MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is currently investigating 63 cases linked to terrorism, Canada’s top security officials said on Wednesday, the Ottawa Citizen reported.
63 active terrorism cases target more than 80 individuals suspected of traveling abroad to participate in terrorist activities across the Middle East and have since returned back to Canada, Maclean’s weekly magazine said.
“We have Canadians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, in Yemen, in Lebanon, in the Sahel, in the Maghreb that are involved in terrorist related activities, but it could be fundraising; it could be propaganda”, said Michael Coulombe, director of Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), as quoted by Toronto Star.
“So I don’t want people to believe we’re talking about 80 returnees who were hard fighters in Iraq and Syria because that is not the picture we have at the moment although we have some of them”, Coulombe added, as quoted by Toronto Star.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney had a sterner message: “Let me be clear: these individuals, posing threat to our security at home, have violated Canadian law”.
“Barbarity is not a Canadian value and will never ever be one”, Blaney said, as quoted by Global News.
Recently, the UN estimated that over 13,000 foreign fighters from over 80 countries have joined the Islamic State (IS). The IS has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq over the past few months.
