An Iranian Kurd serving time in a Canadian prison for plotting terrorism is objecting to Canada’s plan to take away his citizenship, saying that takes away several of his constitutional rights, includes his ability to vote in Canada.
After taking away his citizenship, Canada would seek to send him back to Iran. Iran has a policy of not accepting Iranians who do not seek to return of their own volition.
Hiva Alizadeh, 36, is a Kurd who was allegedly working with Al-Qaeda to plot terrorist acts in North America.
The new citizenship law took effect in May and Canada has told 10 convicted terrorists that it is preparing to take away their Canadian citizenship. The law applies only to people who hold dual citizenship, so they would not become stateless.
Alizadeh was sentenced earlier to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty last year to possessing explosives with intent to do harm. He was convicted along with two others of plotting to blow up a train going between New York and Montreal, among other schemes. Police secretly searching his home found dozens of circuit boards built to act as detonators. They removed all those circuit boards and replaced them with fakes that could not be used.
After swearing the oath of citizenship in 2007, Alizadeh left the country. When he returned in 2009, he claimed he had been visiting family in Iran because the Canadian winters made him depressed.
But a member of Ottawa’s Muslim community informed the authorities Alizadeh had said he was actually in Afghanistan, where he had undergone training and pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.
Alizadeh later confessed he had been instructed to return to Canada to find recruits to prepare terrorist attacks against Canada and the West. “People over there want us to hit from within,” he said.
Alizadeh was arrested in 2010 with co-accused Misbahuddin Ahmed and Khurram Sher, whose families came from Pakistan.
While Alizadeh was in custody, Parliament passed bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, which applies not only to terrorists but also those convicted of treason and espionage.
Before it can revoke citizenship, the government must first send a written notice explaining its grounds. A hearing may then be held. The decision effectively becomes a deportation order.
Both major opposition parties opposed the bill, which critics say creates two-tiered citizenship because it treats those who have acquired it through naturalization differently than those born in Canada.
Earlier this month, Australia introduced similar legislation, although it goes further, allowing the government to revoke citizenship from dual nationals who “act inconsistently with their allegiance to Australia.”