Conservative media coverage of Edmonton's U-Haul attacker concerned government, internal emails show

Rebel News has just received 249 exclusive Access to Information documents about convicted attempted murderer Abdulahi Hasan Sharif from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

In September 2017, Sharif went on a rampage in Edmonton outside of an Eskimos game, a striking police officer with his car before stabbing him multiple times. Sharif then commandeered a rental truck and ran down four pedestrians. The flag of the terrorist group ISIS was found in the truck by police. Sharif was convicted of five counts of attempted murder. Inexplicably he was never charged with terrorism-related offenses in October.

Sharif is a Somali national who managed to enter Canada and receive refugee status, even though he was ordered deported from the United States to Somalia in 2011.

In the wake of Sharif’s 2017 arrest, we asked Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for any communications they had about him.

I am slowing combing through these exclusive documents and these are a real treasure trove of information about the government’s priorities as the facts about Sharif were coming out.

They were in full spin mode!

The real priority for the government wasn’t making sure they were transparent with a public that was desperate for facts about who Sharif was, how he got here, what he had done and why he did it. Instead, the folks at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and Public Safety Canada were worried about managing the PR nightmare they had on their hands.

I will detail all of that in the coming days.

However, I came across a couple of things so ridiculous and so perfectly Trudeau, that I had to share them with you today. Bureaucrats were fussing over inclusive language and then panicking because some of the media began questioning the systematic failure that allowed Sharif into Canada in the first place.

Bureaucrats were perplexed by which politically correct phrase to use to describe an exploitative immigration crime.

“Looks good to me. Just one thing. Do we use the term “people trafficking or smuggling” instead of "human trafficking or smuggling.” If so, why? Just curious.”

In another email between two communications staffers at IRCC, they fretted over the news about Sharif being broken in the Toronto Sun, worrying that the media was critical of Canada’s security screening processes.

I have an urgent memo and need your opinion. Would you say that the media has been critical of Canada’s security and screening processes lately? With the case of Sharif in Edmonton and changes to front end security screening?

“The one story that comes to mind is [redacted] of the Toronto Sun who has said in more than one column that Canada should not have allowed him in. CBSA was their main target. Overall I think it's fair to say that the media have questioned the screening system since the Edmonton system and some stories have been critical.”

They’re talking about Candice Malcolm, who penned a series of scathing investigative pieces that were highly critical of the blindspots in the immigration screening system that allowed Sharif to enter Canada without his past history with American authorities to be detected.

Malcolm is also the founder of True North Center, also known as TNC News, and her reporter, Andrew Lawton, like my colleagues Keean Bexte and David Menzies, had to fight in federal court to get access to the Leader’s debates.

Is it any wonder the Liberals fought so hard to keep us out? Our journalism strikes fear in the hearts of bureaucrats.