Canadian women released from camp for ISIS detainees in Syria

A British Columbia woman who married an ISIS fighter has been released from the detention camp in northeast Syria where she was held for more than three years, sources said Tuesday.

Kimberly Polman was one of two Canadian women taken out of Syria this morning, according to the sources. They were expected to fly to Montreal tonight.

It was unclear what role the Canadian government played in their release.

Until now, the government had refused to repatriate any of the more than a dozen Canadians captured by U.S.-back Kurdish fighters in Syria during the fight against ISIS.

But Polman qualified for “extraordinary assistance” under a policy adopted by Global Affairs Canada in January 2021 that applied to those with an “imminent, life-threatening medical condition” that could not be treated in Syria.

The repatriation comes eight months after United Nations experts urged Canada to urgently bring Polman home because she was not able to get treatment for a series of health problems that had left her seriously ill.

The second woman was described as from Quebec and accompanied by two children.

It was unclear whether or not the women would face any charges.

Global Affairs Canada did not respond to a request for comment.

Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said he was awaiting confirmation the Canadians had been taken out of the camp.

But he said if was correct it raised the broader question: why was Ottawa not extracting all Canadians?

“It underlines once again that they have the ability to make this happen,” said Greenspon, who represents the families of Canadians detained in Syria.

The RCMP has been attempting to prepare for the eventual return of Canadians who left to join ISIS but has struggled to gather the evidence needed for prosecutions.

Another B.C. woman returned to Canada in November 2021 and was arrested on a terrorism peace bond but does not face any charges. The Canadian government did not facilitate her release from Syria.

Her daughter and an orphan are the only others brought back to Canada from the camps. Another Canadian, Mohammed Khalifa, was flown to the United States and has pleaded guilty to executing prisoners on video.

Polman is a Muslim convert who married a member of ISIS she met online and served as a nurse in Syria, according to Human Rights Watch.

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“She was looking for a sense of purpose no matter how misguided,” a report by the U.S. human rights group quoted her sister as saying.

“Just before Polman secretly left for Syria in 2015, she had lost her home. The Canadian government had placed her on permanent disability at the recommendation of a psychiatrist, but the notification arrived just days after she left,” the report said.

Polman contacted her family soon after arriving in Syria and said it wasn’t what she expected and her husband was abusive, her sister said.

She told her family her husband had placed her in an ISIS prison for 10 months for being a “disobedient wife,” and she had been raped and starved by her captors, HRW said.

After she was caught by U.S.-back forces in 2019, Polman told Global News she had not spoken to Canadian officials but had “shared everything” with another government.

She did not elaborate, but the HRW report said she spoke to American, British and French intelligence agents.

Her second husband is a citizen of Trinidad who said he studied in Calgary. He said in an interview that ISIS asked him to return to North America to conduct terrorist attacks, but he refused.

Polman said she was part of a group within the detention camps that was fighting radicalization. She accepted that she might face charges in Canada.

“If the Canadian judicial system feels that I did something that needs to be prosecuted then I have to come under the laws of the country that I’m born into, like any other person,” she said.

“I’m not above the law,” she said.

“On the other side, I would suggest there’s teaching, and then there’s punishment. I’m not sure that punishing a person’s thinking is always the best way of dealing with a big issue.”

Canada’s policy on citizens detained at ISIS camps only came to light after the government filed it in a Federal Court case brought by 11 families of detainees held in Syria.

It emphasizes national security concerns, noting that one of the terrorist threats facing Canada was posed by Canadian Extremist Travellers (CETs) who have gone abroad to take part in terrorism.

“In general, due to the training and operational experience they may have acquired while abroad and the unique conflict environments to which they have been exposed in different regions, CETs could pose a serious threat to national security and public safety if they were to return to Canada,” it said.

“The government of Canada has no positive obligation under domestic or international law to provide consular assistance, including repatriation,” nor can it “secure an individual’s release from prison.”

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