Not enough evidence for police to make arrest
Police met Martin Rouleau several times in a bid to turn him away from thoughts of violence and violent jihad. At a press conference Tuesday, RCMP Supt. Martine Fontaine detailed how police tried to convince Mr. Rouleau to change his ways. But in the end there was nothing they could do, reports the National Post’s Michael Higgins.
FIRST CONTACT
Supt. Fontaine said Mr. Rouleau came under scrutiny in June 2014 and police were in contact with Mr. Rouleau’s family on a number of occasions. “I can assure you they have always co-operated with us. The family members of Mr. Rouleau did detect changes in Mr. Rouleau’s behaviour and asked for assistance. That cooperation with Mr. Martin Rouleau’s family allowed us to take some actions. We were able to confiscate his passport and investigate certain other actions. According to our information he was identified as a high-risk traveller. Certain postings on his Facebook site showed that he had become radicalized and wanted to leave the country to fight.”
THE INVESTIGATION
“He was part of a group of approximately 90 Canadians being monitored across Canada,” said Supt. Fontaine. “A number of investigative techniques were used as part of this investigation. Last July we arrested him — stopped him — and questioned him. This information was then analyzed with the criminal prosecution service and it was determined that the evidence was not enough to charge him. But the investigation did continue.”
TURKEY BOUND
When officers stopped Mr. Rouleau in July he was planning on travelling to Turkey. “We wanted to arrest him, to make sure he couldn’t leave the country. Under new Criminal Code measures leaving the country to commit a criminal act or a terrorist act allows us to arrest him. When we arrested Mr. Rouleau, he was questioned and we were not able to determine that Mr. Rouleau wanted to commit a criminal act abroad but we did continue our investigation. If we thought that he was going to commit a criminal act we would have arrested him. In this particular case we did not have sufficient evidence to charge him and we had no real indication that he was going to commit a crime in Canada.”
CHANGE HIS WAYS
Officers continued to work with his family and the imam to “help him to see other ways than the way he was looking ... his radical thoughts of violence,” said Supt. Fontaine. There were efforts to “exert a positive influence over him. We wanted to avoid him turning to violence,” she said, “to help him see that his thoughts were not the right ones.”
LAST MEETING
RCMP last met with Mr. Rouleau on Oct. 9. Supt. Fontaine said there was no way of knowing he was going to commit a crime, especially as he was acting alone, there was no preparation and he used a vehicle. “There was nothing in Mr. Rouleau’s behaviour that was reported to us that would have suggested that he was planning to do this. We met with him for a long time on Oct. 9 and at no time did he indicate such an intention, on the contrary he said that he wanted perhaps to take steps to change things in his life.” She added that “he showed some intention of wanting to change a bit, to improve and do some more things than just travel. We did not have an indication, none whatsoever, of his wanting to commit a crime here or overseas. Because if we did we would have arrested him.”
THOUGHT CRIMES
Asked what more police could have done, Supt. Fontaine said, “We couldn’t arrest someone for thinking, for having radical thoughts. It’s not a crime in Canada. Unless we have clear indications of what he was doing it was very difficult to prevent and stop him even if we had surveillance on him yesterday morning. We did not know his intention to use his car as a weapon. It would have been very difficult to prevent ... because it is not a crime to drive a car or be in a parking lot.”