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Last year, Dillon Hillier — a Carleton Place native, former Canadian Forces soldier and the son of Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier — travelled to Kurdistan to help the Kurdish Peshmerga fight ISIL militants. He helped to liberate a town and provided medical aid to a downed ally, calling it the greatest day of his life.

On Sunday, Stephen Harper said a re-elected Conservative government would impose a blanket ban on travel to regions of the world controlled by terrorist groups. The penalty for breaking a similar law in Australia is 10 years in prison.

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“There is absolutely no right in this country to travel to an area under the governance of terrorists,” the Conservative leader said at a rally in Ottawa.

In fact, freedom of mobility is a human right, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in our Constitution. The government can restrict it, as with any right, but only to a reasonable and justifiable degree.