OTTAWA
— A hit-and-run car crash that killed one soldier and injured another
this week was a terrorist attack, Canadian politicians, police and
military commanders all suggested Tuesday, saying it had resulted from
another Canadian’s turn to radical Islam.
But
little had emerged about why the man driving the car, Martin
Rouleau-Couture, became radicalized last year or ran over the two
soldiers at a strip mall in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, on Monday.
The attack, which ended with the police fatally shooting Mr. Rouleau, as he was known, came at a time when Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
like most of his Western counterparts, has been vigorously denouncing
the Islamic State movement and warning of possible domestic terrorist
attacks. Mr. Harper’s government has indicated that it is about to
introduce new antiterrorism legislation, a move that troubles some civil
liberties lawyers.
But the death of Patrice Vincent, 53, a warrant officer, and the wounding of an unidentified soldier underscored the difficulty the police and intelligence agencies face when dealing with radicalized citizens.
Superintendent
Martine Fontaine of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a
televised news conference that a special antiterrorism force had begun
monitoring Mr. Rouleau in June and arrested him a month later when he
was about to fly to Turkey. He was released for lack of evidence that he
intended to join a terrorist group. Meetings between the Mounted Police
and Mr. Rouleau, 25, continued until Oct. 9.
“It’s
very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do
before a crime is committed,” Superintendent Fontaine said. “We cannot
arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it is not a crime in
Canada.”
John
Baird, the foreign affairs minister, voiced a similar stance. “You
can’t stop him getting into a car,” Mr. Baird told the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation.
The
police said Tuesday that Mr. Rouleau had sat in his Nissan Altima sedan
outside a building housing several government and military offices for
about two hours before he ran down the soldiers. But at several news
conferences, they offered no details on what had set off the attack.
The
owner of a small power-washing business, Mr. Rouleau lived at his
parents’ home, separate from his former partner and their young child.
His family reportedly became alarmed about a change in his personality
last year, about the time he converted to Islam. His parents contacted
the police, who were also in touch with an imam at the mosque where Mr.
Rouleau began praying regularly.
Superintendent
Fontaine said that her force had been particularly concerned about Mr.
Rouleau’s Facebook page, which has been shut down. Several of his
postings there had extolled Islamic State violence, expressed
anti-Semitic sentiments and denigrated Christianity. Last week, Mr.
Rouleau changed his profile photograph to an image of two open doors.
Behind one was a blue sky with puffy clouds, presumably heaven, while
the other revealed a fiery hell.
Mr.
Baird was one of several members of Mr. Harper’s cabinet who linked Mr.
Rouleau’s actions to the Islamic State. At a sendoff in Cold Lake,
Alberta, for Canadian fighter jets heading to attack Islamic State
targets in Iraq, Defense Minister Rob Nicholson said, “We are deeply
concerned that these radical terrorists will threaten Canada here at
home.”
Steven Blaney, the public safety minister, said Monday’s attack was “clearly linked to terrorist ideology.”
Mr.
Blaney said last week that he was about to introduce legislation
explicitly allowing Canadian intelligence agencies to circumvent laws
that prevent them from spying on Canadians by allowing foreign agencies,
including those of the United States, to do it for them. The bill would
also let those agencies keep the identities of their sources secret,
Mr. Blaney said. Many lawyers, however, argue that they need to
cross-examine such witnesses in court.
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