Nov 5 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — A letter complaining about food, addressed to a prominent Canadian member of the so-called Islamic State, has been found in the group’s former capital of Raqqa, Syria. Written on a page torn from a notebook, apparently by an English-speaking ISIS fighter, the letter warns the lack of food could have a “negative impact” on the […]
Oct 25 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — An organization representing the families of extremist group members is demanding the government repatriate 16 Canadians it says are being held in detention camps in northern Syria. Families Against Violent Extremism said in a statement obtained Wednesday by Global News that nine of the captives were adults and seven were infants and children under age […]
Oct 22 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — The political debate over what to do with Canadians who were part of the so-called Islamic State returned to Parliament on Monday, with the Conservatives demanding a federal strategy on the matter. An opposition motion tabled in the House of Commons called on the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to put forward a plan […]
Oct 16 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — On Sept. 19, 2014, the so-called Islamic State released a gruesome video in which Syrian prisoners dug their own graves, and were then lined up and executed. But what struck some observers was the narrator. He sounded Canadian. “Yup, it’s another Canadian,” Muhammed Ali, an ISIS member from Mississauga, Ont., told Global News in a […]
Oct 11 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — From the road, Roj Camp looks like the other tent cities that have sprung up in Syria — a grid of white tents and children flying kites made from sticks and plastic bags. But the armed Kurdish fighters guarding the front gate are a sign it’s not just another refugee camp: It’s a detention centre […]
Oct 10 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Muhammed Ali sat on the couch in the prison commander’s office, still wearing the T-shirt and sweatpants he had on four months ago when he was captured by Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Four years ago, the Canadian was a defiant voice of the so-called Islamic State, using his social media accounts to spread beheading […]
Oct 8 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — A high-profile Canadian member of the so-called Islamic State has been caught while attempting to return to Canada, Global News has confirmed. Muhammad Ali, 28, who left Toronto in 2014 to join ISIS, was captured by Kurdish forces as he tried to flee from Syria to Turkey. Global News interviewed Ali at a makeshift prison […]
Jul 19 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — On June 12, Abdulmuti Mohamed Elmi was charged with shoplifting from an Ottawa LCBO store and assaulting a man with a liquor bottle, but the RCMP had more serious concerns about the 24-year-old.
May 14 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Telling his parents he was flying to Turkey for two weeks, Mohamed Ali left Canada in April 2014 to join the so-called Islamic State. “I traded the snow for the desert sand,” he wrote on social media after his arrival in Syria.
May 7 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Government documents obtained by Global News reveal disagreements between police, intelligence and public safety officials over how to describe the Canadian far right. Internal debate over right wing extremism arose when Public Safety Canada consulted with federal agencies on the 2017 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada.
Apr 20 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — ISIS members who return to Canada from Syria and Iraq could have knowledge of chemical weapons and put it to use in a terrorist attack, according to internal government documents obtained by Global News. The documents said the so-called Islamic State had repeatedly used chlorine and mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, raising the prospect […]
May 25 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — The bomber suspected of attacking a Manchester pop concert has been linked to an extremist imam from Ottawa whom Canadian intelligence officials had warned was “promoting violent jihad” in Libya. Quoting a senior American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Salman Abedi “had links to a […]
Apr 25 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — A photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posing with Veluppillai Thangavelu, the former vice-president of a group on Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations, has underscored the pitfalls of selfie politics. Thangavelu, who was a senior official in the World Tamil Movement when it was the target of an RCMP investigation, posted a photo on […]
Mar 29 2017 — Stewart Bell — National Post — Video showing Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch at a meeting with members of a group that protested outside a Toronto mosque last month was called “deeply troubling” on Wednesday. Leitch can be seen shaking hands with a Rise Canada senior adviser and later responding to his questions at the gathering in Brampton, Ont., on Sunday. […]
Feb 3 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — A Liberal MP said he had no idea he had posed at an event Friday beside a man the Canadian government is deporting for being a former member of a terrorist organization. Photos posted on the Facebook and Twitter pages of Michael Levitt, the Member of Parliament for York Centre, showed the politician outside the […]