RCMP tipped off about Canadian terror plot by the FBI
Posted August 11, 2016 11:03 am.
Last Updated August 11, 2016 4:28 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA, ON. (NEWS 1130) – Police say it was an FBI tip early Wednesday that alerted them to the “imminent threat” posed by Aaron Driver, who was later killed in a confrontation in Strathroy, Ontario.
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana says the tip included a video of the 24-year-old and a warning that he planned to detonate a homemade explosive device in an urban centre within 72-hours during either the morning or afternoon rush hour. Cabana adds while yesterday’s confrontation had a tragic end, it could well have had a “completely different ending” with a “significantly larger loss of life.”
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Strachan says the warning was Canada-wide and made no mention of a specific city.
“We have no information at this point to indicate that Mr. Driver had any other accomplices.”
LISTEN: NEWS 1130 reporter Cormac MacSweeny was at the RCMP update. He speaks with anchors Amanda Wawryk and Jim Bennie.
In the video, aired during a news conference in Ottawa, a masked Driver dressed all in black addresses the camera directly as he rails against western “enemies of Islam” and warns that the only solution would be the “spilling of your blood.”
Cabana says Driver was shot by police as he left the house and got into a waiting taxi, where he is said to have set off an improvised explosive device in the back of the cab. The cabbie was injured.
Driver was known to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as an ISIS supporter who had once published instructions for Muslims to try and reach Syria. He was also released on a terror-related peace bond in 2015 after his Winnipeg home was raided by the Mounties.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the government has committed upwards of 500 million towards various police, security and border control measures.
It’s also starting up a counter-radicalization program this summer.
He hopes it will identify those who are vulnerable to radicalization and find ways to intervene to head off tragedies before they occur.
Prime Minister Trudeau is expressing his gratitude to the R-C-M-P for its handling of a potential terrorism threat.
Trudeau took to Twitter today to thank the RCMP for its work in the Ontario community of Strathroy on Wednesday.
