Like it or not, terrorists with Canadian passports are still our problem

With Jihadi Jack now losing his U.K. citizenship, many have begun to argue that Canada should also revoke his citizenship, or even worse yet, do the same for other Canadians who have left to fight abroad.

Side-stepping the fact that stripping the last citizenship of an individual would cause immense global problems by creating stateless individuals, doing so goes against our moral imperative to deal with our own problematic citizens.

It seems the U.K. has no problem, abandoning its citizens to avoid their obligations even in the face of ally opposition, given that Canada is already accusing the nation of "shirking its responsibilities in counterterrorism by stripping the British citizenship from an ISIS fighter known as Jihadi Jack, who also has Canadian citizenship."

Now Canada is left in a situation where it must take the responsibility of dealing with an individual who is by all accounts more British than Canadian.

Regardless of how one might feel about those who abandon Canada or other nations to fight for bloodthirsty terrorists, those individuals by nature of being citizens, should remain our problems.

It is truly bizarre to believe nations in the Middle East struggling to build their judicial branches would have any real capacity to respond to large amounts of foreign fighters. We are not taking a just or moral action by leaving individuals to be the responsibilities of third countries.

We are being shallow and truly weakminded, especially when you consider that as a nation we are not just abandoning citizens, we are giving up our sovereignty to punish criminals carrying our colours.

Terrible people holding Canadian passports, however, we may not like it, should remain the responsibility of Canadian judges and Canadian justice.

While removing citizenship acts as a severely short-sighted response, doing far too little while dangerous individuals return to the country also makes no sense.

Repeat Canadian governments from both sides of the aisle have found their hands tied behind their backs when it comes to returning fighters, and its high time they worked towards some policy that could ensure those who deserve justice, receive it.

Perhaps most importantly though, the government cannot be allowed to dictate terms on citizens which go past the standards of our society.

The rights of citizenship in our nation should always serve as the very building blocks of our society. Regardless of how they were obtained, as long as the process was done properly, they define who is and who is not a member of this society, as well as how the government can act towards them.

By allowing governments to side-step these rules, we allow the sometimes all too powerful state to push treat citizens in a way that goes far past any norm accessible in the respective nation.

It is time Canada took its responsibility seriously and finally passed laws that can provide the government with the power it needs to properly prosecute returning fighters while still providing the necessary checks and balances expected by Canadians.