'Canada does not engage in death squads,' while allies actively hunt down their own foreign fighters

Even the interviewer seemed surprised at the answer Rory Stewart, the U.K.minister of international development, gaveabout how Britain should deal with citizens who chose to leave the country to join ISIS.

"I'm afraid we have to be serious about the fact these people are a serious danger to us, and unfortunately the only way of dealing with them will be, in almost every case, to kill them," Stewarttold BBC Radio's John Pienaar last month.

Stewart, a former diplomat, continued: "These are people who are executing people who have held women and children hostage, who are torturing and murdering, trying, by violence, to impose their will. Our response has to be, when somebody does that, I'm afraid, to deal with that."

Those words may sound chilling, but they reflect a country that's suffered several brutal jihadi attacks in recent years, and seesjihadireturnees as a threat. Other countries have come to the same conclusion.

But Canadians who join the militant group have so far had little to fear from their own government, either at home or abroad.

The British governmenthas co-operatedwith the U.S. on drone strikes that killed two of Britain's most notorious ISIS members: Mohammed Emwazi (aka Jihadi John) and Junaid Hussain.

The Sunday Times reports that Britain's Special Air Service, SAS, has been given a "kill list" of British jihadis, including notorious ISIS recruiter and convert Sally Jones, and a dozen others with British university degrees in technical fields such as electronics.

Brett McGurk, former U.S. presidentBarack Obama's special envoy for the fight against ISIS, whoretains his post under Donald Trump, stated it explicitly on a recent visit to Syria. "Our mission is to make sure that any foreign fighter who is here, who joined ISIS from a foreign country and came into Syria, that they will die here in Syria."

"They're not just talking about it," saidChristianLeuprecht, an expert on terrorism and security at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ont. "Australia is another country that's taken the same approach that they would prefer that those individuals who've been identified as foreign fighters not return home."

France, too, is working to eradicate itsjihadisoverseas. A Wall Street Journal investigation published in May quoted French and Iraqi officials describingFrench special forces co-operatingwith Iraqi units to hunt down and kill French jihadis.

'Very real question'

But Canada is taking a different approach.

"Canada does not engage in death squads," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told CBC's Power & Politics on Friday.

"With the battlefield activity winding down, there is a very real question about where the foreign fighters go, and all of our allies, whether they're in the Five Eyes or the G7, we've all agreed to collaborate very carefully."

Goodale said anyone who poses a terrorist risk, homegrown or from elsewhere, is viewed "with the greatest of seriousness" by Canada's intelligence, security and police agencies.

Spokesman Dan Brien suggested the government's focus is on changing minds.

Goodale confirms 60 ISIS fighters in Canada

7 years ago

Duration 2:07

After repeated questions to PM Justin Trudeau and his Public Safety Minister, Ralph Goodale confirms there are at least 60 former ISIS fighters being watched.

"Returning foreign terrorist travellers and their families, specifically women and children, require the appropriate disengagement and reintegration support," he wrote in an email to CBCNews

Defence Minister HarjitSajjan said his department's job is ensuring foreign fighters don't become a threat.

"We will make sure that we put every type of resource into place so Canadians are well protected," he told a crowd at the Halifax International Security Forum on Friday.

At the end of 2015, the government said it was aware of about 180individuals "with a nexus to Canada" who had travelled overseas to join such groups, and of another 60 who had returned to Canada.

Sajjan on the future of ISIS' Canadian fighters

7 years ago

Duration 1:20

The Defence Minister was speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum

According to a2016report, Public Safety Canada is aware returningjihadis"may have skills, experience and relationships developed abroad that could be used to recruit or inspire individuals in Canada. They may also engage in terrorist financing, helping others to travel, or even planning attacks in Canada.

"The attacks directed by [ISIS] in Paris and Brussels provide examples. Most of the attackers were returnees linked to [ISIS]."

'We've known about this for years'

The almost total collapse of ISIS in Iraq and Syria over the last few months seems likely to bring more returnees back to the West. And the bitter-enders who chose to remain through that collapsemay be among the most dangerous of its followers.

"We've known about this for years,"saysLeuprecht, "and at the latest we should have started to think about it systematically when we started the bombing campaign against ISIS. Asso often in this country when it comes to defence and security issues, we start thinking about it ... when our room for manoeuvre has massively diminished."

Leuprecht saidan assassination policy would be problematic under Canadian law, and might not enjoy public support.

Since Canada isn't targetingjihadis on the battlefieldor successfully convicting them in court, says Leuprecht, "the third option is that they just show up and live peacefully ever after. Or not so peacefully."

To date, only two returnees, PamirHakimzadahand RehabDughmosh, have been charged with leaving Canada to participate in terrorism.Four more men, some of whom may be dead, have been charged in absentia. To date, no Canadian has been successfully prosecuted for travelling to Syria or Iraq to join a terror group.

According to government estimates more than 200 Canadian "terrorist travellers" have faced no legal consequences in Canada.

"The challenge is they're not stupid," said Leuprecht. "They know that CSIS will likely monitor them using wiretap warrants, on grounds of reasonable suspicion."

Leuprecht says deradicalization programs are highly controversial and there is little empirical evidence that they work. In any case, Canada doesn't have such a program.

The Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, launched in June, does not handle individual cases, but supports initiatives by other levels of government and organizations across Canada.

Briensays it also supports "action-orientated research," but itremains unclear what that means in practice.