When Mohamed Fahmy first heard about the changes to Canada's citizenship laws, his freedom was still in the hands of Egyptian authorities. But somewhere between the court trials and trips to holding cells, the Canadian journalist became aware of changes to Canada's citizenship laws tabled through Bill C-24.
And those changes made him mad.
"I was very angry when I heard about C-24. And I asked the Canadian counsel team to bring me the actual literature to read the law,” Fahmy told the Huffington Post Canada.
The former Al-Jazeera English Cairo bureau chief was arrested in Egypt in 2013 along with two of his colleagues. Fahmy was later convicted of terror-related charges and sentenced to three years in prison in a widely condemned retrial earlier this year.
“It’s a very dangerous law,” said the 41 year old. Fahmy returned to Canada on Monday after being given a presidential pardon.
The law, which came into effect back in May of 2015, now allows the Canadian government to revoke citizenship from dual citizens guilty of terrorism, high treason or other serious offences.
Prior the the new law, only the courts had the power to remove a national's citizenship.
It's something Fahmy knows very well, since he was forced to give up his dual Egyptian citizenship in an effort to have the government to extradite him.
Now back in Canada, Fahmy recounts his time in prison in the company of "jihadists and extremists" who would rejoice in mass killings such as the attack on the Charlie Hebdo newsroom. But despite the public backlash at the law, Fahmy says he'd like to see it revised. Check out the video above to see why.
With files from the Canadian Press
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