Man accused of plotting NYC Oct. 7 attack made refugee claim in Canada: immigration consultant
CBC
While a Pakistani man living in the Toronto area was allegedly planning a mass murder of Jews in New York, he was also seeking refugee status in Canada, according to an immigration consultant.
The U.S. is now aiming to extradite Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 19, after he was arrested by RCMP in a dramatic operation on Sept. 4 in Ormstown, Que., not far from the U.S. border.
The FBI alleges Khan told undercover officers he was building an ISIS cell to "slaughter" as many Jewish civilians as possible in a violent rampage around the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Fazal Qadeer, a Mississauga, Ont.-based immigration consultant who had worked with Khan, said he had been surprised to learn of the arrest. He said Khan hadn't shown signs of radicalization.
Qadeer said Khan was in the process of claiming refugee status on the basis of his sexual orientation. "He said he was gay," Qadeer told CBC News in a recent interview.
Same-sex relations are banned under Pakistan's penal code, according to the U.S.-based human rights organization, Outright International.
The status of Khan's immigration claim at the time of his arrest is unclear. Qadeer said Khan had recently undergone a "long" interview with Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
A spokesperson for IRCC declined to comment on Khan's case.
The refugee claim does not appear in a report prepared by immigration officials last month for the House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security.
The report says Khan applied for a Canadian study permit in March 2023. He was approved the following month and landed in Toronto on June 23, 2023.
IRCC said it had not referred his file to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for a "comprehensive security screening," because an initial assessment "did not identify any risk indicators."
The same committee of MPs is also probing how Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, was able to gain Canadian citizenship despite allegedly appearing in a gruesome ISIS propaganda video years earlier. Eldidi and his son, Mostafa Eldidi, a 27-year-old Egyptian citizen, are accused of plotting an axe and machete attack in Toronto.
Within five months of Khan's arrival in Canada, he had attracted the attention of an FBI informant.
According to a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed last month, Khan had posted on social media, expressing "his desire to carry out terrorist attacks in support" of the self-styled Islamic State group (ISIS).
When the holiday season comes calling, one particular potato dumpling becomes an important fixture on many dinner tables: perogies.
It has been 118 years since Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church's congregation first gathered to worship.
A new First Nations immersive language program inspired is looking to help preserve Plains Cree, a dialect of the Cree language.
A new clinic opening early next year on British Columbia's Vancouver Island has a different structure it hopes will help attract and retain family doctors amid an ongoing physician shortage.
After Alberta's population boomed through the first half of 2024, its growth slowed during the third quarter of this year.
The 2025 Folklore Festival is cancelled citing rising costs and safety issues impacting the festival's plans.
Nearly 200 volunteers are slated to sort and pack urgently needed food donations at the Daily Bread Food Bank's centre in Etobicoke on Saturday.
When Eileen Nurse was a kid, her family would decorate the mantle above the fireplace with miniature houses and fake trees every December, creating a little winter scene. So when Nurse, now 61, bought her first Christmas-themed Lego set in 2010, a new tradition was born.
Summerside's council voted earlier this week to repeal the city's decades-old taxi bylaw, deeming it "redundant."
For Whitehorse resident Charlie-Rose Pelletier, insomnia is something she's dealt with on a regular basis for the last two decades — but she says it became worse after she moved to the Yukon from Quebec a few years ago.
It's hard to imagine President Emmanuel Macron of France joking about annexing Belgium.