“Based on the info the attack was going to take place in the next 72 hours and was likely to target an urban centre during morning or afternoon rush hour.” said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana.
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Yet it took a tip from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to alert Canadian intelligence officials to what police say was an imminent attack Driver was planning on a major Canadian city.
“A suspect was identified and the proper course of action has been taken to ensure that there is no danger to the public’s safety”, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement. Published reports at the time suggested Driver posted messages on social media that praised terrorist activities, including the attack on Parliament Hill in October 2014 by Michael Zehaf Bibeau.
When Driver was released, he was ordered to wear a Global Positioning System tracking device and banned from going on the Internet or having any communication with the Islamic State group, including wearing or carrying anything with an Islamic State logo.
In Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Montreal, a young man drove his vehicle into two soldiers in a parking lot, killing one of them before being shot dead by police after a short chase.
“If he had gotten out of that residence before we got there the scenario would have ended differently, I’m confident of that”, commented RCMP commander Jennifer Strachan. The RCMP identified the man in the video as Driver.
His father, Wayne Driver, was among those left with questions about why authorities did not intervene more decisively earlier.
Meanwhile, the cab driver is at home with injuries, CBC News reported.
Transit agencies in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, were warned of a security threat before police confronted the suspect.
The group said that Driver, originally from Winnipeg in Manitoba, had made a mistake “in releasing his video… before carrying out the attack”, in what serves as a potential warning to other sympathizers intent on carrying out an attack on Western soil.
Police engaged Aaron Driver as he was leaving a house with explosives.
Police say Aaron Driver set off explosives in a taxi, mildly injuring the driver, before he was shot.
Brad Ross said that as a precaution a “vigilance notice” was issued to all staff encouraging them to say something if they saw something of concern.
A spokeswoman for Metrolinx, the Ontario government agency which runs the Greater Toronto Area’s regional transit lines, says it was also advised of a security threat.
Goodale said he spoke by telephone with his US and British counterparts, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Home Secretary Amber Rudd, respectively, about the foiled terror plot.
“How quickly this was all established is actually testament to the level of collaboration that exists between law enforcement agencies and security agencies in Canada and the United States”.
Driver last spoke to the media outside the Winnipeg courthouse in February after further restrictions were added to his peace bond.
Amarnath Amarasingam, a post-doctoral fellow at Dalhousie University who studies radicalization and terrorism, maintained in 2015 that Driver posted for several months on social media about disliking Canada and about a desire to move overseas.
He was arrested in June of past year in Winnipeg due to concerns about his activities online.
Get this. The Mounties first picked up Driver in 2015 and they “applied for the peace bond, which can impose limits on Driver’s activities, alleging in provincial court documents that investigators believed he might help with terrorist group activities”.
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When Driver was released he was ordered to wear a Global Positioning System tracking device and banned from going on the internet or having any communication with the Islamic State group, including wearing or carrying anything with an IS logo.
