All our lines of defence

‘It was a terrorist attack and Martin died like he wanted to. That’s what happened.”

Those are the words of an unnamed friend of Martin Rouleau — also known by the names Ahmad Rouleau and Abu Ibrahim AlCanadi — who spoke to Toronto Star reporter Allan Woods shortly after Mr. Rouleau apparently carried out what, if reports are accurate, may well be described as the first successful Islamist terror attack on Canadian soil. There is much yet we do not know, but plenty enough in these early reports to cause deep concern.

The incident, which took place on Monday, involved two Canadian soldiers, one of whom was in uniform, who were apparently run over by a driver while they walked in public not far from a military college in SaintJean-sur-Richelieu, south of Montreal. Both soldiers were injured, and one, identified as Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, later died in hospital. Mr. Rouleau himself was shot dead shortly after the incident, after he reportedly crashed his car during a police chase and confronted officers with a knife.

In the short time since this incident, a portrait has begun to emerge of Mr. Rouleau that suggests he may fit a sadly familiar pattern. Based on what is currently known, Mr. Rouleau was just the latest Westerner to convert to Islam and self-radicalize on a steady diet of jihadist propaganda, accessed online. Active on social media, he reportedly began to write about Jewish influence over the West’s political leadership and the plight of the Palestinians.

It emerged on Tuesday that in recent months, after trying to leave the country, security officials seized his passport out of concern that he might try to join a terrorist group overseas and placed him on a domestic watch list. Indeed, just last week, security officials told parliamentary committees that approximately 90 Canadians were under surveillance for suspected ties to extremists — Mr. Rouleau was one of them, and had met with police just weeks ago. The police, however, had no grounds to act, despite real concerns that Mr. Rouleau posed a danger. In light of Monday’s tragedy, it is not too large a stretch to speculate that, having been radicalized and being stymied in his efforts to travel abroad, he chose to commit an act of jihad at home.

This incident certainly rai s es serious questions about how effective a job our security services are doing monitoring even the threats they already know about. It is important to consider these questions, and review our policies and procedures to make sure that Canada stands ready to detect and disrupt any potential attacks by Islamist terrorists, or any other kind of extremist. Homegrown or otherwise.

But while we look to our first lines of defence — our police and intelligence agencies — we must also determine whether more comprehensive mental-health services may have helped. Friends of Mr. Rouleau have told the media that the man suddenly changed, seemingly overnight, from a normal Quebec business owner to a depressed religious fanatic, who saw conspiracies everywhere and was desperate to convert his friends to Islam. This suggests that Mr. Rouleau’s religious conversion, and perhaps radicalization, could have been as much a story of mental illness as of global jihad.

Should investigations confirm that, Mr. Rouleau would not the first to imagine his evil acts were part of some broader crusade. When U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Tex., in 2009, he made it very clear that he was committing an act of jihad. But his personal history and behaviour suggested that he was as much a deranged, broken man seeking a form of violent suicide as he was terrorist.

This is not to deny the stated motives behind these killings. Hasan believed that America was waging unjust wars against Muslims and had written publicly that suicide attacks were justifiable. The issue, rather, is whether their evil acts could have been prevented if their mental deterioration had been diagnosed and treated effectively before they became killers.

There is much we still don’t know about Monday’s i ncident. All Canadians should closely watch this investigation as it proceeds. In the meantime, as important as it is for our security services to monitor threats to our country, and remain alert to the danger posed by militant Islam and other violent doctrines, it is just as important to treat Canadians who, in their illness, may be drawn to ideologies making false promises of easy answers and noble deaths. There are plenty of brutal, but sane, terrorists out there who have, for various reasons, come to believe that jihad will defeat the West. We should do everything we can to deny them easy access to a ready supply of unstable recruits.