Police arrested 2 people following raids Thursday
on 2 homes in eastern Ontario city
Philip Ling, Catharine Tunney, John Paul Tasker · CBC News
Police officers carry evidence from one of the homes in Kingston, Ont., that were raided. Two people were
arrested and a minor has been charged with a terror-related offence. (Lars Hagberg/Canadian Press)
The RCMP's national security team has arrested and charged an Ontario youth with a terrorism-related offence, the police force said Friday following an investigation in Kingston, Ont.
Police have laid two charges against the young person, who is accused of knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity and counselling another person to "deliver, place, discharge or detonate an explosive or other lethal device ... against a place of public use with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury."
The identity of the accused has been withheld by police as the person is a minor and protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
During a press conference Friday, the RCMP said it received a "credible" tip from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in late December 2018 that there were individuals in Kingston planning a terrorist attack, which led to the police raids at two homes in the area Thursday.
"There was no specific target identified but there was an attack planned," RCMP Superintendent Peter Lambertucci told reporters. While an attack was considered imminent, the officer said there was no credible threat to the people of Kingston.
"I want to reassure the citizens of the greater Kingston, Ont., area and all Canadians that during the investigation, our primary focus was the safety and protection of the public," said Michael LeSage, a chief superintendent with the RCMP's "O" Division.
After the arrests, the RCMP found "elements" and "trace elements" of homemade improvised explosive devices in an unspecified residence. The explosive substance was later neutralized, Lambertucci said.
A second individual, an adult male CBC News has identified as Hussam Eddin Alzahabi, was also arrested Thursday but has not been charged.
Lambertucci said the investigation is still ongoing. Police have 24 hours to press charges against Alzahabi or release him from custody.
The officer would not comment on the ideological motivations of the people apprehended or say if they had any ties to foreign elements.
Police described the relationship between Hussam Eddin Alzahabi and the person charged as an "informal friendship."
Earlier Friday, the father of Hussam Eddin Alzahabi said he was astounded by the arrest of his 20-year-old son.
"They tell me they search about him about terrorists. I know my son, he didn't think about that. He like Canada. He like the safety in Canada. How could he think about that?" Amin Alzahabi, who has been in Canada since 2017, told CBC News' Philip Ling in an interview from his home Friday morning.
"It's fake news about my son. I trust my son. I know he cannot do anything against any human, humanity. They inspected everything from my house. They didn't find anything. I think this is not good."
In carrying out the arrests, the RCMP were supported by both Kingston police and FBI officers with support from the Ontario Provincial Police, Canada Border Services Agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC).
On Thursday, officers could be seen carrying bags of evidence out of the homes. By Friday morning, the police presence was contained to just one residence.
Alzahabi said his family, originally from Syria, has been living in Canada since July 2017, following time spent in Kuwait from 2008 to 2017.
According to a bulletin posted to the website of a Kingston-area Catholic church detailing the journey of the Alzahabi family, an ecumenical group of churches helped bring them to Canada through the private sponsorship refugee program in 2016-17.
The church group established a series of committees, including a hospitality and orientation committee composed of parishioners, and raised more than $30,000 to help support the family's transition to life in Canada.
Alzahabi said he and his family came to Canada to be "liberated" and to avoid being sent back to Syria — which is still in the throes of a multi-year bloody civil war — by the Kuwaiti government.
"I want to save my family from Assad regime in Syria," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who's accused of perpetrating war crimes against his own people.
"I wanted to come to Canada and I [succeeded] in coming to Canada because I trust Canada. I trust this country is for the humanity ... freedom," Alzahabi said.
To that end, Amin Alzahabi said his son was completing high school upgrades at Loyalist Collegiate & Vocational Institute with the hope he could then continue his studies at a university.
In a statement, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said police took action Thursday "based on credible information, to ensure public safety."
The RCMP arrested two people following the raids on the two homes in what officials are calling a national security investigation. (Cristiano Vilela)
The minister said the operation has not changed the country's threat level. It remains at "medium," where it has hovered since late 2014.
However, the threat was considered serious enough to involve months of investigation, thousands of hours of police work and the use of a Pilatus PC-12 RCMP surveillance plane that had been circling over Kingston in recent weeks for hours on end, creating a great deal of interest from residents due to the noise.
The noise, whether it was loud or just unusual, would certainly draw attention to the aircraft, along with it's apparent tendency to hover near the suspected homes. It just seems to me that surveillance should be a lot more discreet.
Spokespeople for both the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice referred all questions to the RCMP.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer commended the work of the RCMP and local police while adding the continuing terrorist threat demands strong national security legislation to help law enforcement.
Scheer also said Canada's "refugee screening process needs to be seriously examined."
"We've recently learned of several examples of dangerous individuals entering the country due in part to lax screening procedures," Scheer said.
"In 2017, as an audit of the Canada Border Services Agency reported, 39 cases did not receive the necessary security screening and therefore, potential security threats may not have been identified prior to granting admissibility. This is completely unacceptable and must be immediately remedied."
Canadians, like our Very Liberal leadership, like to think that refugees just want to escape war and hardship and come to a land that is free and easy. We think they will be so appreciative of our welcoming them that they would never think to commit any evil against Canadian society. And for the most part, that is true.
There may be, however, some extreme Muslims who get through the screening, or around the screening, but they are likely to be very few. What is obvious from this report and many others I have posted with regard to Europe, it is the next generation that fails to appreciate Canadian hospitality and, as documented in the UK, the next generation tends to be more devout, or more radicalized than their parents.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Gulf States are allowed to support mosques in Canada with the expectation, or the intent, to teach Salafism. Salafism is an intense form of Islam based on Sharia.
Our Very Liberal Party, our Very Liberal PM, and our very liberal Mainstream Media, are completely blind to this.
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