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Zakaria Amara was notified in a letter sent to the Quebec penitentiary where is he serving a life sentence that he is no longer a Canadian. He still holds citizenship in Jordan and could be deported there following his release from prison.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney confirmed in an interview Saturday that the government had revoked Amara’s citizenship. He called it a “fitting first application” of law that he played a key role in bringing to Parliament.

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The issue took on new currency last week after the legislation was used to revoke the citizenship of several convicted terrorists. Among them was Zakaria Amara, one of the “Toronto 18” terrorists who wanted to bomb downtown Toronto, blow up Parliament and decapitate the prime minister.

The timing may or may not have been coincidental, but it was soon followed by the leak of an audio tape of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau criticizing the bill at a Winnipeg town hall in July, on the grounds that citizenship shouldn’t be “conditional on good behaviour.” That the Liberal leader is opposed to the legislation is hardly news, but the Conservatives plainly hoped to use the “secret” tape to paint the Liberals, once again, as soft on terror.

While Trudeau’s specific criticism was typically ill-judged — taking up arms against one’s country is hardly mere “bad behaviour” — it was another comment, anticipating the charge that he thought “convicted terrorists should get to keep their Canadian citizenship” that indeed drew the predicted response. Former Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is even featuring a petition on his website, calling on both Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair to “stop defending the rights of convicted terrorists and to instead support the rights of law-abiding Canadians.”