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Peace bonds are not unusual in Canada but they have been used increasingly in terrorism-related cases since last year, when the former Conservative government made it easier to obtain them on national security grounds.

Critics want the Liberal government to rescind the change as part of its promised review of the Conservative anti-terrorism law, C-51, arguing peace bonds place severe restrictions on those who have not been charged with any crimes.

Meanwhile, the bail hearing for Mohamed concluded Thursday. A decision is expected next Wednesday. The 23-year-old former University of Waterloo engineering student faces two weapons charges over a hunting knife and a single count of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. The RCMP has alleged he traveled to Turkey in 2014 to join the al-Qaida faction in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusrah.

Turkey has long been the gateway for foreign fighters on their way to Syria and Iraq to join armed factions such as ISIL, but the republic has been under increasing international pressure to crack down on the flow of combatants.

A report Monday by the Combating Terrorism Centre at West Point analyzed hundreds of leaked ISIL documents that recorded foreign fighters arriving in Syria from Turkey in 2013 and 2014. It found that 17 had identified themselves as residents of Canada and 7 were citizens.

The records also showed a Canadian was among those who had left ISIL territory. “The vast majority of the records indicated either that the person was leaving to receive medical treatment (usually in Turkey) or for family reasons,” the report said. “Many of the family reasons were to go home to collect their family and bring them back to the Islamic State.”

According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, about 100 with “a nexus to Canada” are involved in the conflict in Syria and Iraq. Between 90 to 100 extremists have not left Canada to participate in terrorism but aspire to, CSIS director Michel Coulombe told the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on March 7.