Child terrorists

Who are the real terrorists we should be afraid of?

Can a child commit terrorism?

This is the question that journalists should be asking in the wake of four teenagers having been charged with terrorism over the past few months. The first three are in Calgary and they reportedly engaged in hate crimes against Jewish and queer people, and shared ISIS propaganda.

The fourth is someone from Ottawa. Their age and gender has not been released but rumours swirl online that the individual is as young as 13.

The National Post summed up the charges like this: “allegedley facilitating a terrorist attack by ‘communicating instructional material related to an explosive substance’ and knowingly instructing a person ‘to carry out a terrorist activity against Jewish persons’ … [and] communicating with others in Canada and the United States about bomb-making in order to ‘facilitate a terrorist activity.’” The youth was also arrested on additional charges for possessing: acetone, an oxidizer and metal ball bearings.

The objects they have charged him with having, most of us have in our houses. Nail polish remover, hydrogen peroxide are more than common and I probably own three separate games that all use sets of ball bearings.

Oh, but also, I am an adult who can take responsibility for owning these things and how they are used.

That’s the problem with these charges. A child is mentally incapable of doing terrorism, regardless of how much hatred he has for another group. Hate crimes, obviously. But terrorism? Is this just a fancy word for an extra serious hate crime?

Here is how Canada defines terrorism: “In Canada, section 83.01 of the Criminal Code^[1] defines terrorism as an act committed "in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause" with the intention of intimidating the public "…with regard to its security, including its economic security, or compelling a person, a government or a domestic or an international organization to do or to refrain from doing any act.""

Can a youth do anything for a political, religious or ideological purpose if they aren’t old enough to have a fully-formed political, religious or ideological orientation?

Well, Canada also explains how it balances a young person’s maturity in the situation where they commit a serious crime: “The youth justice system must reflect the fact that young people lack the maturity of adults. The youth system is different from the adult system in many respects: measures of accountability are consistent with young persons’ reduced level of maturity, procedural protections are enhanced, rehabilitation and reintegration are given special emphasis, and the importance of timely intervention is recognized.”

Taken together, it seems to me to be impossible to conclude that a young person always has the religious, ideological or political understanding to commit an act of terror, doesn’t it? At the very least, youth should be assumed to not be this sophistocated and authorities should have the burden of proof to demonstrate they are, in fact, capable. And not just to the court — but to Canadians too. This young person’s capabilities, both what is known and also what is generally understood about teenagers, underpin this entire story. And yet, no journalist seems to be asking about it.

We also don’t know much about how the RCMP did its investigation. The National Post quotes noted cake decorator Stephanie Carvin who said that based on the information she has seen, she strongly assumes that US authorities tipped off Canadian authorities to the young person’s activities.

I’ve seen what US terrorism investigations look like close up. I had a front-row seat to the entrapment of Ahmed Abassi by US authorities. I watched how Canada played along, forced Abassi into a difficult immigration situation by cancelling his visa while he was visiting family, which allowed US authorities to offer him a way out — passing through what would eventually lead to his terror charges. The charges didn’t stick but Canada still never allowed Abassi to return to Canada.

Abassi’s case is just one of many. I saw how they manipulated him and took advantage of him. He isn’t alone either; let us never forget the case of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, also entrapped by the RCMP.

The RCMP’s track record on terrorism isn’t great. I especially don’t trust the RCMP in a situation where children are the targets of the charges, especially if the young person is under the age of 18. Having said that, just because I don’t trust the RCMP doesn’t mean that the details in this case aren’t abhorrent. It just seems very strange how fast we all seem to be to trust that a child is capable of committing terrorism without stopping for a second and saying: wait, what?

Of course, none of this is happening in a vaccuum. In a Global News article written by four different people, Jewish community leaders in Ottawa called for the boy’s father to be investigated, too.

That, on its face, makes a lot of sense: no teenager is going to be facing terrorism charges without their parents being implicated to some extent — including as far as being accused of owning anything. Even the things hidden in a bedroom could have been purchased by a parent. But in this article, the calls to investigate the father because of what he’s posted since Israel launched it’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against Gaza. He posted Arabic messages, that “refer to Zionists and Jews in a derogatory manner, while one says to get rid of all Israelis. The posts were made in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,200, and the subsequent conflict in Gaza.”

Yeah, you’d think that four journalists writing this would have at least gotten the most recent death count for Oct. 7 correct.

Reported hate crimes have bounded since Oct. 7 — Toronto Police are reporting that Islamophobic hate crimes have exploded by 900% and antisemitic hate crimes have exploded by 200%. Of course, young people (and their parents) are deeply impacted by these statistics, just as they’re deeply impacted by seeing everything that has happened since Oct. 7 — Hamas’ attack, yes but more importantly, the more than 20,000 Palestinians who have been killed and who the four Global reporters all somehow forgot to mention.

It’s impossible to untangle these terror charges from the current political climate. And a terrorism charge is most confusing when politics are the most charged. That seems like the most obvious problem with this story - that focusing on the alleged radicalization of an Ottawa teenager for possibly planning to make an IED with hosuehold products gets far more attention than the real terrorists in Canadian society. You know, the ones who literally kill with impunity, the ones who provide material support for an army currently engaged in war crimes, the ones who use their office to oppose an end to horrific levels of violence, or the ones who manufacture weapons that are then used in the worst ethnic cleansing campaign we’ve seen in decades.

And last I checked — those things are all done by adults; not children.