TERROR ATTACK WAS HOURS AWAY
How it unfolded, and what we know of Aaron Driver
Avideo in which a masked man pledged allegiance to ISIL and vowed to make Canadians pay for fighting the terror group set off a fast-paced investigation that led to an explosion and the death of an extremist in Ontario, the RCMP said Thursday.
“Oh Canada, you received many warnings. You were told many times what will happen to those who fight against the Islamic State,” said the video. “Today is the day you experience what it’s like to be targeted for your belief inshallah (God willing).”
The FBI alerted the RCMP at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday that the “unknown individual” intended to bomb an urban centre during the morning or afternoon rush hour. Authorities believed the plan was in the final stages and would occur within 72 hours.
By 11 a.m., using a screen shot from the video, Canadian investigators believed they had identified the man seen making the threats as Aaron Driver, 24, an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant supporter who had been under investigation since December 2014.
The troubled son of a military family, Driver had moved to Strathroy, Ont., from Winnipeg after being arrested on a terrorism peace bond imposed by a judge due to concerns over his ardent support for, and online contact with, ISIL.
Under the alias Harun, he had posted pro-ISIL propaganda on social media and communicated with like-minded extremists in Syria and elsewhere, among them Elton Simpson, who carried out an attack in Texas in the name of ISIL.
Driver was living with his sister and under court order not to use a computer or phone, as well as other conditions. But he was not under police surveillance, the RCMP said. While police considered him a threat, they said they had no indication he was planning an attack.
The London Muslim Mosque also said in a statement that while Driver “had wrong views about the world,” its officials had no reason to suspect he was planning violence. Nor did he display any “outward signs of aggression,” the statement said.
“The mosque knew of his views, and chose not to turn a blind eye to the problem of violent extremism,” it said. “We engaged him with the hope of changing his views on Islam and to show him the true, peaceful nature of our religion. We constantly monitored his activities within the mosque and did our best to keep the authorities engaged with our activities.”
But the video put to rest hopes he had left behind his obsession with ISIL. “There’s a fire burning in the chests of every Muslim and this fire can be cooled only by the spilling of your blood,” he said in the brief footage. “Your war on Islam is not the kind of crime we allow ourselves to dismiss, to forgive or forget. You will pay for everything you ever brought against us.”
On Wednesday, a Strathroy taxi company said, Driver had called it at about 4 p.m. Driver wanted to go to Citi Plaza in London, Ont., although that may have simply been a stop along the way to the intended target. “He was supposed to take him to London, yes,” a Leo’s Taxi representative said. “But he never even left the driveway.”
At about 4:30 p.m., Driver came out of his door carrying a backpack and got into the cab. RCMP emergency response team officers blocked the vehicle and told Driver to get out. Cornered, he then apparently detonated a bomb inside the cab.
“There was an explosion inside the taxi and the taxi driver sustained minor injuries. He then exited the vehicle and there was a tactical response by our ERT, which resulted in the use of deadly force and the suspect was killed,” RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson wrote in a memo to staff.
Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Strachan said in a statement that when Driver got in the taxi police “engaged the suspect, there was a detonation inside the taxi, and the suspect subsequently died following a confrontation with the police.”
The Ontario Provincial Police is investigating the death. Two other investigations are also underway — one into the bomb and the other the national security probe of Driver. At this point, police believe he was acting entirely alone.
“Our worst nightmare has come true,” said Driver’s father Wayne, who recently retired from the military. “As sad and shocked as I am, it doesn’t surprise me that it has come to this. Aaron was a good kid who went down a dark path and couldn’t find the light again.”
A statement issued by the ISIL-affiliated propaganda outfit Amaq said, “The executor of the attack targeting police in Canada was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target coalition countries.”
The RCMP said the investigation would try to determine how Driver was able to manufacture explosives while the subject of a terrorism peace bond, but Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said it was “relatively easy” to find bomb recipes on the Internet.
At a news conference in Ottawa, police said they were unsure whether Driver was killed by police gunfire or shrapnel from his own bomb. He was the third terrorist to die in a shootout with police since October 2014, when two extremists were killed after attacking Canadian Forces members in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa.
Driver had expressed his support for the terror attacks.
Cabana said Driver’s death was “tragic” but that it “could have had a very different ending” with a “significantly greater” loss of life. “A tragedy was prevented,” he said.
Police said they did not yet know the intended target of the attack. Both the Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx, which operates the Go Transit system, said they had been alerted to a general terrorist threat but there was no indication they were to be targeted.
TTC spokesman Brad Ross said staff were told to remain vigilant. Metrolinx raised its “level of vigilance and worked closely with national, provincial and local security and police services on our response,” spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins said.
IT DOESN’T SURPRISE ME THAT IT HAS COME TO THIS. AARON WAS A GOOD KID WHO WENT DOWN A DARK PATH AND COULDN’T FIND THE LIGHT AGAIN. — WAYNE DRIVER, FATHER