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rfmcdonaldI said yesterday that I did not like the news that two Canadian soldiers in the Québec city of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu appeared to have been intentionally run down. (One has since died.)
I was right.
What happened yesterday seems to have been a terrorist incident. Martin Couture-Rouleau, who went on Facebook as "Ahmad LeConverti" (Ahmad the convert), appears to be a young convert to Islam who apparently tried to kill people connected to the upcoming intervention against the Islamic State. Reputedly "linked to a terrorist ideology", his passport was seized when in July he tried to leave the country. People around him apparently had no idea that he might do this sort of thing.
I quite dislike terrorism and I do not like seeing it occur anywhere in my country. I cannot be any more blunt than this, and need not be. (My support for the intervention in the Middle East makes no difference in my reaction, I think. If Canada was set to go off to a war I disapproved of, I'd still reject attacks like this.)
I am also worried that this lone-nut convert might trigger a situation where anti-Muslim sentiment will become more mainstream. I dislike broad and inaccurate generalizations, but such are likely to occur: This one man's actions may well be used to attack the million-odd Canadian Muslims.
I really do not like this. I am worried about what will come next.
I was right.
What happened yesterday seems to have been a terrorist incident. Martin Couture-Rouleau, who went on Facebook as "Ahmad LeConverti" (Ahmad the convert), appears to be a young convert to Islam who apparently tried to kill people connected to the upcoming intervention against the Islamic State. Reputedly "linked to a terrorist ideology", his passport was seized when in July he tried to leave the country. People around him apparently had no idea that he might do this sort of thing.
Couture-Rouleau, father of a young son, had converted to Islam sometime more than a year ago after his power-washing business faltered, friends said. Though they described him as a caring father, Couture-Rouleau had long ago separated from his child’s mother.
His extremist Facebook postings showed he was considering travelling abroad, and raised a red flag to the Mounties in June. His family had detected a change for the worse in his behaviour, too, and reached out to the RCMP for help.
In July, the RCMP arrested Couture-Rouleau as he was planning to travel to Turkey — a frequent jumping off point for ISIL sympathizers to head into Syria or Iraq to join the battle. Identified as a high-risk traveller, he was questioned about his motivations for making the trip.
But the Mounties did not charge him after consulting prosecutors because they lacked enough evidence of a criminal intent to travel abroad to join a terrorist group or participate in terrorist activity “and there was no real indication he was going to commit a crime in Canada,” Fontaine said.
Commissioner Bob Paulson said the RCMP “seized” his passport and speculated Rouleau may have been frustrated and more dangerous because his travel plan was thwarted. But Fontaine said there was no evidence of a direct link yet.
I quite dislike terrorism and I do not like seeing it occur anywhere in my country. I cannot be any more blunt than this, and need not be. (My support for the intervention in the Middle East makes no difference in my reaction, I think. If Canada was set to go off to a war I disapproved of, I'd still reject attacks like this.)
I am also worried that this lone-nut convert might trigger a situation where anti-Muslim sentiment will become more mainstream. I dislike broad and inaccurate generalizations, but such are likely to occur: This one man's actions may well be used to attack the million-odd Canadian Muslims.
I really do not like this. I am worried about what will come next.
