Police seek terrorism peace bond for B.C. man
Legal tool used for 19th time since last year
A British Columbia man has been arrested on a terrorism peace bond, officials said Wednesday, marking the 19th time since last year police have used the legal tool against suspected extremists.
Khalid Ahmed Ibrahim was to appear in provincial court in New Westminster, B.C. on Dec. 20. Police told the court on Dec. 8 there were reasonable grounds Ibrahim “may” commit a terrorism offence.
He has also been charged with uttering threats, court staff said. The threatening charge dates to July 19 and was to return to court Dec. 21. No further details about Ibrahim or the allegations were available.
The arrest was made by RCMP in B.C., according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
Peace bonds are not a criminal charge but rather impose conditions on the conduct of those subjected to them. Frequently suspects cannot travel, use the Internet or associate with other known extremists for one year. Police have been increasingly using peace bonds in terrorism cases in an attempt to cut suspected extremists off from ISIL and al-Qaida online propaganda and prevent them from leaving Canada to join terror groups.
Since last year, when changes to Canada’s antiterrorism laws made it easier to obtain terrorism peace bonds, police have sought them from the courts in 19 cases, mostly in Ontario and Quebec.
The B.C. case comes as a similar one was to go to trial Thursday in Windsor, Ont. Mohammed El Shaer, 29, was arrested in June as a “preventative measure” after travelling to the Middle East three times, once in the company of a Canadian loyal to Osama bin Laden who joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Rather than laying terrorism charges against El Shaer, a Windsor resident, the RCMP instead asked the court for a peace bond, arguing there were reasonable grounds he might leave Canada again to participate in terrorist group activity.
The shadow of Aaron Driver will loom over the Windsor proceedings. Driver was killed by police in Strathroy, Ont., on Aug. 10 while attempting a suicide bombing in the name of ISIL. At the time he was living under a peace bond imposed by the Manitoba courts. But a related case involving one of Driver’s online associates, Toronto’s Abdul Aldabous, ended more optimistically last month when Crown prosecutors withdrew their peace bond case against him on the grounds he had reformed and no longer posed a security threat.