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Immigration Minister Marc Miller has confirmed that a 20-year-old Canadian resident recently arrested for allegedly plotting to carry out an ISIS-related attack against Jewish residents in New York City is a Pakistani national.
Miller made his comments Tuesday during a press conference attached to the federal Liberal caucus meeting in Nanaimo, B.C.
“I can confirm that Muhammed Khan is a Pakistani national,” Miller told reporters. Khan was issued a student visa in May 2023 and entered Canada on June 24, 2023, he said.
“We take any security breach in any entry into Canada very seriously,” he said. “Let’s not be naïve. A determined individual can gain access to this country.”
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And if they commit a crime or are about to commit a crime, he added, then it’s up to Canadian security and police forces to apprehend them.
Miller stated he would not comment further as Khan is facing criminal charges. He further stated that elected officials should not comment in a manner that would “compromise the judicial process”.
He asserted that “it’s highly careless of Pierre Poilievre and his team to be firing their mouths off again.”
The Opposition Conservatives have been demanding the Liberal government answer questions about how the man was allowed to enter Canada. On Monday, they circulated a letter they sent to the chair of the parliamentary committee on public safety calling for a probe into the matter. They alleged in the letter that there is a “pattern of ISIS-affiliated terrorists entering and residing in Canada.”
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The incident “raises serious questions about the government’s ability to prevent potential terrorists from entering the country,” the letter reads.
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The RCMP and FBI announced last week that Khan was arrested on allegations of trying to enter the United States having planned a terrorist attack against Jewish residents in New York City on the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick issued a statement alleging that Khan’s intention was “slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible.”
Miller claimed Merrick contacted the federal minister for public safety to express congratulatory wishes for the arrest operation.
The U.S. Department of Justice has said Khan started posting and talking online about his ISIS support last November and was planning to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons at a Jewish centre in Brooklyn.
The DOJ said he used three separate vehicles to try and reach the U.S.-Canada border and was arrested in a nearby Quebec municipality.
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