Wednesday, May 18, 2022
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Social licence
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Social licence
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

How to hold foreign fighters to account when they return to Canada

A new paper by Sarah Teich and David Matas proposes how Canada can bring justice to those who commit atrocities and human rights abuses abroad.

March 9, 2022
in Domestic Policy Program, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Program, Justice, Latest News, Releases, Sarah Teich
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

OTTAWA, ON (March 9, 2022): When Canadians leave to fight for terrorist groups like the Islamic State, inevitably some return home. How should these cases be handled? Who is responsible for ensuring that victims find justice? And what legal means do we have to punish and deter those who commit atrocity crimes abroad?

To address these questions, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Canadian Coalition Against Terror have released a new joint publication titled “The troubled homecoming: Seeking accountability against Canadian foreign fighters returning home from abroad.”

Ensuring that Canadian law and policy can hold foreign fighters who engage in atrocity crimes to account “requires an analysis of current law and policy tools, spanning criminal and civil law remedies,” write authors Sarah Teich and David Matas.

However, the authors find that Canada’s legal systems lack the tools to deal with foreign fighters. The current criminal and civil tools available to governments and victims leave exploitable gaps, and our legal approach to combatting terrorism has not kept up with the evolving nature of this threat.

For example, Teich and Matas find that Canada’s laws may be too lax in terms of criminalizing certain terrorist activities. For instance, knowingly joining a terrorist group is not presently an offence under the Criminal Code. While terrorist financing abroad can be prosecuted by Canadian courts, conspiracies to commit terrorism offences or activities outside Canada cannot. The federal government can prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity by foreign fighters, but the Department of Justice’s War Crimes Section is too underfunded to prosecute effectively.

More generally, government policy lacks clarity when it comes to applying the laws on the books or adequately supporting private actors seeking justice. Taken together, this makes it more challenging to hold individuals who commit atrocity crimes abroad to account and, ultimately, weakens our ability to deter terrorism.

“Canadian lawmakers must ensure that our legal system is prepared, and that there is no impunity for fighters who were involved in serious wrongdoing,” argue Teich and Matas. “The paper identifies gaps in the law and policy that Canadian lawmakers should address.”

To read the full paper, click on the button below.

***
Sarah Teich is a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a legal advisor to the Canadian Coalition Against Terror. David Matas is a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

For more information, media are invited to contact:

Brett Byers
Communications and Digital Media Manager
613-482-8327 x105
brett.byers@macdonaldlaurier.ca

Tags: David MatasForeign Affairsforeign fightersforeign policySarah Teich
Previous Post

Global energy security and the growing demand for critical minerals

Next Post

The troubled homecoming: Seeking accountability against Canadian foreign fighters returning home from abroad

Related Posts

The least-cost path to net zero needs oil and gas: Jack Mintz in the Financial Post
Energy

Ottawa’s “just transition” needs to be challenged for encouraging fantasy around oil and gas: Heather Exner-Pirot in the Calgary Herald

May 18, 2022
Colonial Pipeline Hacking Attack: Christian Leuprecht on the Roy Green Show
Foreign Affairs

Canada must learn to play hardball on cyber deterrence: Alex Wilner in the Ottawa Citizen

May 18, 2022
It’s time to improve post-secondary education in Canada: Coates and Auld in the Toronto Sun
Indigenous Affairs Program

Indigenous education can and must be fixed: Ken Coates for Inside Policy

May 18, 2022
Next Post
The troubled homecoming:  Seeking accountability against Canadian foreign fighters returning home from abroad

The troubled homecoming: Seeking accountability against Canadian foreign fighters returning home from abroad

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Follow us on

Newsletter Signup

First Name
Last Name
Email Address

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

Inside Policy Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Back Issues
  • Advertising
  • Inside Policy Blog
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
    • Jobs
  • Experts
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy Program
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Energy
      • Health Care
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Social licence
    • Foreign Policy Program
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs Program
  • Projects
    • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
    • Provincial COVID Misery Index
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
      • Dragon at the Door
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
    • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
    • Past Projects
      • Justice Report Card
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy Magazine
      • Inside Policy Back Issues
      • Inside Policy Blog
    • Papers
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • Straight Talk
    • Video
    • Multimedia
    • Podcasts
    • Leading Economic Indicator
    • Labour Market Report
    • MLI in the Media

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.