Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marc Miller takes part in a press conference in Ottawa on Sept. 18. Miller said that processes are now being reviewed by the bureaucracy.Blair Gable/Reuters
A foreign student in Canada accused of plotting an Islamic State-inspired attack against Jews living in New York entered this country last year without raising any red flags that triggered additional screening by federal security agencies, according to records tabled Thursday at a parliamentary inquiry.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a 20-year-old Pakistani national residing in the Toronto area for the past year, was arrested in Quebec earlier this month. He now faces extradition to the United States on charges that he was lending material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Government officials tabled a declassified chronology of Mr. Khan’s immigration file to the House of Commons national-security committee. The committee met to discuss that case and also a separate one involving a father and son who were arrested in July on terror charges also alleged to be inspired by the Islamic State. They previously immigrated to Canada from Egypt.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that processes are now being reviewed by the bureaucracy. “We are confident in our security screening,” he added.
But the legislative committee voted that it would explore both these cases in public and in greater depth, by calling federal security and immigration officials to several coming hearings.
“Your government has brought in a student visa holder from Pakistan who is alleged to be a terrorist,” Conservative MP Raquel Dancho said to Mr. Miller.
According to the declassified chronology document submitted to the committee, Mr. Khan applied to enter Canada on a student visa in March, 2023.
The initial security assessment of Mr. Khan by federal immigration officials “did not identify any risk indicators,” the declassified chronology says. As a result, the document says, Mr. Khan’s application was “not referred for comprehensive security screening by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).”
Terror suspect arrested in Quebec en route to U.S. has no ties to Canada, court records show
These two federal security agencies help immigration officials by screening hundreds of thousands of people entering and staying in Canada each year. For example, CSIS says in its most recent annual report that it received requests to help vet nearly 500,000 people – including 46,400 temporary residents – under its immigration and citizenship screening process.
But Mr. Khan’s student visa was not one of them. His application was approved in April, 2023, and he landed at Toronto’s Pearson Airport that June. The released chronology says it was not until recent weeks that Canada’s security agencies regarded him as an imminent threat.
The documents tabled in Parliament, as well as court documents outlining the allegations in Canadian and American courts, contain unproved allegations that have yet to be tested.
Last month, “the RCMP and CSIS received information about the subject’s alleged intent to carry out a terrorist attack in the U.S. As a result, a criminal national-security investigation was initiated,” the chronology reads.
The Canadian counterterrorism probe was still in its early phases when Mr. Khan was seen to be moving from Ontario through Quebec, according to the documents. An RCMP tactical team arrested him on Sept. 4 as he was approaching the U.S. border.
“The subject was apprehended by Canadian law enforcement authorities while attempting to illegally cross southbound from Canada to the United States between the ports (i.e. not at an official border crossing point),” the chronology says.
Though Mr. Khan was initially arrested on Canadian charges, he was re-arrested to face extradition to the United States. A criminal complaint in a New York court shows that U.S. law enforcement was watching Mr. Khan from afar for months.
U.S. court documents allege that Mr. Khan became radicalized last fall and that he allegedly began plotting a mass-shooting terrorist attack. Authorities say he planned to launch it in the United States on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group to mark the anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack against Israel.
According to the U.S. criminal complaint, Mr. Khan spelled out specific plans in encrypted chats to informants and undercover police officers. “New York is perfect to target Jews,” he allegedly said as he described plans to acquire guns and recruit gunmen.
Mr. Khan’s defence lawyer, Gaétan Bourassa, says that evidence has yet to be released to him and that he is not prepared to comment on the case at this time.
Mr. Khan made a brief court appearance last week and will remain jailed in Montreal until hearings begin in the winter.
Canadian court documents describe him as having lived in Mississauga, west of Toronto. However, the address listed in the documents appears to be an immigration consultancy and not a residence. On Tuesday, a man who answered the phone there said he did not know of Mr. Khan.