Greater Vigilance Called For

"We did not have any indication, none whatsoever, of his [Martin Couture Rouleau] intention to commit a crime in Canada. If we did, we would have arrested him."
RCMP Superintendent Martine Fontaine

"He wasn't speaking in the language of jihad until around April or May. From his on-line profile, he seemed like a typical and fairly boring, convert who was going through internal debates with Christian belief, with atheism, with secularism, and so on."
Amarnath Amarasingam, post-doctoral fellow, Dalhousie University Resilience Research Centre

"[Martin "Ahmed" Rouleau declared a] martyr [by ISIL. Urging others to] follow the footsteps of our brave brother Martin Rouleau who took revenge for Canadian military aggression in our lands."
Abu Khalid Al Kanadi, ISIL Canadian

A photo of Martin Rouleau holding the Qur'an. He had changed his name on Facebook to Ahmad the Converted. (Facebook)

The RCMP has revealed they had met with the 25-year-old Quebec resident who had self-radicalized as a Muslim convert in an last attempt to convince him that he was making a grave error in committing himself to Islamist jihad. He had come to the attention of Canadian security agencies because he made no secret of his fanatical views and the hatred he expressed for Jews, Christianity, the Government of Canada, the Armed Services and unjust intervention by Canada in joining the U.S. and its allies to deter the Islamic State in its atrocities.

His Facebook postings more than alerted the RCMP; the sentiments expressed in those postings were downright alarming. They certainly alarmed his family who contacted authorities. He was identified as a "high-risk traveller", arrested and questioned in July at the airport as he planned to leave for Turkey. From there, cross over into Syria where he could join the Islamic State terrorists, become as one with them. Since he was stopped at the gate, as it were, he suggested that he might consider after all, the pleas of the RCMP handlers attempting to turn him away from terror.

And since he wasn't able to join his spiritual soulmates in Syria or Iraq, he undertook to do the next-best thing, just as the provocateurs, propagandists and recruiters recommended over Islamist social media sites: attack wherever you happen to be, zero in on Americans, Australians, Frenchmen, Brits, Canadians. Do whatever you can to convey your contempt for them, from spitting in their face, to attacking them with whatever tools at your disposal. A knife could be just such a tool, lacking firearms, and so could a vehicle.

And so, meeting with the man repeatedly, along with his family and the imam at the mosque he attended, the RCMP attempted to speak reason to the unreasoned psychopath, to direct him away from his obsession with Islamist 'extremism'. "We wanted to avoid his turning to violence", explained Superintendent Fontaine. In the end, they were unable to. Nor were they able to detain him indefinitely on suspicion that he was potentially dangerous under current Canadian law.

According to the RCMP, Martin Rouleau took his car to a strip mall in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec at nine in the morning on Monday past. There he sat patiently with an obvious plan in mind, waiting in his vehicle, for over two hours until members of the Canadian Forces showed up at the mall, from their nearby base, walking in a group of three, one in uniform. He started up his car, and drove directly toward the three, fatally injuring Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53.

Directly following the attack witnesses dialled 911 and so did Martin Rouleau, who then sped from the scene. A patrol officer followed his car, a high-speed chase ensuing that resulted in the killer flipping his vehicle into a ditch. He emerged through a window, wielding a knife and threateningly approached police, who shot him dead. The event is being treated by authorities in the manner it clearly deserves; as a terrorist act.

CSIS explained that the hit-and-run could be viewed as a criminal act, but "there are national security implications. There is reason to believe the event was the violent expression of an extremist ideology promoted by terrorist groups with global followings."  Little did they realize when they said that, that two days later in Ottawa, yet another terrorist attack would leave another member of the Canadian Armed Forces dead, and Parliament invaded by a rifle-toting Islamist, locking down the Parliamentary Precinct and central Ottawa.