The Canadian government wants to revoke the citizenship of a businessman born in Pakistan who is suspected of having a major role in the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India in 2008 that killed 166 people.
Documents obtained by Global News show that immigration officials informed Tahawwur Rana Hussain that they intend to strip him of the Canadian citizenship he received in 2001.
The 65-year-old immigrated to Canada in 1997, and was later convicted in the United States of planning an attack on employees of a Danish newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohamed.
He is currently in custody in India, where he is awaiting trial on charges that he is behind the Mumbai attack by the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
But in its decision, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wrote that Hussain’s citizenship was being revoked not because of terrorism, but because he lied on his application form.
When Hussain applied for citizenship in 2000, he said he had lived in Ottawa and Toronto for the past four years, with only six days out of the country, the IRCC wrote in the report.
An RCMP investigation, however, found that he had actually spent almost all of that time in Chicago, where he owned several properties and businesses, including an immigration company and a grocery store.
The decision to revoke him charged him with “gross and willful deception,” and said his “disrespect for the laws of Canadian citizenship” led immigration officials to wrongly grant him citizenship.
“Yours is a case where you appear to have misrepresented your place of residence in Canada during the citizenship application process by willfully failing to disclose your absence from Canada,” the IRCC wrote to him on May 31, 2024.
“Your misrepresentations led decision makers to believe that you met the residency requirements for citizenship, when it appears that you did not.”
The government said it is referring its case to the Federal Court, which has the final say on whether citizenship is obtained by “false representation or fraud or willful concealment of material circumstances.”
The Toronto immigration lawyer representing Hussain, also known as Tahawwur Hussain Rana, has appealed the decision, saying it was unfair and a violation of his rights.
A hearing related to the withdrawal was held in the Federal Court last week. Government lawyers asked the court on December 19 for permission to withhold sensitive national security information from the case.
A spokesperson for the immigration department told Global News that falsely canceling citizenship is “an important tool to maintain the integrity of Canadian citizenship.”
To ensure that the system is fair, the Federal Court makes the final decision in such cases, said Mary Rose Sabater. “The government does not take citizenship cancellation lightly.”
He said he could not say how many of these decisions occurred because the department did not follow through on them, but a review by Global News identified only three decisions in the past decade.
‘A Canadian is a Canadian’
Tahawwur Rana is escorted to court in New Delhi, India, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Dinesh Joshi).
Revoking the citizenship of convicted terrorists became a politically charged issue more than a decade ago, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government passed legislation that allowed Ottawa to do so — as long as the person had a second citizenship.
During the 2015 general election campaign, the Liberals portrayed the law as a form of dual-class citizenship and promised to repeal the law, using the slogan “a Canadian is a Canadian.”
After being elected, the Liberal government repealed the law and restored citizenship to more than a dozen convicted terrorists who had been stripped of their Canadian citizenship.
But under the Liberals, the government has continued to take steps to revoke the citizenship of Canadians involved in terrorism – albeit for non-disclosure purposes.
In 2024, Marc Miller, the former immigration minister, said he was looking to revoke the citizenship of Ahmed Eldidi, who was arrested on suspicion of planning an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in Toronto.
His comments come after Global News reported that the Canadian man who was born in Egypt has been granted citizenship despite allegedly appearing in an ISIS execution video where he beheaded a prisoner in Iraq.
Hussein’s trial documents show that in 2023, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government resumed the dismissal of the case that began under the Harper Conservatives.
“It is important to note that the basis of these renewal proceedings is based on allegations that you have misrepresented your place of residence in Canada during your stay in order to become a Canadian citizen,” IRCC wrote to Hussain.
“The onus is on the applicant to be honest and truthful throughout the immigration and citizenship application process until they are granted citizenship.”
Tahawwur Rana Hussain obtained Canadian citizenship by saying he lived in Ottawa when RCMP say he actually lives in this home in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty).
If the Federal Court agrees to revoke Hussain’s citizenship, he will retain his status as a permanent resident, meaning he can still enter Canada and reapply for citizenship after ten years.
But for the first time he is facing a high-profile case in India, where attacks on Muslims he is accused of aiding have had a major impact and strained relations with Pakistan, where the militants were based.
The three-day siege at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the center of the Jewish community and other places in Mumbai was the worst terrorist attack in modern history. Two Canadians died.
After the incident, Hussain allegedly said on social media that the victims “deserve it,” and that the terrorists who attacked should receive medals for “heroism in war.”
Because of Hussain’s citizenship, the case helped to portray Canada as a national security threat to India, even though according to documents obtained by Global News, he has never actually lived in the country.
Immigration authorities’ attempt to strip him of his citizenship moves forward in court as Prime Minister Mark Carney works to restore relations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Carney is expected to visit New Delhi, where he will seek a trade deal, despite the RCMP accusing the Modi government of killing a Sikh activist in Surrey, BC, in 2023, and plotting to kill other Canadian dissidents.
Canada also believes that India has worked with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which is responsible for many robberies that have spread terror in populous South Asian cities.
Who is Tahawwur Rana Hussain
A Chicago grocery store owned by Tahawwur Rana Hussain, who allegedly obtained Canadian citizenship by falsely claiming to live in Canada. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty).
Hussain served in the Pakistani military before immigrating to Canada as a skilled worker, crossing the border via Windsor’s Ambassador Bridge on September 28, 1997, with his wife and three children.
Three years later, he applied for Canadian citizenship, writing on his forms that he had lived in this country since his arrival. He was approved and took the oath of citizenship on May 31, 2001.
But questions arose after he was arrested in Chicago in 2009 on charges of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, and a plot to kill staff at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Government documents show that 12 days later, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asked US authorities for details about his US immigration status and travel history.
Canada’s immigration department received a “package of information and documents” from the US Department of Homeland Security on Nov. 26, 2009, and asked the RCMP to investigate.
The judge convicted Hussain of planning the attack in Copenhagen and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, but cleared him of direct involvement in the Mumbai attack.
The RCMP closed its investigation in October 2012, and informed immigration officials that Hussain had been living in Chicago while claiming to be a Canadian citizen.
Although he did not spend enough time in the country to qualify for citizenship, Hussain lied on his application form to obtain Canadian citizenship, according to the allegations.
Chris Alexander, former Immigration Minister in the Harper government, signed papers recommending that his citizenship be revoked due to misrepresentation.
The National Investigative Agency of India and Tahawwur Rana Hussain following his extradition to the US
The NIA
On June 10, 2020, India asked the US to extradite Hussain to face charges for the Mumbai attacks. Two weeks later, Canadian immigration tried again to revoke his citizenship.
In 2024, Canada informed Hussain that it was sending his case to the Federal Court for a decision, rejecting his claims that he was terminally ill and that it thought he had met the residency requirements.
“In short, I always thought I was taking care of my primary residence in Canada,” he wrote in the letter. “In my application for Canadian citizenship I did not intentionally hide any material circumstances or commitments [Sic] fraud.”
The United States announced on April 10, 2025 that Hussain, described in a statement as “a citizen of Canada and of Pakistani origin,” was extradited to India to face 10 charges over the Mumbai attacks.
“I’m glad this day has come,” US President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, wrote on X, noting that six Americans were among those killed in the attack.
India has accused Hussain of giving his childhood friend Coleman Headley, an American citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani, a false cover story so he could travel to Mumbai to track down LeT.
Using the ruse that he was opening a branch of his immigration business in Mumbai, and that Headley was the office manager, Hussain allegedly helped the alleged conspirator to obtain an Indian visa.
“Over a period of more than two years, Headley allegedly met repeatedly with Rana in Chicago and described his surveillance activities on behalf of LeT … and possible LeT plans to attack Mumbai,” the US Department of Justice wrote.
His arrival in India made national headlines, with the National Investigation Agency calling the Mumbai attack “the mastermind” and “the nation of Canada.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
