Tory leadership hopeful Tony Clement calls for 'wanted' list, jailing of terror threats

People who have been deemed a terrorist threat should be incarcerated if they can't be monitored around the clock, Conservative leadership candidate Tony Clement said Monday in outlining his national security platform.

"If the safety of the public cannot be guaranteed through a peace bond, it has to be guaranteed through incarceration," he told reporters on Parliament Hill.

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Clement also wants terrorist suspects to be on a published "wanted" list.

Clement said both measures would be subject to judicial review and require an "evidentiary threshold" be met.

"I'm not proposing some kind of wanted list that is the figment of somebody's imagination or without some kind of evidence," Clement said. "Clearly, that would not be acceptable in Canadian society."

"The evidence is that more has to be done to identify these individuals who are a threat, to isolate them, to make sure the community is aware of them and then, of course, to use the judicial process to extract them from our society."

Clement pointed to Aaron Driver as an example of someone openly sympathizing with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who was not being monitored closely enough.

In early August, Driver was killed in a police operation in Strathroy, Ont. after being deemed an "imminent" threat by RCMP. He was under a peace bond, but not required to wear GPS tracking device. The case raised questions about the effectiveness of peace bonds.

Clement said people in a similar situation to Driver should be monitored 24 hours a day and incarcerated if necessary. He did not specify how long that detention would last under his proposal.

'Enhanced screening' for immigrants

Clement repeated his proposal for the "enhanced screening" of people coming in and out of Canada as part of his national security platform. He said the current process is not rigorous enough.

"Only nine to 15 per cent of the current intake of immigrants in any given year go through the rigorous screening of CSIS and other security agencies," he said. "That's just far too low."

"We have to encourage and have policies that have more video screening — away from our borders — of potential newcomers to our country."

While the proposal echoes the phrasing of rival leadership contender Kellie Leitch's controversial question about screening immigrants for anti-Canadian values, Clement said the focus would be on terrorist activity. 

"My focus is to concern myself with people who not only have different values than you or I have, but are translating those ideas and values into activity — violent activity against Canadians."

Repeal changes to citizenship law

In February, the Liberals scrapped Conservative measures that allowed Ottawa to revoke the citizenship of Canadians convicted of terrorism, treason and spying offences.

Immigration Minister John McCallum called the previous law a "slippery slope."

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Clement said he wants to amend the Liberal law to find a "constitutionally acceptable" way of restoring the provision that would strip citizenship from dual nationals who are convicted and sentenced for terrorism. 

Clement's proposals also include increased investigation of charities for possible links to terrorist organizations and having CSIS review whether the Egypt-based Islamic political movement Muslim Brotherhood should be classified as a terrorist group.