(Staff articles from The GLOBAL NEWS, OTTAWA SUN, & NATIONAL POST.)
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| Jihadi Jack (aka) Jack Letts? |
“This government proactively reached out to try to bring this individual, who has fought with a terrorist organization, back to Canada. They took it upon themselves to reach out to bring this individual to Canada, why?” Scheer demanded.
Trudeau responded to Scheer’s questions broadly, stating that his government takes “with the utmost seriousness, the threats posed by travelling extremists.” According to previous reporting by Global News, Jack Letts, who is a Muslim convert, traveled to Syria in 2014, where he eventually earned the nickname “Jihadi Jack” in the British press. Letts is a British citizen, but obtained a Canadian citizenship through his father.
While he was in ISIS-controlled territory, Letts has denied being a member of the extremist group and his parents insist there is no evidence to suggest this. The U.K. has made it clear they will not assist him in any way, and because of his Canadian patronage, Ottawa has taken over the case.
A transcript between Letts and Global Affairs Canada previously released to Global News shows that officials have reached out to some of the detainees, though they’ve admitted that there’s little they can do to help them. “If it would be possible, would you like to come to Canada? Back to the U.K.?” the consular official asked. “I want to live a normal life. I want to come to Canada,” Letts replied.
“It is a Criminal Code offence to travel abroad and engage in terrorist activity. Canadian law enforcement actively pursues investigations and lays criminal charges when there is evidence to support them. We also have a full range of counterterrorism tools,” Trudeau said.
Scheer pressed on with his line of questioning, asking Trudeau to “explain to Canadians why his government is taking it upon themselves to invite a British citizen who has fought with ISIS to Canada.” Trudeau eventually retorted that Conservatives were simply “grasping at straws” to “try and make Canadians feel unsafe.”
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| Jihadi Jack (aka) Jack Letts giving one finger ISIS salute. |
The father of a suspected ISIS jihadist is begging Canada to take his son in, insisting that he’s not a terrorist, and he deserves Canada’s protection. John Letts — dubbed Jihadi Jack by the British media — is imprisoned in Syria for being a member of the Islamic State.
Not so, says his dad, John Letts Sr. Instead, young Jihadi Jack — a dual British-Canadian citizen — is a naive young man who travelled to Syria hoping to create a peaceful, utopian Muslim state and wound up trapped when ISIS took control over exit points. The United Kingdom has washed its hands of him.
Now, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is hammering the government over its overtures to spring the young jihadi. According to CBC News, John Letts Sr. is calling Scheer a liar. “I am writing to you because I have to do something to challenge the misinformation that has appeared in the Canadian media recently — lies repeated and exaggerated by Mr. Andrew Scheer,” Letts Sr. writes.
Although it isn’t clear whether Jihadi Jack has ever stepped foot in Canada, his father (a Canadian citizen who lives in the U.K.) is nonetheless demanding action and protection. Instead, he said young Letts opposed the ISIS terrorists and was never involved in the gruesome carnage the death cult unleashed.
Earlier this week, Scheer blasted the Trudeau government over reports that consular officials initiated contact with Letts — whom the Opposition leader described as a known jihadi fighter — about coming to Canada.
But the father is no terror sympathizer, saying he shares “the disgust of my fellow Canadians” over ISIS atrocities. And he will not truck with traitors. For John Letts Jr., the portrait of him as an ISIS stooge didn’t jibe with old school friends in the U.K.
“At school, he was very much the classroom clown and was liked by a lot of students,” a former friend told The Times of London. “That’s why this whole thing of him going to live in Syria and join ISIS doesn’t make any sense.” John Letts says if Scheer’s assertions about his son’s involvement in terrorism aren’t challenged, his son will die soon, a victim of fake news and government inaction.
Britain's 'Jihadi Jack' could end up in Canadian hands
Jack Letts, captured by Kurdish forces as a suspected ISIL fighter, is a joint British-Canadian citizen and Kurdish authorities have talked of possibly releasing him to Canadian officials. For two years, his tale has captivated Britain, the press inevitably dubbing him “Jihadi Jack.”
Jack Letts, a teenage convert to Islam from Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, traveled to Syria in 2014, ended up in the de-facto ISIL capital of Raqqa and was accused of joining the extremist group.
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| Jihadi Jack's FB chat with a former classmate. |
Now it is possible Letts – who actually came to vehemently oppose the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to his parents – could end up in the hands of Canadian authorities. Though rarely mentioned in British media, the 20-year-old is a joint U.K.-Canadian citizen, and once even had a Canadian passport.
He has been in the custody of Kurdish militias for five months, and they have said that parents John Letts – a Canadian native – and Sally Lane, a joint British-Canadian citizen, have proposed he be released to officials from this country.
In an exchange of emails with the National Post Tuesday, the couple said they are sending letters to Canadian MPs to lobby for action by this country, saying their son’s case has been poisoned in the U.K. by inaccurate news reporting and intolerant politicians.
Global Affairs Canada said it was prevented by privacy legislation from saying much about the case, but has its eyes on the situation. “We are aware of these reports and closely monitoring the situation,” said Brianne Maxwell, a Global Affairs spokeswoman.
In a statement that was first reported by the BBC, though, officials in the self-declared Kurdish region of northern Syria said he had been charged with being a member of ISIL, and strongly refuted any suggestion that he is being mistreated. Meanwhile, Letts is being investigated by “local and global anti-terror units,” they said.
“Jack Letts is a dual British-Canadian national who traveled to areas under the Islamic State (ISIS) control in Iraq and Syria in 2014,” noted Sinam Mohamad, European representative of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria. “Jack Letts has been captured … in war zone area as a prisoner of war.” His parents are trying to manipulate “facts and reality,” the statement alleged.
John Letts, a graduate of Trent University In Peterborough, Ont., actually met his wife in Canada and eventually moved with her to England, working for a time at Oxford University. He is an organic farmer known for his heritage flour. Sally is a book editor.
Their slide toward the war on terror began with Letts’ conversion to Islam at age 16, as he dropped out of school after being diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aided by a photographic memory, he managed to become almost fluent in Arabic within six months, his parents say.
He set off for the Middle East in 2014, first visiting Jordan, then heading to Kuwait. Lane says she took a call from him that September, saying “I’m in Syria,” before the line cut off. He also appears to have spent time in Iraq, but even British police have admitted in writing there is no evidence he joined ISIL or committed terrorist acts, his parents say.
Oliver Tickell, a family friend and journalist, wrote recently that Canadian diplomats initially had a “can-do attitude” but later backed off. They still “provide occasional reports, for example to confirm that they believe him to be alive.”
Canada Assists ISIS While Persecuting Hunters, Sport Shooters
The Canadian government is assisting ISIS fighters in Syria and working to bring them to Canada, while persecuting hunters, Olympic shooters and other responsible citizens at home.
Global News reported today on efforts by Global Affairs Canada to help affiliates of the so-called “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” which has claimed responsibility for massacres, attacks and destruction around the world. The news organization published a conversation between a Canadian government official and a British ISIS supporter with Canadian citizenship in Syria nicknamed “Jihadi Jack.”
“If it would be possible, would you like to come to Canada? Back to the U.K.?” the consular official asked, as reported by Global News. “We have the intention to help you,” the official said. “Canada is an option,” the official said, according to Global News.
While working to import violent criminals and terrorists, the government is harassing domestic gun owners who have been licensed under the authority of the federal police and are among Canada’s safest citizens.
The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau aims to pass Bill C-71 as a law to confiscate rifles from as many as 15,000 lawful owners after they die, and to make it harder for all 2.2 million licensed owners to buy, sell, own and transport firearms. It’s also promoting a ban on handguns and many other firearms used by everyone from Olympic competitors to recreational shooters across Canada.
That’s in addition to existing laws that punish lawful gun owners with prison if they change address without informing the federal police within 30 days, or if they drive home from the target range by a route police might view as not “reasonably direct.” It’s also a crime punishable by prison to store firearms safely in any way that isn’t approved by law, or to own standard-capacity cartridge magazines for many pistols and rifles.
A public-relations firm that advises the government said in March that more restrictions on hunters and sport shooters present an “untapped opportunity” for Trudeau’s Liberal Party to win votes in the next election.
