The Ben Mulroney Show - Is the convicted Canadian ISIS sniper still in minimum security? An update!

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Frank caputo/Conservative MP Kamloops-Thompson-Nicola, former prosecutor   If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠���⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Twitter: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ TikTok: ⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠ Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Thank you for listening from coast to coast to coast. And on whatever device is most convenient to you, this is the Ben Mulroney show on September 3rd. And it happens to be Wednesday. So there you got that right. We also got something else right. And some take issue with anything that is said on this show. Anything that is not a wholehearted endorsement of the status quo

is viewed as rage baiting or rage farming. Well, two weeks ago, we had a little bit of rage, a little bit of outrage, when we told you the story of convicted ISIS sniper, Hussein Borhot, Canadian citizen, who went overseas to learn how to kill anybody from Canada. Learned how to kill Canadians. That's what it was. And when he came home, he got caught up in an RCMP sting, where in the moment, speaking to an undercover RCMP agent,

He professed his love for ISIS, and it was only when he got in front of, when he was arrested, that he said, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it. I'm a changed man. Well, we believed him, I guess, because our next guest uncovered, because he visited this man in a minimum security facility a few hours north of Calgary. And when I say minimum security, he was living in the equivalent of a townhouse. So he wanted to kill Canadians, and he ended up in a townhouse. most Canadians would kill to live in a townhouse. And it seems that by shining a light on this affront to being a Canadian and the values that we uphold, this man's status has changed.

Please welcome to the show, Frank Caputo, MP with the Conservative Party, who was the first to bring us this story. Frank, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, Ben. Always a pleasure. Okay, so you wrote a letter to the public safety minister where you said you wrote about the incarceration of Hussein Borhod, whom you recently discovered was serving, may be serving the remainder of the sentence in a minimum security facility, deeply concerning, as you're surely aware, the minimum security facility where the inmate is held is has, has townhouse living, considerable amenities, and most astoundingly, no fences. What have you learned since we talked about this the first time two weeks ago? Well, Ben, my sources tell me that Mr. Borough was actually moved within 24 hours. So it's very interesting. I'm not sure why.

We haven't heard anything. You know, there was a time when the minister would be out in front where the prime minister would be addressing this, getting out in front of this, explaining to Canadians how and why a travesty like this occurred. Now, you're in the media. I've heard crickets. I haven't had a response to my letter. I'm not sure if you've heard anything. But we're really owed an explanation.

Yeah. I get he's, I'm told he's back in medium security. But how did this happen to begin with? Yeah. Yeah. And again, you uncovered this one thing. But it's the corked bat theory, right? Anytime somebody's caught in baseball with a corked bat, they say, oh, it's the first time I ever picked that up.

I've never used it before. And that is statistically impossible. And so the fact that you uncovered this one, again, egregious affront to our sensibilities. Statistically, there's no way it's the only one, right? There are others out there. There are other examples, no doubt, of people who deserve far greater punishment who are serving those sentences in the equivalent of the lap of luxury.

No doubt about it. I mean, the examples that the public safety minister and the prime minister have allowed to happen, the transfer of Paul Bernardo from maximum to medium security. where he has a tennis court and a hockey rink that the government says doesn't exist. Sex offenders that live next door to the mother child program. These things all fall at the feet of the public safety minister who is chosen by the prime minister. The prime minister is choosing not to act on these things, Ben, and I am left scratching my

head, as I think most Canadians are. And it really calls into question his judgment when he doesn't address Canadians on these things, when he doesn't intervene and he allows the public safety minister to continue on this path. So let's talk about things that that could change, that if we change them, could lead to better outcomes and less, less, less wanting to pull our hair out when we tell stories like this. And, you know, that doesn't apply to me. There was, you know, we've been talking on, on this show, uh, since, since Pierre Polyev came on and said that he's going to be proposing a castle law, a castle law in, in the next

Parliament. I got some pushback from that conversation from people online saying, hey, you've got to give, if you have a problem with the status quo, then you got to blame Stephen Harper and Pierre Poliyev, by extension, for voting for Bill C26 in 2013, which the Citizens Arrest and Self-Defense Act. Now, I do not pretend to be steeped in legislative history, but I read, I read the act. And the act itself makes complete sense. sense. It feels to me like it's not the act. It's the interpretation of the act that is the problem. Well, sometimes that happens. I mean, you know, I wasn't in parliament. Actually, I was really at the beginning of my career as a crown prosecutor. And that legislation was intended

to strengthen self-defense laws in Canada. So people who are saying, well, you should be blaming the prime minister, uh, prime minister Harper. I mean, that's completely off base. But let's also look at 2013 versus 2025 then. Are we, we're, we're We're seeing what we're seeing. You know, the intro to this program talked about three horrific offenses. People being killed in front of children, things like that. Was that happening in 2013? I don't remember it being this bad.

Yeah. And I don't think Canadians do. And also it's an unhelpful example of what aboutism. That's like taking issue with the people who supported the Youth Criminal Justice Act because it was intended to protect. kids, but now those very same kids are being enlisted into criminal organizations. They are essentially, those organizations are using the Youth Criminal Justice Act as a weapon in their criminal endeavors. They found a loophole and they found foot soldiers that

will not spend very much time in jail, if any, and they can be right back on the on the street doing crimes. And so it's, you're right, the intent of it was to do something that society, we're living in today does not allow for certainly i mean at the end of the day uh we should always be thinking about how are we going to make the laws better how are we going to make Canada better in my view right now we're in an untenable situation when it comes to crime uh violent crime is up but most importantly if you want to talk to people talk to people on the street bed yeah in my view when i get letters from people saying i feel unsafe taking my kids to the park we as parliamentarians we need to respond and what are we getting, we're getting radio silence. Where is the bail reform

we were promised? We're sentencing reform. Where is correctional reform? Nowhere to be found. Well, that's right. We got Bill C-75 and Bill C-5. So 75 is bail reform and hybridization of offenses making release easier and changing how cases move through courts. And Bill C-5 is the repeal of mandatory minimums and more conditional sentences giving judges more discretion instead of mandatory jail. Well, well, play devil's advocate for me. What is the justification for the elimination of mandatory minimums? Well, some people have talked about how the courts have interpreted them. And granted, we have to live with outcomes.

But the reality is, as a lawyer, Ben, my view is you can make those mandatory minimums easily constitutional. But if you want to see where the liberal mindset is, it's when they made house arrest available for drive-by shootings. I questioned the justice minister on this. you know and he said well somebody has a couple beers and they go and they they pop a couple rounds into a barn that's not you know should that person really go to jail it's like minister this is a drive-by shooting this is reckless discharge or discharge with intent that is the mentality where we are not saying we should not only not have mandatory minimums we want to keep people on their couches for the most egregious of offenses and that offends my sensibility yeah i do not think that if somebody is is as cowardly

and as violent as willing to shoot somebody in a drive-by scenario, I do not believe that they should have the right to Netflix and chill. I know it's a hot-taking Canada in 2025, but call me crazy. That person has a lesson that they need to learn, and you're not going to learn it

by binge watching your favorite shows. No, extortion with a firearm, robbery with a firearm. They eliminated the mandatory minimums. In fact, they eliminated mandatory minimums. that had been upheld by the courts. So this whole notion that these things were a failed experiment, you know what, we have to work within the Constitution,

and we as conservatives are prepared to do that. All right. Well, thank you very much for being here, Frank Caputo. I appreciate it. We'll look forward to talk to you soon. Thank you very much, Ben. Always a pleasure. We're renovating a hotel, expanding our resort, and breathing some life back into the lakehouse. Out of here. All while raising a family. It's messy. It's real, and it's all us.

Exciting. I can't tell if that's your exciting face. This isn't just construction. This is our life. Who needs sleep? Building Bomber. News series Sunday, September 7. On Home Network.

Three Months at TV. I do.