VANCOUVER, B.C. – A British Columbia man has been deemed inadmissible to Canada for being a security risk based on his Facebook posts promoting terrorism in support of the Islamic State group.

Othman Hamdan is a Jordanian national who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in September 2017, but immigration authorities arrested him and determined at multiple detention reviews that he poses a danger to the public.

Now, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has decided Hamdan should be deported.

The board says in its written decision that Hamdan made himself out to be a cheerleader for the Islamic State in many of his 85 Facebook posts as he glorified and encouraged lone wolf attacks in Canada, the United States and other western countries.

The decision says Hamdan cast his activity on Facebook as an alternative news source, providing his followers with another view of events in the Middle East as he relayed the message of a terrorist organization.

Hamdan was arrested in 2015 at his home in Fort St. John, where he moved years after studying electrical engineering in the United States. </s> A Jordanian arrested in British Columbia over social media posts that allegedly supported the so-called Islamic State and “lone wolf” terrorist attacks has been ordered deported from Canada.

In a ruling Friday, the Immigration and Refugee Board found that Othman Ayed Hamdan was a danger to the security of Canada, saying he had served the “social media agenda” of the terrorist group.

“Mr. Hamdan identified infrastructure in Canada which could be targets for attack. He encouraged lone wolves in the West who could not travel abroad to carry out attacks at home,” the IRB wrote.

“He shared a detailed how-to manual for lone wolves to follow in serving the terrorist agenda of the Islamic State. Additionally, many posts appear to be recruitment initiatives.”

READ MORE: Online-inspired extremists are ‘the greatest terrorist threat,’ declassified CSIS document says

A Palestinian, Hamdan was born in the United Arab Emirates but is a citizen of Jordan. He was accepted as a refugee after arriving at the Canadian border from Washington State in 2002.

He was living in Fort St. John, B.C., in 2015 when he was arrested by the RCMP on terrorism charges stemming from his online posts about ISIS. Although he was acquitted in 2017, immigration authorities arrested him for possible deportation.

Like the unsuccessful terrorism prosecution against him, his immigration troubles were the result of dozens of messages he posted on Facebook in 2014 and 2015. In his posts, he identified a B.C. dam and an Ontario bridge as possible targets and called the lone terrorists who killed two soldiers in 2014 a hero and a brother.

The IRB dismissed Hamdan’s claim that he was merely acting as an “alternative news source,” finding he “identified with and allied himself with a terrorist organization and he served that organization’s social media agenda by relaying its messages.”

The ruling comes as Western governments are struggling to deal with social media use by violent extremist groups such as ISIS, which exploited the internet to recruit and disseminate threats, claims of responsibility and other propaganda.

Hamdan was “aware of the context in which he was making these posts, in which the Islamic State was using lone wolf attacks in Western countries in order to spread their influence and spread fear,” the IRB ruled.

READ MORE: Hearings scheduled to deport alleged ISIS supporter in B.C., official says

“Despite this global context, and despite knowing that his posts would be read by his online followers, Mr. Hamdan still chose to make the posts in question in the hopes that his posts would further the Islamic State’s influence, and aware that his readers might follow through on the terrorist acts that he promoted.”

Hamdan’s lawyer, Peter Edelmann, had argued his client had already been prosecuted and acquitted. “If Mr. Hamdan was a Canadian citizen he would be out, able to pursue the same activities that he was pursuing in terms of his speech.”

The immigration proceedings had been taking place behind closed doors since last fall but Global News successfully fought the publication ban. “Having these hearings in public is jeopardizing my safety in the future as well, here and abroad,” Hamdan said. </s> Othman Hamdan is a Jordanian national who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in September 2017

A B.C. man has been deemed inadmissible to Canada for being a security risk based on his Facebook posts promoting terrorism in support of the Islamic State group.

Othman Hamdan is a Jordanian national who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in September 2017, but immigration authorities arrested him and determined at multiple detention reviews that he poses a danger to the public.

Now, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has decided Hamdan should be deported.

READ MORE: B.C. man cleared of terror charges is security risk

The board says in its written decision that Hamdan made himself out to be a cheerleader for the Islamic State in many of his 85 Facebook posts as he glorified and encouraged lone wolf attacks in Canada, the United States and other western countries.

The decision says Hamdan cast his activity on Facebook as an alternative news source, providing his followers with another view of events in the Middle East as he relayed the message of a terrorist organization.

Hamdan was arrested in 2015 at his home in Fort St. John, where he moved years after studying electrical engineering in the United States.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. </s> A B.C. man whose Facebook posts promoted ISIS and praised lone wolf terrorist attacks has been ordered deported from Canada.

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada has ruled that Othman Hamdan of Fort St. John is a "danger to the security of Canada" and is therefore inadmissible.

"While Mr. Hamdan has no history of violence, he has praised lone wolf attacks, actively promoted the Islamic State, disseminated instructions on how to commit attacks and seems fascinated with the extreme violence of the Islamic State demonstrated by possessing Islamic State videos depicting gruesome murders," IRB member Marc Tessler wrote in an Oct. 18 decision.

"Mr. Hamdan's threats take on a more sinister dimension when a fascination with violence is mixed with anger and resentment."

Despite the deportation order, Hamdan isn't likely to be removed from Canada anytime soon, though he remains in custody. There are still a number of outstanding legal matters to be decided, including the removal of his refugee status, before he can be deported.

Hamdan, a Jordanian national, says he moved to Canada from the U.S. in 2002 because of threats he'd received. He was granted refugee protection in 2004.

He was acquitted last year in B.C. Supreme Court of terrorism-related charges related to his Facebook posts, but was arrested by officers from the Canada Border Services Agency upon his release from custody.

85 posts on 14 Facebook accounts

During his immigration hearing, Hamdan had argued that his posts were an expression of free speech.

But Tessler said the material was dangerous because it encouraged others to commit terrorist attacks.

At issue were a total of 85 Facebook posts on 14 different accounts — Hamdan was forced to create new accounts every time the social media company disabled one for promoting terrorism, according to Tessler.

The posts included praise for Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the 2014 Parliament Hill shooter, and Martin Couture-Rouleau, who killed a soldier with his car in Quebec the same year.

Hamdan also posted a lengthy entry that Tessler described as a "how-to" for people hoping to carry out lone wolf attacks against non-Muslims.

"The post provides the reader with a menu of killing options, including slitting the victim's throat with a knife, hitting them over the head with a heavy object and then slitting their throat, stabbing victims while riding past them on a motorbike; poisoning, choking and shooting them with a firearm equipped with a silencer, taking a vehicle from a Christian or an apostate and using it run people over," Tessler wrote.

'Sadistic inhumanity'

Hamdan's immigration hearings also heard evidence about how he'd created some troubling graffiti inside his holding cell at the Vancouver law courts, including an attempted drawing of the Islamic State's flag.

One of his neighbours in the cells gave police a thumb drive belonging to Hamdan that was filled with videos about ISIS. It contained six videos that featured "the kind of sadistic inhumanity associated with the Islamic State, including manual beheadings and the shootings of individuals in the head at close range," Tessler wrote.

The judge who handled Hamdan's criminal trial ruled in 2017 that while Hamdan's comments were offensive, they didn't amount to incitement of terrorism. Hamdan was found not guilty of encouraging murder, assault and mischief for terrorist-related purposes, as well inducing and instructing someone to carry out a terrorist act.

However, as Tessler pointed out in his decision, immigration matters have a "considerably lower" burden of truth than criminal trials — the government only needs to prove there are reasonable grounds to believe an allegation is true. </s> VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man has been deemed inadmissible to Canada for being a security risk based on his Facebook posts that glorified terrorism in support of the Islamic State group, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada says.

Othman Hamdan is a Jordanian national who was acquitted of three terrorism-related charges by a B.C. Supreme Court judge in September 2017, but immigration authorities kept him in custody and determined at multiple detention reviews that he poses a danger to the public.

The board, which must establish whether an allegation is true rather than proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, says in a written decision released Friday that a deportation order has been issued for Hamdan.

Marc Tessler says in the ruling that Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale alleges much of the content in 85 Facebook posts amounted to counselling and supporting others to commit terrorist acts in Canada, the United States and other western countries.

“The minister asserts that Mr. Hamdan assumed for himself the role of a spokesman and cheerleader for the Islamic State but more specifically he glorified and encouraged lone wolf attacks,” the decision says of the man’s posts between September 2014 and July 2015.

Facebook began shutting down sites it identified as supporting the Islamic State, but Hamdan created new accounts and was posting on about 14 accounts. His security settings allowed anyone to read his posts.

Hamdan tried to explain away his use of the acronym IED, telling an admissibility hearing it stood for Internationally Epic Defeat, dismissing concerns that it is also used for Improvised Explosive Device.

“IED stands for any three words that begin with these three letters, so you could make up a whole lot of things that begin with these letters,” Hamdan said during the hearing, even though his post referred to the terrorist bombings at the Boston Marathon in 2013, where two brothers used pressure cookers as improvised explosive devices.

Four of Hamdan’s posts mention the Islamic State offering a reward of about US$16,0000 to whoever kills a pilot of an alliance of countries fighting terrorism. The posts followed the downing of a Jordanian air force jet and capture of a pilot who was killed by being burned, with the Islamic State disseminating a video of the execution.

Hamdan posted a link to the video, with a caption that suggested the pilot’s death was justified because of the actions of alliance countries that bombed civilians from the air: “Think is it OK to kill kids under any circumstances!!! No then why is it OK when the murderer is a jet pilot that’s miles away!!!”

The decision says Hamdan, who was born in the United Arab Emirates, cast his activity on Facebook as an alternative news source, providing his followers with another view of events in the Middle East.

“Mr. Hamdan, however, did not merely report news, he identified with and allied himself with a terrorist organization and he served that organization’s social media agenda by relaying its messages.”

Hamdan was arrested in 2015 at his home in Fort St. John and told the court he moved to Vancouver in 2002 after studying electrical engineering in the United States, where he said he faced discrimination following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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He was granted refugee protection in Canada in 2004. He applied for permanent resident status but his application was declared abandoned four years later.

On Oct. 22, the Refugee Protection Division of the board allowed the public safety minister’s application to cease Hamdan’s refugee protection. He has already applied to the Federal Court for a judicial review.

An RCMP officer told an admissibility hearing in April that Hamdan was not a “couch jihadist” with a big mouth but someone who was radicalized by Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Hamdan threatened Facebook and the RCMP in his posts and discussed infrastructure in Canada, including a dam in Revelstoke, B.C., and a bridge near Nipigon, Ont., suggesting they were weak targets. </s> OTTAWA—Conservative MPs are calling for action against a Canadian-born, self-described terror recruit reportedly living in Toronto, but Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he can’t comment on the case for security reasons.

A Canadian who calls himself Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi appeared on a recent New York Times podcast, describing how he executed people while working with Daesh (also known as Islamic State or ISIS) militants in Syria.

The matter arose in question period in the Commons, with Conservative MP Candice Bergen citing media reports that say the man is in Toronto.

Daesh servers seized in Canada in multi-country takedown of propaganda network </s> ​Members of B.C.'s Syrian community say they are concerned the announcement of Ibrahim Ali's murder charge for the death of Marrisa Shen — and Ali's status as a former refugee — could lead to unwarranted backlash.

Police on Monday announced that Ali, 28, has been charged for killing Shen. They described him as a man with no criminal record who arrived in Canada 17 months ago as a refugee from Syria.

Those details caused concern for people like Danny Ramadan, who came to Vancouver from Syria four years ago, himself a refugee.

The acclaimed novelist and LGBTQ activist said for people in his community there is already fear of being vilified for one man's alleged crime.

"The saddest thing is mostly [I've] heard from other Syrians who are extremely shocked by what happened," Ramadan said.

"They're worried that, while they're trying their best to build a beautiful home for themselves here, this is a new challenge they may have to add to their plate of many challenges they are facing at the moment."

Rahim Othman with the Syrian-Canadian Council of B.C. said there have already been negative comments surfacing on social media.

"This incident is an isolated incident," Othman said of the allegations. "It's unfortunate that there are sick and criminal people out there and these people can come from any community."

His group will be lighting candles for Marrisa Shen Friday morning outside Vancouver provincial court where Ali is expected to appear.

Immigrants less likely to commit crime

Refugee and immigrant advocacy group Mosaic expressed its condolences for the Shen family while also expressing concern that media coverage is focusing too much on Ali's status as a former refugee.

"The focus on immigration status will negatively impact support for refugees, and erode the goodwill and generosity that the majority of Canadians have for this vulnerable population," a statement from the organization read.

"Ibrahim Ali is accused of a terrible crime, but if he is guilty, he is not representative of all refugees, nor of all Syrians.

"It has been shown that immigrants are statistically less likely to commit crimes than others, but as in everything else, there are always exceptions."

None of the allegations against Ali have been tested in court. </s> PALM BEACH, Fla. — U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out Saturday at “this so-called judge” who put a nationwide hold on his executive order denying entry to the U.S. to refugees and people from seven predominantly Muslim countries. The ruling set in motion another weekend of confusion and chaos around the country.

The White House pledged to swiftly appeal the federal judge’s ruling late Friday, but that didn’t appear to be enough for Trump, who vented his frustrations on Twitter.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” Trump said.

Trump has said the travel ban, which he enacted by executive order on Jan. 27, will keep Americans safe by keeping potential terrorists from entering the country.

He also said Saturday on Twitter that “when a country is no longer able to say who can and who cannot come in & out, especially for reasons of safety & security — big trouble!”

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle ruled late Friday against government lawyers’ claims that Washington state and Minnesota, which sued over the ban, lacked the legal grounds to challenge Trump’s order. Robart said the states showed that their case was likely to succeed.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said late Friday that the Justice Department would appeal the “outrageous” order “at the earliest possible time. Spicer quickly issued an amended statement that deleted ”outrageous.“

“The president’s order is intended to protect the homeland and he has the constitutional authority and responsibility to protect the American people,” Spicer said, calling the order both lawful and appropriate.

Trump billed the action as necessary to stop “radical Islamic terrorists” from coming to the U.S.

The order included a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia or Yemen, a 120-day suspension of the U.S. refugee program, and an indefinite bar against admitting Syrian refugees.

The decision sparked protests nationwide and confusion at airports as some travellers were detained. More protests were planned for this weekend, including at Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is spending the weekend.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York issued an emergency order after lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union filed a court petition on behalf of people from the seven countries who were detained at airports nationwide as the ban took effect.

Donnelly’s order addressed only a portion of Trump’s order, and barred U.S. border agents from removing anyone who arrived in the U.S. with a valid visa from the seven countries. Robart’s decision was more sweeping in scope.

Saturday was not the first instance of Trump criticizing a federal judge, a member of an independent branch of the government.

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly criticized the federal judge who was presiding over a lawsuit brought by former students of Trump University. Trump claimed that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was born in Indiana, had an “absolute conflict” in handling the case because he is “of Mexican heritage.” Trump launched his presidential campaign with a harsh description of Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers.

Trump recently agreed to pay $25 million to settle the lawsuits against Trump University. </s> On Wednesday, the Canadian Senate passed bill C-210, which aims to change the lyrics in “O Canada,” the Canadian national anthem, to make it gender-neutral. The bill had first been introduced in the Senate in June 2016.

The bill was introduced as a private member’s bill by member of Parliament Mauril Belanger; he is no longer a member of the Canadian Parliament as he died in 2016 after fighting Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The bill stipulates that the lyric, “True patriot love in all thy sons command” be altered to “True patriot love in all of us command.” – READ MORE

With renewed pressure brought to bear by President Donald Trump on illegal aliens in the U.S., Canada is warning immigrants here that illegally crossing into Canada is not a free ticket to permanent residency and they can still be deported back to their point of origin if they steal across America’s northern border.

With many illegal immigrants becoming uneasy over their status in the U.S., some are eyeing a trip northward to a country many are told will accept everyone and give them lots of free stuff to boot.

But Ahmed Hussen, Canada’s immigration minister, recently warned illegals that they shouldn’t waltz into Canada and necessarily expect to get cradle to the grave freebies, according to the New York Times.

Hussen, who was an immigrant to Canada himself, warned illegals that while Canada is a welcoming country, they won’t take everyone who illegally crosses into the country.

“We don’t want people to illegally enter our border, and doing so is not a free ticket to Canada,” Hussen said . “We are saying, ‘You will be apprehended, screened, detained, fingerprinted, and if you can’t establish a genuine claim, you will be denied refugee protection and removed.’” – READ MORE

When President Trump issued a travel ban on citizens from seven Muslim terrorist hotbeds shortly after taking office, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was incensed.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength,” Trudeau wrote on January 28, 2017.

But in 2018, the young prime minister is singing a different tune.

The Canadian government, worried that Salvadorans will flood across the border into Canada to avoid deportation, is now trying to discourage them from crossing into the country — as thousands of Haitians did last year after they were threatened with the loss of similar protection.

“The government announced that it was planning to send Pablo Rodriguez, a Spanish-speaking member of Parliament, to California in the coming days to speak to community groups, lawyers and Spanish-language media,” the Miami Herald reported. “His message is simple: If you don’t qualify for refugee or asylum status, don’t try to cross into Canada.” – READ MORE
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada orders Othman Hamdan, a Fort St. John man whose Facebook posts promoted the Islamic State, deported. The deportation is not immediate and requires additional events to occur.