caliphate' and return to terrorizing the world, to little avail. It is understandable why Western democracies whose Muslim citizens responded to the appeal of ISIL to join their jihad would not wish to have them return to plague their own countries. Yes some have responded and repatriated the demons of ISIL to hold them accountable for their crimes.

Canada is loathe to reclaim Muslim-Canadian ISIL members because the general Canadian public views the Muslim jihadists with the loathing they deserve. The government hesitates to repatriate them fearing the difficulties inherent in the justice system requiring evidence sufficiently useful in a court of law to successfully prosecute and convict the ISIL members of crimes against humanity that they committed but for which evidence in a far-off, war-struck zone makes it impossible to collect.

On the other hand, it is unknown the actual numbers of those who responded to the ISIL invitation to join their jihad. It is known that some ISIL members have long since returned to Canada and are, presumably, being monitored by Canadian intelligence. Of the thousands of ISIL prisoners in the Kurdish camps, 47 are identified as being of Canadian origin, among them women and children, and two particularly notorious ISIL male leaders of high jihadist influence.

Conditions in the camps are abysmal, and any living there critical of ISIL are threatened by roving enforcers prepared to mete out disciplinary punishment, including death. The plight of children living in unsanitary conditions, where food is scarce and so is medical attention, weighs heavy on the conscience of Western democracies. With the knowledge that the children have been exposed to the jihadist ideology, steeped deeply in the belief of conquest and slaughter justified by jihad. How, then, to rescue the minds of deeply traumatized children?