THE FOREIGN FIGHTER CRISIS: A RENEWED CANADIAN APPROACH.

The Syrian Civil War and the rise of the Islamic State have attracted thousands of foreign fighters from Western countries. One hundred and ninety of these individuals have a nexus to Canada, and approximately 60 have returned home. To date, despite concerns that these returning foreign fighters pose a national security threat in Canada, only three have been convicted of the Criminal Code's terrorism offences--a meager figure that exposes a legal and policy vacuum in Canada's approach to the foreign fighter phenomenon. Canada's terrorism offenses were designed to prosecute domestic offenders and are ill-equipped to effectively impose criminal sanctions on returning foreign fighters. Prosecutions are hamstrung by the inherent difficulty of extracting courtroom-worthy evidence from foreign war zones. As a result, Canada is left with an incomplete toolbox that is overly reliant on community de-radicalization programs, reintegration, and surveillance. While these are indispensable tools, exclusive reliance on this approach neglects the important deterrent and denunciatory effects of criminal sanctions, particularly for high-risk individuals who remain hostile and ideologically engaged. To address this legislative gap, this paper proposes two Criminal Code offences that prohibit (1) travelling to a declared conflict zone for non-legitimate purposes, and (2) engaging in "hostile activities" while in a foreign country. Both offences are designed to address the challenge of collecting war-zone evidence and facilitate effective prosecution of foreign fighters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]