Wassim Boughadou is needed by the RCMP for terrorism. He insists he’s “completely” prepared to fly residence from Turkey to give up to police.
However the Montreal-born 34-year-old claims he can’t as a result of Global Affairs Canada received’t let him.
“I’m in a limbo,” he wrote in a textual content message, a part of a cache of paperwork obtained by International Information which have gone unreported till now.
The RCMP and International Affairs Canada wouldn’t touch upon Boughadou. His Ottawa lawyer additionally declined to remark.
The case, nonetheless, is detailed in a whole bunch of pages of court docket information that present how Ottawa is struggling to cope with Canadian residents captured overseas throughout the Syrian battle.
Canadians in Syria, Iraq and Turkey have requested the courts to order the federal government to repatriate them. Intelligence officials warn that a few of them are nationwide safety threats.
The controversy over whether or not to carry them again or go away them abroad has left a rising listing of Canadians wanted for terrorism — however not so badly that the federal government has helped them come residence.
In keeping with an enchantment Boughadou filed within the Federal Court docket, he was arrested in Turkey in 2017 and imprisoned for being a member of a terrorist group.
He claims he was compelled to signal an announcement that mentioned he was a part of the Islamic State, however denied he was within the group, though he mentioned his spouse was.
As soon as he accomplished his sentence in March 2024, Turkey ordered his deportation and he purchased a seat on a flight from Istanbul to Montreal that was to reach on Might 15 of that yr.
On that very same date, Quebec court docket information present the RCMP nationwide safety staff in Montreal obtained a warrant for Boughadou’s arrest on the grounds that he would possibly commit a terrorist offence.
Boughadou’s household notified the federal government in regards to the flight reserving, however Canadian embassy officers in Ankara wouldn’t renew his expired passport.
Three extra occasions in 2025, he tried to fly residence, however and not using a journey doc, he needed to abandon the journeys, in keeping with the recordsdata.
Canadian officers final denied his repatriation request on Nov. 6. 2025, saying Turkey was alleging he had escaped from detention and was a fugitive, which he denies.
“Within the absence of a passport or journey doc, the applicant doesn’t have permission to board a world flight,” his lawyer, Yavar Hameed, advised the court docket.
If not for the federal government’s “obstruction and delay,” Boughadou would have been again in Canada greater than a yr in the past, in keeping with the lawyer.
Iraqi safety forces lead suspected Islamic State militants for questioning, after they have been transferred from Syria to Iraq, at Al-Karkh Central Jail in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026. (AP Photograph/Hadi Mizban).
The previous Montreal laptop programming pupil shouldn’t be the one one combating in court docket to get residence, as the federal government responds to these it calls Canadian Extremist Travellers (CETs).
The households of 4 Canadian males held in Syria as suspected ISIS members additionally took the federal government to court docket, however a 2023 ruling mentioned Ottawa had no obligation to repatriate them.
In January, the mom of a Canadian held in Syria requested the Federal Court docket to order the federal government to carry residence her son, who was recognized solely as S.S.
Iraqi officers said in February that they have been holding an undisclosed variety of Canadians whereas they investigated their alleged involvement in ISIS.
The Canadian Safety Intelligence Service addressed the state of affairs in its Might 1 annual report, which referred to the “doable repatriation to Canada” of ISIS members held abroad.
“Absent of ample mitigation measures, CSIS assessed that a few of these CETs would possible pose nationwide safety and public security dangers,” the report mentioned.
The RCMP mentioned in an announcement to International Information that managing the hazards posed by returning extremists was one among its priorities.
“When the RCMP turns into conscious of a person’s return to Canada, we collaborate with a spread of presidency of Canada departments and businesses, in addition to legislation enforcement and neighborhood companions, to evaluate and mitigate potential dangers,” the police pressure mentioned in an announcement.
Responses are guided by “strong” menace assessments and might embody terrorism fees or peace bonds that prohibit the actions of suspects.
“The RCMP may also interact with a returnee and their household to open up dialogue, to assist assist the person’s disengagement from their radical ideology.”
Brother-in-law says they went to Syria collectively
Free Syrian Military fighter, Azaz, Syria, Dec. 17, 2012. (AP Photograph/Virginie Nguyen Hoang, File).
A Canadian of Algerian descent, Boughadou was allegedly a part of a bunch of Montreal youths who have been seen participating in what gave the impression to be military-style coaching at a Quebec taking pictures vary earlier than leaving for the Center East.
On the time, the civil struggle in Syria was changing into a magnet for extremists from all over the world, and the Montreal group attracted police consideration.
“They have been disenfranchised younger those that received collectively, they radicalized,” former RCMP assistant commissioner Ches Parsons mentioned in an interview.
Now retired from policing, Parsons was the RCMP’s director basic of nationwide safety when Boughadou and his associates have been on the radar of counter-terrorism investigators.
He mentioned the “Cote-des-Neiges crew,” named after a Montreal neighbourhood, felt they weren’t accepted in Canada, and “discovered their manner abroad.”
Some went to Syria to affix armed Islamist teams, however “once they recover from there, they discover that struggle shouldn’t be what they thought it will be,” mentioned Parsons, a companion at Pearl Strategic Counsel.
Boughadou left Canada in 2012. In an interview with La Presse, he mentioned his departure was precipitated by the confiscation of his firearms by police, however denied supporting ISIS.
He claimed that as a Muslim, he was not accepted in Quebec, “particularly if in case you have a political imaginative and prescient of Islam that they don’t like.”
“If you wish to go and assist somebody who’s oppressed, you don’t have the fitting. If you end up oppressed, you will need to defend your self,” he reportedly mentioned.
“We should struggle to defend Islam.”
“In keeping with the Canadian authorities’s definition, sure, I’m a radical. I received’t lie,” he continued. “However in my eyes, I’m not a radical. I’m not an extremist.”
Ismael Habib knew Boughadou as a result of their wives have been sisters. He mentioned Boughadou warned him earlier than leaving Canada that police suspected them each of terrorism.
Involved, Habib joined Boughabou in Turkey they usually crossed the border into Syria, he mentioned in statements following his arrest.
Ismael Habib.
They stayed in territory managed by the Free Syrian Military, the Islamist group Ahrar Ash-Sham and a band of Chechens, Habib mentioned.
Each purchased AK-47s and have been photographed “in fight gear, with Boughadou carrying a bulletproof vest and the accused sporting a protracted knife at his waist,” in keeping with the court docket.
In his testimony, Habib downplayed the journey to Syria, however the court docket mentioned he was not credible and had gone there for “jihad,” spending three months with the armed teams.
Habib was arrested after crossing again into Turkey from Syria, apparently as a result of Canada had cancelled his passport. He was deported to Canada and convicted of trying to join ISIS.
In response to Habib’s statements, Boughadou mentioned the courts had discovered he was not credible. He additionally claimed La Presse had misquoted him.
Different information retailers, in the meantime, had reported “baseless” allegations about him, he mentioned, and a video seized by police throughout a search of his dad and mom’ home had been mischaracterized.
The video, which reveals him firing a military-style rifle whereas advancing on foot, was a part of his marriage celebration in Algeria, the place such behaviour is “Arab customized,” he mentioned.
His face was masked within the video, he claimed, as a result of he has “an allergy to gunpowder.”
The supplies not too long ago filed in court docket additionally inform a brand new model of occasions: that he went trying to find his household and was “falsely” accused of going to Syria.
Spouse tried to ‘lure’ him to Syria
The account of Boughadou’s historical past was submitted to the court docket within the affidavit of an activist who helps him return to Canada.
In keeping with the self-described social justice advocate Matthew Behrens, Boughadou appointed him to behave as his consultant with International Affairs Canada.
The activist claimed Boughadou additionally requested him to relay his model of occasions to the court docket as a result of it will be too “troublesome and re-traumatizing” to take action himself.
In keeping with the affidavit, Boughadou’s troubles started together with his spouse’s sister, whom he mentioned “agitated for his household to go to Syria and be part of ISIS.”
“Boughadou rejected the concept and advised me he requested his spouse to drop contact along with her sister. She refused and was indoctrinated to the purpose that she ran away along with her sister to Syria.”
Searching for assist discovering his spouse and son, he went to the RCMP, however the officers as a substitute tried to recruit him to spy on a Montreal imam who was “sending people to go to Syria,” the affidavit mentioned.
“Boughadou was advised he would obtain cash, safety and help getting his son again” if he took the task, in keeping with the affidavit.
However he refused and flew to Turkey, the place he employed native girls to go looking ISIS guesthouses in Syria for his spouse, the affidavit mentioned.
They didn’t discover her, the affidavit mentioned, including that Boughadou believes his spouse’s plan all alongside was to “lure” him to Syria, and that when he resisted, she started “encouraging ISIS to hurt him.”
Picture from information video displaying the arrest of Wassim Boughadou in Adana, Turkey, March 2017.
In March 2017, Boughadou was arrested in Adana, Turkey. He was convicted by a Turkish court docket in 2018 of being a member of an “armed terrorist group.”
His enchantment to the Canadian court docket alleges the conviction was based mostly on a coerced confession, and mentioned he was tortured till he signed an announcement written in Turkish.
“He believes the assertion that he was compelled to signal incorrectly conceded that he had joined ISIS in an effort to rescue his son,” in keeping with the activist’s affidavit.
Wassim Boughadou has utilized to resume his expired passport, however continues to be ready.
Whereas Boughadou was imprisoned in Turkey, his Canadian passport expired. He utilized to resume it in 2023, in anticipation of his upcoming launch.
However in textual content messages filed in court docket, Canadian officers advised Boughadou that even when he had a journey doc, he couldn’t go away the nation resulting from his “irregular” standing in Turkey and “elements past our management.”
“I’m dwelling in a pitiful state of affairs,” he wrote in an electronic mail to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara, during which he mentioned he was “principally dwelling as a refugee.”
His rights have been being infringed, he mentioned. Ought to he be arrested or hospitalized in Turkey, he would maintain the federal government accountable, he wrote.
His court docket software claims the state of affairs has exacerbated his autism and a focus deficit hyperactivity dysfunction, in addition to different well being issues.
It asks the court docket to order the federal government to difficulty him a journey doc so he can return, including that Turkish authorities have deemed him de-radicalized and he’s prepared “to give up to the RCMP upon arrival.”
Messages with the Canadian Embassy about returning Wassim Boughadou to Canada.
Federal Court docket
Parsons mentioned it’s higher to carry Canadian extremists residence so police can at the least put them on peace bonds, and intelligence officers can watch them.
In any other case, they may escape and go on to commit acts of terrorism, or return to Canada undetected, creating nationwide safety issues.
“In case you go away them abroad, there may be the chance that they may get out and you then lose management of them,” he mentioned.
“All issues thought-about, at the least inside the context of the present menace surroundings, I believe it greatest to carry them residence the place we will hold our eyes on them and provides them the perfect likelihood of being rehabilitated.”
Former CSIS analyst Phil Gurski mentioned Canada can’t cease residents from returning however shouldn’t facilitate it for these concerned in terrorism.
The problem is that police would possibly lack ample proof on what Canadians did whereas serving in a international terrorist group, he mentioned.
“They’ve received to be arrested and charged, however my concern is we received’t have the proof for a profitable prosecution.”
So far, Canada has repatriated women who left the nation to affix ISIS, in addition to their kids, however no males.
Throughout combating that erupted in northeast Syria in January, the U.S. transferred male ISIS suspects who have been imprisoned there to Iraq.
“Canada is conscious of the switch of detainees from Syria to Iraq, together with stories of Canadian residents being transferred,” a International Affairs Canada spokesperson mentioned.
“The federal government of Canada shouldn’t be at the moment within the strategy of repatriating any Canadians from Iraq.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca