Edmonton suspect’s past didn’t raise red flags during asylum process: Goodale
OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tried Monday to assuage renewed concerns about the security of Canada’s asylum system after it emerged the suspect in a weekend attack in Edmonton entered Canada as a refugee in 2012.
Abdulahi Hasan Sharif is facing 11 charges — including five counts of attempted murder — after a city police officer was stabbed and four people were struck by a cube van in what authorities have characterized as an act of terror.
Sharif, a Somali national, became known to police in 2015 after a report was received that he may have been radicalized, but investigators determined at that time that he did not pose a threat.
Nor is there any suggestion the accused was assessed as a public safety risk when he entered Canada at a legal border crossing in 2012, Goodale said Monday.