MARKHAM, ON. – After reviewing the case of 6-year-old Syed Adam Ahmed, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says he will remain on the no fly list until it is ‘rock solid’ that he was not involved in orchestrating the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
“September 11th was the day that everything changed,” Goodale said. “And until we have documentation that proves Mr. Ahmed wasn’t involved in the last major terrorist attack on North American soil, we can’t risk letting him in the air.”
Although basic mathematics show Ahmed would have been around negative nine years old at the time of 9/11, Goodale says terrorist organizations do tend to recruit members ‘at a very young age.’
“Sure, doing 9/11 while still a pre-pre-fetus would have made Mr. Ahmed something of a child prodigy,” Goodale said. “But 9/11 was a prodigious work of terror.”
While some say there’s no possible justification for the fact that Ahmed has been on the no-fly list since the age of 2, or for the fact that his parents haven’t had access to any information about how to get him off the list, Goodale insists there are risks.
“Even if Mr. Ahmed wasn’t a member of Bin Laden’s inner circle in the early 2000s, chances are this experience has alienated him from Canadian society,” Goodale said. “Cap guns, cherry bombs, there’s no telling what a motivated 6-year-old could do if he got access to a plane in flight.”
This is the first time 6-year-old Ahmed has been in trouble with the Canadian government since the October Crisis of 1970.
