...identified only as "P.G.," declared his agency's "belief" that people who have joined militant "networks" linked to Al Qaeda and affiliated Islamic movements "maintain their ties, and their relationships to those networks, for very long periods of time. These ties are forged in environments where relationships mean a great deal, and it is our belief that the dedication to the ideology, if you will, is very strong, and is virtually impossible to break."
P.G. wrote that "Individuals who have attended terrorist training camps or who have independently opted for radical Islam must be considered threats to ... public safety for the indefinite future. It is highly unlikely that they will cast off their views on jihad and the justification for the use of violence." The paper adds that "Incarceration is certainly not a guarantee that the extremist will soften his or her attitudes over time; quite the contrary. The Service assesses that extremists will rejoin their networks upon release."
As to P.G.’s wider assertions that it was unsafe to ever release a jihadi militant, Campion noted that Canada only was detaining a handful of militants under its antiterror laws. She said that there might be a qualitative difference between the Canadian detainees (whom authorities believe could be truly dangerous terrorists) versus the hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo (many of whom were rounded up with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and may not pose a serious terrorist threat ).While the Canadian government regarded them as dangerous, there might be a qualitative difference in the relative dangers posed by the release of the suspects held by Canada and the release by the U.S. government from the Guantanamo Bay detention center of captured suspects who fought with Taliban forces in Afghanistan rather than with Al Qaeda.
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.