More than 140 Canadian citizens have been involved in terror activities outside Canadian borders, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS), Michel Coloumbe, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner, Bob Paulson, revealed to Parliament earlier this week.
Over the past two years, the Canadians have committed dozens of terror attacks and participated in jihadist groups spanning across the globe, they said.
Crimes listed included two young men from London, Ontario, who carried out a suicide bombing in Algeria; a student from Montreal who embarked on a ‘car rampage’ in Damascus; a young man from Calgary, Alberta who committed a suicide attack in Iraq; and countless others who were killed fighting for Islamic State (ISIS) and the Al-Nusra Front.
And out of the 13 Canadians who converted to Islam specifically to join terror groups, two of them have committed terror attacks in the Montreal area and in Ottawa, and two planned to carry out an additional attack on the Parliament in British Columbia.
Teen terrorism has also become a real issue, they noted, recounting the fact that three Muslim girls from Toronto attempted to fly to Syria to join ISIS.
Now, another teen has attempted once again to join the terror group, CBC reported Thursday – this time, a 15 year-old boy from Montreal.
The Montreal teenager is being charged with terrorism after being arrested as a suspect in an armed robbery in November, in which a West Island dépanneur (convenience store clerk) was held at knifepoint.
The teen is accused of fleeing the scene with $2,200, which investigators say he had planned to use to pay for a flight to Turkey as the first leg of his journey to join ISIS in Syria.
The teen’s father turned the boy in after finding the money in his backpack.
Investigators also found jihadist materials on the boy’s laptop, and he said upon interrogation that he felt “sinful” over living in Canada instead of in a Muslim country. He also had attempted to contact Martin Couture-Rouleau, the Montreal man responsible for an attack on two Canadian soldiers on October 20.
“The RCMP is relentless in its pursuit of those who would seek to participate in terrorist activity. We are determined to take action to protect Canadians and to keep our communities safe and resilient,” James Malizia, assistant commissioner and officer in charge of RCMP Federal Policing Operations, said in a statement.
