Canadian Prime Minister vows crackdown on “terror tourism”

OTTAWA, Canada – Stephen Harper is kicking off Week 2 of the federal election campaign with a headline-grabbing effort to crack down on homegrown terror threats.

OTTAWA, Canada – Stephen Harper is kicking off Week 2 of the federal election campaign with a headline-grabbing effort to crack down on homegrown terror threats.

Harper promised to make it a crime for Canadians to travel to specific countries or regions where they could fight alongside groups officially identified by the federal government as terrorist organizations.

He says a re-elected Conservative government would establish “declared areas” – regions of the world where terrorist groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hold control and use their base to recruit and train followers.

Harper made his announcement at a news conference in Ottawa, flanked by Canadian flags.

He says national security agencies would track Canadians who travel to those areas; those who return would be required to prove they were in the region for humanitarian reasons, or as a journalist covering the conflict. Similar laws exist in Australia, which has designated parts of Iraq and Syria as no-travel zones.

When asked about the ramifications of his proposed anti-terror measure, Harper struck a defiant tone.

He acknowledged – grudgingly – that humanitarian workers, journalists and diplomats might “theoretically” have legitimate reasons for travelling to such a country.

“There will be exceptions in the law for those legitimate reasons, and I don’t think that people who have legitimate reasons will have difficulty showing those, but we know what other people are doing there,” Harper said.

“That is something that we have to nip in the bud before trained terrorists return to this country.”

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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