Terrorism suspect killed after RCMP thwart potential attack

A terrorism suspect has been killed in a confrontation with police in Strathroy, Ontario, hours after RCMP thwarted a potential attack on a major Canadian city.

RCMP say they had received credible information of a potential threat earlier in the day.

There’s no word on what Canadian city the attack was directed at. All RCMP could say was the situation was developing and they wouldn’t be releasing any further information.

“A subject was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to public safety,” the RCMP said in a release. “The safety and security of Canadians is of the utmost importance to the RCMP and we take all such threats seriously.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he had spoken to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the events, “to confirm that public safety has been and continues to be properly protected.”

The suspect, Aaron Driver, is a man who has a history of terror related charges and is well known to police.

Driver, who is a known ISIS sympathizer, faced terrorism related charges in Winnipeg in 2015.

He was under a court order not to associate with any terrorist organizations.

In February, his lawyer and the Crown agreed to a peace bond stating, there are “reasonable grounds to fear that he may participate, contribute directly or indirectly in the activity of a terrorist group.”

University of Calgary political scientist Michael Zekulin has studied terrorist and jihadist groups like ISIS.

“I’m unfortunately not surprised,” Zekulin said after hearing about the alleged plan. “The reality is we’ve seen a lot of focus on what’s happening in Europe and our neighbour to the south, the U.S., has had a few incidents in the past few months. The reality is Canada remains a target. The positive is that they (the RCMP) managed to prevent it from happening.”

“The ideas espoused by these groups such as ISIS, they are finding an audience and the audience is across the world. You can’t exclude Canada. There’s nothing special about Canada. Look we realize the challenges facing Europe are different from those facing North America. They have larger issues of alienation or failed policies of integration. They’re landlocked to the conflict zone, whereas we’re insulated by the oceans. But the bottom line is, there still remains individuals who remain receptive to these ideas.”

Zekulin says the concern then becomes how to keep these individuals from moving with these ideas to pursuing violence.

He’s hopeful the RCMP will release more information in the coming days to help us understand what’s happening, what the threat was and how it came to someone’s attention.

“Letting the public know you’re on top of this, eases a lot of tensions and concerns in a time where there’s a lot of anxiety and in a time like this, it shows people that the RCMP are on the ball,” he said.

“They’re identifying that the individual is affiliated with ISIS, but we’re going to need additional clarity as to what that means,” he said. “The distinction we’re making is individuals who are inspired by the idea, who may not have had any contact, versus individuals who are directed by ISIS (such as Paris and Brussels).”

“We’re sort of very much waiting on more information. At least in this context, the RCMP which classified this very clearly a terrorist attack, takes a little bit of the ambiguity out of it.”

The RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and several other police and security agencies were involved in operations.

Mounties are encouraging Canadians to remain alert and to immediately report any suspicious or unusual behaviour to their local police.

A news conference is being planned for Thursday afternoon.