Hoping to escape stigma, mother of Islamic State militant leaves Canada

2016/03/23 Leave a comment

Sad, given her courage in going public to encourage more open discussion on the radicalization process and related efforts to help reduce the risks (see Mother of fallen Canadian jihadi launches de-radicalization effort):

A Calgary woman whose son was killed while fighting for the Islamic State in Syria has left Canada, saying she was labelled “the mother of a terrorist” and unable to find full-time work.

Christianne Boudreau said she moved to France two months ago, hoping to escape what she called the stigma linked to the activities of her oldest son, Damian Clairmont, 22. His reported death in January, 2014, prompted Ms. Boudreau to ask questions in hopes of understanding his slow slide into extremism. She has done multiple media interviews and spoken with researchers delving into radicalization.

She also needs to work again to pay the bills that piled up during her bereavement. In search of a full-time job, Ms. Boudreau said she was met with a recurring theme: She would call for an interview and leave her name, only to be told there was nothing available – a possibility given Alberta’s slumping economy. But when she did secure an interview, she was told hours later that the company had changed its mind.

Ms. Boudreau hired a headhunter to find her work in Calgary and elsewhere across the country, but the results were no better.

“The headhunter told me it was because I was seen as the mother of a terrorist. [Companies] would say, ‘Something’s come up. We’ll call you back later.’ They’d be, ‘Yes, we know who you are. We’ve heard you on the radio,’” Ms. Boudreau said. “I never went through anger with that. I think it was more fear and frustration, not knowing where to turn next.”

What did happen was most unexpected. Ms. Boudreau was contacted by Eileen Thalenberg, a writer/director at Stormy Nights Productions in Toronto. She was looking to do a documentary on how young Canadians were being recruited to renounce their heritage and take up arms with the Islamic State or other smaller militant groups. In the pursuit of her story, Ms. Thalenberg looked to the families for answers. The only person who would talk was Ms. Boudreau, who is a central figure in an upcoming television documentary called A Jihadi in the Family. It airs Thursday night on CBC’s Firsthand.

“I started looking at questions: How vulnerable are we? What are we talking about, the number of kids going over there?” Ms. Thalenberg said. “And I went and looked at who I could speak to in terms of families, and nobody would speak to me, except Christianne. She is the only Canadian from the families who has spoken out about their kids going overseas.”

Source: Hoping to escape stigma, mother of Islamic State militant leaves Canada – The Globe and Mail

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Calgary mom whose son died in Syria opposes Harper’s proposed travel ban

2015/08/20 Leave a comment

Good interview with Chris Boudreau who nails the problems with the Government’s approach:

Why are you opposed to Mr. Harper’s proposed law?

A few people have said it’s a great idea. But then I explain to them it’s smoke and mirrors because the politicians are not really doing anything about the problem. They’ve cut back all the programs in prisons for counselling. They’ve cut back a lot of resources for youth. That’s what they’ve done; it’s cut, cut, cut … [The politicians] are thinking, ‘We’ll give it harsh words and it will look like we’re doing something.’ The only way [the terrorists] are getting in is through other countries. So what are you going to do – stop them from going to the surrounding countries as well? It’s not well thought out. It’s just whole window dressing, smoke and mirrors. They can fool everybody because people are just not educated in this topic and that makes it easy for politicians to turn it around for an election program.

If the federal government passed a law forbidding travel to terrorist regions, would it make a difference?

A lot of the fixes and the laws and the rigidity, that’s at the back end. That’s dealing with the symptoms. The root cause of the problem is something completely different even if it’s not radicalization in this sense. And going over to join ISIS – you’re still looking at white supremacy on the rise and lots of other different cults. So there’s a root problem we really have to start looking at. We can’t just turn a blind eye and think that by throwing everybody in jail that fixes it.

Calgary mom whose son died in Syria opposes Harper’s proposed travel ban – The Globe and Mail.

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Damian Clairmont’s mother says Harper pushing ‘quick fix’ on terrorism

2015/08/12 Leave a comment

Captures it exactly (Michael den Tandt made similar arguments in Michael Den Tandt: Harper pandering with plan to make it illegal to travel to terror-stricken zones):

An Alberta woman whose 22-year-old son was killed while fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria says Stephen Harper is looking for a “quick fix” to deal with terrorism instead of addressing the root cause of radicalized youth.

The Conservative leader promised on Sunday that, if re-elected, his government would make it a crime for Canadians to travel to countries or regions where they could fight alongside groups identified by the federal government as terrorist organizations.

He said the government would establish “declared areas” — parts of the world where terrorist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, hold control and use their base to recruit and train followers.

“Anybody can pick up and travel and book a flight to anywhere, and if you really want to go badly enough, you can book your flight to Europe and then from there book yourself into somewhere else,” Chris Boudreau of Calgary said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“It’s window dressing. It’s not realistic.”

Damian Clairmont’s mother says Harper pushing ‘quick fix’ on terrorism – Politics – CBC News.

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Calgary mom targeted by jihadist blogger after her radicalized son killed in Syria

2014/07/23 Leave a comment

Not exactly a nice gesture to a grieving mother seeking explanation for her son, Damian Clairmont’s, turn to radical Islam and death in Syria:

Chris Boudreau has been reeling for months after learning her son died fighting with a terrorist group overseas. Now, a self-proclaimed jihadist is urging the Calgary mother to embrace an extremist ideology she suspects was used to brainwash her son.

On his blog, Abu Dujana al-Muhajir claims he was among a group of young men who left Calgary to join “various fronts of Jihad” after forming a study group at a downtown mosque. Damian Clairmont, Boudreau’s son who was also part of the group, was later killed during rebel infighting in Syria.

Clairmont’s death devastated and confounded his mother, who continues to struggle with how her boy, raised in a loving Canadian family, could adopt radical views and die fighting for them.

In his latest blog post, Abu Dujana writes an open letter to Boudreau in which he explains the ideology behind her son’s path to violence and encourages her to become sympathetic to the cause.

“The attempt to get me to fall for the same thing just made me shake my head,” said Boudreau, who has branded herself an advocate against homegrown radicalization, and has met with officials across Canada and abroad to advance her cause.

“At least it means I must be getting to somebody enough that they are trying to find another way to get me to see their point of view, so that I don’t continue what I’m doing.”

… Boudreau recently returned from Europe, where she met with three other mothers whose sons had also died fighting alongside radical Islamic groups. One of those sons was killed just two months before Clairmont in the same Syrian town northwest of Aleppo.

She was able to build a bond with the other women, something she had been searching for, and learned their sons spouted the same kind of rhetoric she read in Abu Dujana’s blog.

“After talking to these mothers and hearing the exact same story over and over again, you know that (radicals are) using the same verbiage with everybody.”

… The blog posts offer an apparent window into the group’s ideology and their path to violence.

The latest missive advances a form of Islam based on a selective reading of the Qur’an, ignoring verses that contradict its point of view, said Aaron Hugues, an author who has written extensively on religion and holds a PhD on Islamic studies.

“What these guys do is they have very little understanding of the tradition … and they tell themselves these ludicrous stories that they’re waging jihad and that if they die they’ll go to paradise, and it’s brainwashing,” said Hughes, who used to teach at the University of Calgary but now lectures at the University of Rochester.

“In many respects, I think this radical Islam is a cult, and these kids need to be deprogrammed,” Hughes said.

“This thing that he wrote is really meant to unsettle us, Canadians, because it’s very articulate … and he’s trying to say, we know full well what we’re doing and we’re not brainwashed,” he said.

Mubin Shaikh, a former Muslim radical who joined CSIS as an undercover operative in a Toronto terrorism investigation, said he was considering a formal response to the blog post on behalf of Boudreau, whom he’s been helping.

He called the open letter propaganda that “cherry-picks” verses of the Qur’an to promote a radical version of Islam.

He said the missive is simply an attempt to justify Clairmont’s “indoctrination.”

“These guys are relative nobodies, and they put on this hero costume and they want people to follow them,” Shaikh said. “He’s wrong on so many levels.”

Calgary mom targeted by jihadist blogger after her radicalized son killed in Syria

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