RCMP says outreach to radicalized is critical
The vast majority of radicalized Canadians can be turned away from violence through prevention programs, RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson told a conference on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant on Friday.
Speaking at a Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies symposium, Paulson acknowledged that just as some criminals are lifelong crooks, some extremists are “professional terrorists” responsible for major attacks.
“They are done largely by people that are irretrievable, that are unsavable, that are unstoppable, short of the things that we do,” he said. “But the 99.9 per cent of the other players would all benefit from a co- ordinated effort at outreach, at using the sort of broad and vast array of social programs and programming that exists at three levels of government. Coordinate those and then you’ve got something.”
The RCMP has long been working on a national strategy for tackling the violent extremism that has led to terrorism arrests as well as the October 2014 attacks in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Ottawa that killed two Canadian Forces members.
The program aims to identify those who are becoming radicalized by groups such as ISIL and draw upon local police, as well as whatever community and government services are appropriate, to steer them away from violence.
The commissioner also said that many of those “susceptible to the message of ISIL” suffer from mental health problems and would therefore benefit from early identification by police and intelligence officials followed by professional intervention.
“I’m very aware that a big chunk of our vulnerable, potentially radicalized people in Canada may have mental health issues,” he said. “But lets find them and lets help them before we have to find them and arrest them or get into a shootout with them.”
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who shot a soldier dead at the National War Memorial and stormed the Parliament Buildings to show Canadians “you’re not even safe in your own land,” had a history of mental health troubles and drug dependency.
“There’s no question he had mental problems, no doubt. And there’s no doubt he had drug problems, no doubt. And if we could have gotten to him earlier, maybe we would have prevented this thing,” Paulson told the gathering of academics and government officials.
But he said that did not absolve him and had police not been forced to kill Zehaf-Bibeau, he would have been charged with terrorism. “And then he would have to say, ‘ I was so crazy I didn’t know what I was doing.’ I don’t think that’s the case, but I do think he had some issues that could have benefited from some of the resources and programming that exists.”
TERRORIST ACTS ‘ARE DONE LARGELY BY PEOPLE THAT ARE IRRETRIEVABLE.’ — BOB PAULSON, HEAD OF RCMP