Mom of Dead Islamic State Fighter Is Stranded After Canada Demands Passport Back

The Canadian government has compelled a Calgary woman, whose son was killed in Syria while fighting with Islamic State militants, to surrender her passport, VICE News has learned.

Christianne Boudreau became known in Canada and abroad for being outspoken about her son Damian Clairmont's conversion to Islam, radicalization, and subsequent death in 2014. Since then, she has been praised for her work with counter-radicalization groups, all the while accusing Canada's federal police and intelligence services of failing to prevent her son from leaving for the Middle East.

Boudreau traveled to the south of France in January to spend time with her parents and her other son, Lucas, Clairmont's step brother, who attends school there. But she received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) dated January 28, 2016 stating the department's Passport Investigations Division had opened an investigation into her and that she was required to surrender both her and her 12-year-old son's passport by the following week. She had planned to fly to Winnipeg, Manitoba, on March 16th to give a keynote address a conference.

According to the letter from CIC, provided by Boudreau to VICE News, Boudreau obtained her son's passport in 2015 by "submitting false and/or misleading information on the passport application." The letter says the department has received evidence, including court documents, that shows Boudreau obtained her son's passport without his father's consent, and that she did not list him as a parent on the boy's passport application.

"Unless new relevant information is received contradicting or neutralizing the fact findings presented above, the file will be forwarded for a decision," the letter continues. "A decision-maker will determine whether the information on file, including all statements provided by you, is sufficient to revoke passport number [redacted] … and to revoke passport number [redacted], issued in your name."

The letter states that the maximum period for refusal of passport services is 10 years. She received another response on March 11 that indicated she can apply for an emergency travel document to return to Canada, while her case is being considered.

Related: Canadians Fighting the Islamic State Could Face Terror Charges for Helping the Kurds

"The first thing I felt when I saw the letter was panic. I didn't understand what it meant for us," Boudreau said in a phone interview from Eymet, France. "Does it mean we're stuck here? I'm the one that's going to have to fight to prove I'm innocent. Obviously I was considered guilty before this investigation began."

Boudreau says she believes the department's investigation could partly be related to her uneasy relationship with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which she has criticized for the way it handled her son Damian's case.

"I'm thinking this is part of the reason why they aren't giving me a response and why they aren't giving me back my passport," said Boudreau, who appeared in a VICE News documentary called Homegrown Radicals. "I think it has to be much more than what they've said. Nobody wants to discuss the case. My embassy won't even talk to me."

A spokesperson for Canada's citizenship and immigration department said they "cannot comment on individual cases, passports or applications for passports in accordance with the provisions of the federal Privacy Act."

In an interview with VICE News, the boy's father, Darin De Jong, confirmed he had filed the complaint to Citizenship and Immigration Canada about his son's passport application. De Jong said Boudreau's full custody of their son was finalized a month after they left for France, and he alleges that by leaving before that without his consent, she violated that agreement.

On February, Boudreau responded to CIC's letter by email, saying she has full custody of and is the sole decision maker over her son, and that the boy's father is not registered on his birth certificate. She goes on to say the claims about the problems with her and her son's passport applications are unfounded, and then pivots to her deceased son Damian Clairmont, who was issued a Canadian passport months before his departure to Syria, despite the fact that law enforcement had been surveilling him for two years.

"Please focus on the case file of Damian Clairmont. Take note that he is also my son," writes Boudreau in the email. "Matters of complaint have also been put forward to Passport Services in regards to the methods that he was able to obtain a passport while on a CSIS watch list just prior to his departure to Syria."

Watch the VICE News documentary, Homegrown Radicals: 

Boudreau says she has complied by surrendering the passports. She says she has also sent evidence to back up her claims, including Lucas' birth certificate, and custody orders.

Boudreau said she has been emailing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, local members of Parliament, and government officials, for help with her case.

Over the last couple of years, Boudreau says she has made a living giving talks about countering violent extremism across Canada, the US, and Europe. "I'm trying to pay off debt, and start a new life, but I can't do that if I can't leave the country to work," she said.

Boudreau had planned to travel from France to Germany this week to give a presentation at a school in Berlin, that was to be filmed by a documentary film crew.

"Nobody has told me what's going to happen, or how it's going to be rectified," she said. "I've also looked at the UN. It's against international law to leave someone stateless, and I feel that's basically what they've done."

Follow Rachel Browne on Twitter: @rp_browne