Edmonton police learned about alleged ISIS recruiter from CBC story

Within hours of a CBC News story appearing this morning about a young Canadian woman who travelled to Syria to join ISIS fighters after being radicalized by an Edmonton woman, police in the city held a news conference to discuss the issue.

Family members said the young woman made her journey to Syria to join ISIS last summer, after taking an online course to study the Qur’an taught by a woman based in Edmonton.

CBC News has confirmed the identity of the woman in Edmonton, and that she was asked to leave a mosque after she attempted to recruit people. She has not been charged in connection with this case.

The CBC News story is part of an investigation into extremism in Canada.

At a noon news conference Wednesday, Insp. Dan Jones with the Edmonton police investigative support branch said he learned about the alleged recruiter after RCMP alerted him to a story published Wednesday morning on CBC websites across the country.

"The RCMP made us aware of a news story that came out today," Jones told reporters.

 "I, unfortunately, can’t tell you very much about the case of the alleged recruiter in Edmonton. I can tell you that we’re going to be co-operating with all agencies, and if there’s anything we can do to help, we’ll do it."

"The issue of radicalization is obviously on everyone’s minds [given] the amount of people who are sitting here at a media scrum today," he said.

Jones said the main reason police called the news conference was to make the public aware "that this isn’t a race or a religion issue. This is a terrorism or criminal behaviour issue. And that’s our key messaging that we want to give out right now."

Moderate woman became radicalized

The young woman recruited in Edmonton had a moderate Muslim upbringing, her family said, but she withdrew from her family and social circle, started wearing a niqab and retreated to her bedroom and computer.

She dropped out of college to study Islam full-time with the woman in Edmonton. The family believes that same woman paid for the young recruit’s plane ticket abroad.

CBC has not been able to independently confirm the details of the woman’s radicalization or how she funded her travel, but it's known that she went to Edmonton, then Toronto. She flew to Barcelona and on to Turkey, where she crossed the border into Syria.

CSIS won’t comment on specific investigations. But the family said the agency had been tracking the young woman for nearly two years.

Jones said he couldn’t comment on possible investigations into recruitment by extremists in the city.

"I can tell you this, recruitment into — whether it be radicalized into extreme violence, or into gang membership, is the same thing. It’s done under the same guise and the same premise.

"And I can tell you that as a police agency, our number 1 focus right now is in community engagement with our youth, with our school resource officers, with our community partners. Because that’s where our strongest weapon against anything like this lies."

Community engagement

Jones said that to stop recruitment by extremists, "What we can do to stop that kind of stuff is work closer with our community members."

The inspector was asked if he was concerned about finding out about a case of recruitment through a news story.

 "You know what, we can’t be everywhere. We can’t be everywhere at all times. To me, the news makes part of our community.  And if we were to be involved in those things at earlier stages, things sometimes can change. And my concern always when it comes to any of these kinds of things, is people holding onto information prior to getting it to police."

A release issued an hour before the news conference says the Edmonton police Equity, Diversity and Human Rights Unit works with community groups "to address concerns of the community."

"The EPS School Resource Officers, Youth Unit and Community Liaison Constables positively engage youth and strive to build trust and understanding between youth and police to build effective partnerships. The Edmonton Police Service continues to work closely with the RCMP and other federal law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety.  

"Inquiries about individuals being radicalized are to be directed to RCMP National Headquarters."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also declined to comment on the specific case reported by CBC News, but said Tuesday in an emailed statement that terrorism "including radicalization of Canadians and terrorist travel remains the most prominent threat to Canadian interests and our national security."

Staff with the intelligence agency approached the family before the young woman left for Syria last summer.

"They told us she had been interacting with people they thought were dangerous and were influencing her in a negative way, but they didn't give us enough information and it was all very vague," her sister said.

The intelligence agency can currently only collect and analyze information and doesn’t have the "mandate to intervene to prevent terror plots from developing," CSIS said in a statement.

While CSIS currently can’t intervene in such a way, it can work with law enforcement partners like the RCMP to detain people believed to be involved in terrorist activities.

The young woman’s sister is furious the alleged recruiter in Edmonton is still free to influence other young Canadians. She says the online course her sister took part in had 15 Canadian students.