OTTAWA — Conservative leadership candidate Tony Clement says if people at high risk of committing terrorist acts cannot be monitored around the clock, they should be behind bars.
Clement says court-ordered peace bonds — such as the one Aaron Driver was under while he planned his thwarted terrorist attack with explosives last month — are not enough unless security officials are able to monitor people 24 hours a day.
The RCMP has acknowledged that Driver was not under constant surveillance and that it was a tip from U.S. authorities that alerted them to his plans.
Clement says if non-stop monitoring is impossible, people who reach the evidentiary threshold of peace bonds should instead be incarcerated following a judicial process until they are no longer a threat to the public.
The Ontario MP and former cabinet minister revealed his position while unveiling his proposed plan for increasing national security to protect Canada from terrorist threats at home and abroad.
The plan includes enhanced screening with face-to-face video-conferencing for potential immigrants, revoking the Canadian citizenship of dual nationals convicted of terrorism and setting up an independent government agency to monitor the activities of all charities to make sure they are not contributing to terrorism or radicalization.
