- Joined
- Mar 11, 2013
- Messages
- 14,950
- Points
- 113
The Conservatives called for an investigation: ‘The Liberal government must answer for why they spent $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals‘
Kimberly Polman is greeted by family members after being released from custody at provincial court in Chilliwack, B.C., on October 27, 2022. Polman was repatriated to Canada from a detention camp in Syria after marrying an ISIS member. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press/File
Article content
The federal government spent more than $170,000 to bring Canadian women and their children back to the country after they went overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, documents show.
Article content
As first reported by Global News, the documents, which were released under access to information legislation, contain details of the costs incurred when eight women, along with their children, were brought home from Syria. They include costs for business class air travel and hotel bills in Montreal that include wine, candy and chocolates. A number of the women have since been charged with terrorism offences.
On Friday, the Conservatives called for an investigation into the expenditures in a letter addressed to Jean-Yves Duclos, the chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Global News reported.
“With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spent $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals,” the letter reportedly says.
Article content
The Conservative party did not respond by press time to National Post’s request for comment.
Article content
The first round of repatriations, completed in October 2022, cost $10,863, according to the documents from Global Affairs Canada. Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned to the country in that operation. Polman is facing terrorism charges and Chouay pleaded guilty last month to one charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
Article content
The second operation, which occurred in April 2023, cost $132,746 in expenses for government staff and those returned to Canada.
Not all the expenses are detailed in the documents, but the total cost includes $20,331 for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott hotel at the Montreal Airport, including room-service bills and a catering tab of nearly $3,000. At the time, four Canadian women — three of whom were arrested upon arrival — and their 10 children were returned to Canada, The Canadian Press reported.
Among that group was Edmontonian Aimee Lucia Vasconez, who was married to two different ISIS fighters, according to an affidavit filed in court by an RCMP officer. Another, Ammara Amjad, was also arrested and faces a terrorism charge.
Article content
Individual bills show that one room cost nearly $1,100, driven up from the original room cost of $638 by purchases of $95 worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87 worth of items from the hotel gift store, including chocolate, chips and drugs such as Benadryl and Reactine.
Article content
That same room tipped $7 on an $8 coffee. Another room ordered $15 worth of children’s ice cream, and a third ordered white, red and sparkling wine at $25 apiece. One room’s food bill included two $24 smoked meat dishes.
The third repatriation operation, done in early July 2023, cost more than $27,500 and saw a government of Canada employee purchase snacks, including goldfish and granola bars, from Costco, and Timbits from Tim Hortons, for the operation. Hotel rooms in Montreal cost a bit more than $2,300.
Article content
Two Edmonton women, Dina Kalouti and Helena Carson, were among that group. Both have been sentenced to six-month peace bonds and they are required to continue counselling with the Edmonton-based Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV), which provides programming for people seeking to leave extremist groups.
Article content
The documents redact a number of details, and 50 pages were not released, as they are under consultation. The documents do not appear to account for the costs of actually flying to Syria to get the women from detention camps; they include only the costs of transferring them within Canada.
Article content
Global Affairs Canada did not respond to National Post’s requests for comment by press time.
Article content
The federal government spent more than $170,000 to bring Canadian women and their children back to the country after they went overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, documents show.
Article content
As first reported by Global News, the documents, which were released under access to information legislation, contain details of the costs incurred when eight women, along with their children, were brought home from Syria. They include costs for business class air travel and hotel bills in Montreal that include wine, candy and chocolates. A number of the women have since been charged with terrorism offences.
On Friday, the Conservatives called for an investigation into the expenditures in a letter addressed to Jean-Yves Duclos, the chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Global News reported.
“With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spent $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals,” the letter reportedly says.
Article content
The Conservative party did not respond by press time to National Post’s request for comment.
Article content
The first round of repatriations, completed in October 2022, cost $10,863, according to the documents from Global Affairs Canada. Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned to the country in that operation. Polman is facing terrorism charges and Chouay pleaded guilty last month to one charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.
Article content
The second operation, which occurred in April 2023, cost $132,746 in expenses for government staff and those returned to Canada.
Not all the expenses are detailed in the documents, but the total cost includes $20,331 for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott hotel at the Montreal Airport, including room-service bills and a catering tab of nearly $3,000. At the time, four Canadian women — three of whom were arrested upon arrival — and their 10 children were returned to Canada, The Canadian Press reported.
Among that group was Edmontonian Aimee Lucia Vasconez, who was married to two different ISIS fighters, according to an affidavit filed in court by an RCMP officer. Another, Ammara Amjad, was also arrested and faces a terrorism charge.
Article content
Individual bills show that one room cost nearly $1,100, driven up from the original room cost of $638 by purchases of $95 worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87 worth of items from the hotel gift store, including chocolate, chips and drugs such as Benadryl and Reactine.
Article content
That same room tipped $7 on an $8 coffee. Another room ordered $15 worth of children’s ice cream, and a third ordered white, red and sparkling wine at $25 apiece. One room’s food bill included two $24 smoked meat dishes.
The third repatriation operation, done in early July 2023, cost more than $27,500 and saw a government of Canada employee purchase snacks, including goldfish and granola bars, from Costco, and Timbits from Tim Hortons, for the operation. Hotel rooms in Montreal cost a bit more than $2,300.
Article content
Two Edmonton women, Dina Kalouti and Helena Carson, were among that group. Both have been sentenced to six-month peace bonds and they are required to continue counselling with the Edmonton-based Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV), which provides programming for people seeking to leave extremist groups.
Article content
The documents redact a number of details, and 50 pages were not released, as they are under consultation. The documents do not appear to account for the costs of actually flying to Syria to get the women from detention camps; they include only the costs of transferring them within Canada.
Article content
Global Affairs Canada did not respond to National Post’s requests for comment by press time.
