Two Canadians captured in Syria during the fight against the so-called Islamic State were arrested by the RCMP on Tuesday night after their flight landed in Montreal.
The women are the first the Canadian government has brought home from detention camps in northeast Syria for foreign ISIS members and their families.
Oumaimi Chouay, 27, was charged with four terrorism offences, including leaving Canada to participate in the activity of a terrorist group.
She is the first Canadian captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters to face charges in Canada. She was to appear in court Wednesday in Montreal.
A second Canadian, Kimberly Polman, was also arrested but not charged. Instead, RCMP are seeking a terrorism peace bond against her.
Her lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said Polman was expected to be released after signing a recognizance and she would then return to Abbotsford, B.C.
A Canadian government delegation met with officials in rebel-held northeast Syria on Tuesday before the two women were handed over into their custody. Chouay’s two children were also brought back to Canada.
The Al-Hawl Camp, where most of the families captured during the fight against ISIS are detained.
The move is an about-face for the Canadian government, which had previously refused to help bring any of its citizens out of the detention camps, arguing it had no legal obligation to do so and it was too dangerous.
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Under a policy adopted by Global Affairs Canada in January 2021, Canadians detained at ISIS camps in Syria can only receive “extraordinary assistance” under limited circumstances, such as if they have medical issues that cannot be treated on site.
Polman qualified because she was suffering from an array of serious health problems.
“Canada conducted the operation on that basis and ensured the health and well-being of the 4 Canadians,” a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.
Polman left Canada to marry an ISIS fighter she met online but has said she quickly became disillusioned and was mistreated by both her husband and ISIS.
The RCMP said the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team had been investigating Chouay since November 2014.
She also faces charges of participation in terrorist group activity, providing property for terrorist purposes and conspiracy to leave Canada to participate in terrorist group activity.
“The two women who returned this week were struggling with serious medical issues in the camps, so Canada did the right thing bringing them back when they did,” said Prof. Amaranth Amarasingam of Queen’s University.
A terrorism researcher who has been studying foreign fighters, Amarasingam said it was “quite astonishing that over 20 children and around a dozen women remain in the camps, though.”
“It would have made much more sense to just bring them all back at once, as opposed to what is happening now.”
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About a dozen Canadian women and men, as well as their children, are still being held in Syria. They include self-confessed ISIS members and others who claim they were duped into travelling to Syria.
Another B.C. woman who had allegedly been part of ISIS returned to Canada last November and was arrested on a terrorism peace bond. Her release from Syria was not facilitated by the Canadian government.
Her daughter and an orphan are the only others brought to Canada from the camps. Another Canadian, Mohammed Khalifa, was flown to the United States last year and has pleaded guilty to executing prisoners on video.
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