8 years sought for terror attacker
Crown says sentence appropriate for woman because of mental illness An eight-year prison sentence is appropriate for the woman who used a golf club and knife in a Daesh-inspired attack on Canadian Tire employees because her mental illness contributed to her actions, the Crown argued Thursday.
Prosecutor Jason Wakely told the court Rehab Dughmosh’s crimes, which also include attempting to go to Syria to join Daesh, also known as ISIS, deserve a 12-year sentence but the lower sentence of eight years takes into account other factors including her schizophrenia diagnosis and active symptoms at the time of the Canadian Tire offences.
While Dughmosh’s mental illness contributed to the attack, “it does not excuse her conduct entirely and it should not be regarded as the sole or even predominant explanation for her conduct,” Wakely wrote in written submissions. Like other “lone actor terrorist offenders,” he argued, Dughmosh was driven by a “complex mix of motivators including powerfully held jihadist views.”
Wakely noted that it is unclear how Dughmosh feels about Daesh now.
Dughmosh continued to refused to participate or make submissions at the sentencing hearing.
Ingrid Grant, the lawyer appointed to act as a “friend of court,” did not offer a suggested sentence, but said a psychiatric report suggested Dughmosh’s attachment to the Daesh ideology may have stemmed in part from the onset of her mental illness in 2014.
Wakely argued the prison sentence was also needed in part because Dugmosh may still pose a danger to the public. While she has been taking medication, she also continues to show a “lack of insight” into her mental illness, and has disagreed with her diagnosis, he said. She and her husband are also in the process of being legally divorced and she does not have much of a support network at this time, he said. Dughmosh was found guilty of four terrorism-related charges after attacking workers in June 2017 at a Canadian Tire store with a golf club and butcher’s knife while draped in a Daesh banner.
An agreed statement of facts was the only evidence presented at trial and Dughmosh largely declined to participate in the proceedings.