Crown prosecutors are arguing that Ayanle Hassan Ali should be officially labelled a terrorist for his 2016 attack on Canadian soldiers in a North York recruitment centre.
Ali was found not criminally responsible after the court concluded that the man was schizophrenic.
On March 14th, 2016, Ali entered the centre and attacked several soldiers with a large kitchen knife and was charged with several counts of attempted murder, assault with a weapon, assault causing bodily harm and carrying a weapon. All nine charges were considered “for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group.”
A judge acquitted Ali on the nine terror charges claiming that the Criminal Code doesn’t have the means to capture “lone wolf” attackers.
Federal prosecutors are now challenging that assumption in the Ontario Court of Appeal.
“The trial judge’s interpretation impedes the ability to arrest and charge the lone wolf,” claims a statement by crown lawyers.
“A lone actor who commits an act of serious violence for a religious or ideological purpose, intending to intimidate the public, should be stigmatized with a Section 83 terrorism conviction.”
Due to the judge’s decision, Ali is currently not legally considered a terrorist despite several pieces of evidence pointing to the religious motivation behind the attack.
In one diary entry, Ali claimed that he had a “licence to kill”.
“One soldier is all it takes, just one,” wrote Ali.
Paramedics who arrived on the scene also heard Ali say that Allah had sent him “to kill people.”
Ali is currently being held in a secure ward at Hamilton’s St. Joseph’s Healthcare where he is being treated for his schizophrenia.
