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Deportation Hearing of Pakistani Man Suspected of Plotting to Blow Up a US Consulate Begins in Canada

The Canadian government also unveiled on Tuesday new legislation to speed up the removal of foreign criminals.
Colin Perkel/The Canadian Press

Accused terrorist Jahanzeb Malik supposedly can tell the difference between the dead bodies of Muslims and non-believers based on the way their corpses smell, an immigration tribunal in Toronto heard on Tuesday.

It was the first day of the Pakistani national's deportation hearing, which comes on the heels of new federal anti-terror laws aimed at rooting out security threats and tackling homegrown terrorism in Canada.

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For Malik, according to testimony from an undercover police officer about a conversation he and Malik had last fall, the body of a Muslim who has sacrificed his or her life in the name of Allah "smells nice and has that scent for three or four days…and the body of a non-believer smells like decomposing, smells immediately bad."

Malik, 33, a flooring contractor who is accused of plotting to blow up the US Consulate and other buildings in downtown Toronto, watched the proceedings through video conference from a jail in Lindsay, Ontario. He has been detained pending his deportation because the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada considers him a flight risk and a threat to the Canadian public.

In March, the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) arrested Malik — who was granted permanent resident status in Canada in 2009 — after a six-month Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigation, in which the undercover officer, who cannot be identified under a publication ban, befriended him and earned his trust. During his conversations with Malik, the officer alleges he divulged details about his support for al Qaeda and Islamic State, and tried to radicalize him and recruit him to help him carry out his planned terrorist attack.

In his testimony, the officer described his first meeting with Malik, which took place at an RCMP "prop house" after the officer reached out to Malik through his online ad to hire him to install hardwood floors. Using an assumed identity, the officer told Malik he was originally from Bosnia and had fought on the Muslim side of the Bosnian conflict. Malik allegedly told the officer he had trained in an al Qaeda military camp and was deployed to Benghazi, Libya, to fight for them. "He said that he went to Libya to kill or to get killed," the officer recalled.

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The officer also testified that Malik told him the world's Muslim population is "under attack" and that "he had never met anybody more honest than the Taliban [leaders]."

CBSA lawyers grilled Malik about his family, his time in Libya, and about his religious beliefs. When asked if he believes in a particular sect of Islam, Malik replied that he didn't believe in sects. "I'm a simple Muslim," he said.

He testified that he travelled to Libya to teach English as a second language.

Malik is facing immigration infractions, as opposed to criminal charges, which his lawyer, Anser Farooq, has called absurd. "This is a phenomenally serious allegation and you're just going to send this guy away?" Farooq told the Canadian Press in March.

Shortly after CBSA began questioning him on Tuesday, Malik refused to answer any further questions, a decision for which he could be fined up to $100,000 under Canada's refugee law.

Malik's hearings will continue on May 20, when the undercover office is expected to testify about Malik's alleged plan to carry out a terrorist attack in Toronto.

While his hearing was happening, Canada's public safety minister announced new legislation, The Removal of Serious Foreign Criminal Act, that would expedite the government's ability to deport permanent residents and foreign nationals who have committed crimes in Canada.

Follow Rachel Browne on Twitter@rp_browne