Montreal shooting leads to national security investigation on ideological violence

A specialized national security unit within the RCMP has opened an investigation into ideologically motivated violent extremism after Monday’s midday shooting in Montreal that left three people dead, including a police officer and a bystander.

In an email Thursday, the RCMP said branches of its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Eastern Canada and in the northwest region are working together on a case that is separate from the murder investigation led by Quebec provincial police.

These RCMP enforcement teams target terrorist groups or people who threaten national security. “As this is an ongoing investigation, for now we do not have any more information to share,” RCMP Const. Marie-Pierre Guertin said.

While neither the RCMP nor Quebec’s provincial police have publicly released details about the suspected motive behind Monday’s shooting, The Canadian Press has reviewed a manifesto written by the alleged gunman that expresses hatred toward women and calls for violence.

A federal official said police from various jurisdictions are investigating whether the attack targeted police officers and the online pornography company Pornhub and whether any conclusions can be drawn from the manifesto. The Canadian Press is not naming the official because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

The alleged gunman, a 25-year-old from Lethbridge, Alta., exchanged gunfire with police outside a hotel in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges district, across from the Montreal offices for Aylo, owner of adult entertainment brands including Pornhub.

“There is also a new form of lonely wolves that are starting to appear,” said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, a former senior intelligence officer with CSIS. “And it’s interesting because when you pay attention to that particular manifesto, it seems like he went into the various forms of extremism like a buffet à la carte, where he picked things that were sometimes far-right extremist, neo-Nazi.”

“So that is the great challenge that now law enforcement has.”

The Quebec coroner identified the two people killed — police officer Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, 34, and Michel Mizrahi, 68, a well-known member of Montreal’s Jewish community, who was a bystander during the shooting. The alleged gunman died in the exchange of gunfire with police.

Provincial police are leading the criminal investigation into the shooting. The province’s independent police watchdog is examining the officers’ intervention, as required whenever someone dies during a police operation.

Speaking at a news conference Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was receiving updates on the criminal investigation.

“It is not for me to confirm specific aspects of that investigation,” he said. “I leave those to the relevant authorities who make these decisions.”

Meanwhile, several hundred people were expected to gather in Montreal on Thursday evening to protest against so-called incel ideology. Incel stands for “involuntary celibate,” a term for an internet subculture dominated largely by men who blame women and social structures for their lack of sexual or romantic relationships.

Activist Céleste Trianon said the protest will begin at the memorial for the 1989 Polytechnique massacre during which a gunman motivated by a hatred for feminism killed 14 women at an engineering university in Montreal.

The demonstration is intended to spark a broader conversation about misogyny, violence against women and the online radicalization of some young men, she said.

“I’m scared, but I don’t have a choice. I have to protest,” Trianon said.

Trianon said she and three other women organized the protest within hours of the shooting. “There was a manifesto that literally said, ‘Kill them all,’” she said. She referred to the final page of the manifesto, in which the author calls on “the dispossessed” to eradicate unnamed “scum” and “enemies.”

Léa Clermont-Dion, a Concordia University associate education professor whose research focuses on antifeminist movements, said the document written by the alleged gunman reflected ideas commonly associated with incel ideology.

“It’s clear to me that this man would be considered an incel even if he doesn’t mention the term,” Clermont-Dion said.

The ideology has been linked to several acts of violence in Canada, including the 2018 Toronto van attack that killed 10 people and a 2020 Toronto killing that was later ruled by a judge to be an act of terrorism motivated by incel ideology.

Trianon said organizers chose to gather at the Polytechnique memorial because they believe Monday’s shooting serves as a reminder that violence fuelled by hatred of women remains a threat.

“(Monday’s shooting) could have been another Polytechnique,” Trianon said. “It was pure luck that no women were killed.”

The protest has generated hundreds of reactions on Trianon’s Facebook page advertising the event. The posts argued that since no woman died during Monday’s shooting, the protest did not have a purpose. Trianon said these responses have only reinforced her belief that the protest is necessary.