What Are the Implications of a Canadian ‘Link’ to the New Orleans Attack?

A black ISIS flag lies rolled up on the ground behind the Ford pickup truck that was driven into the crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025. Gerald Herbert/AP

Commentary

Those who toil in national security in Canada have one primary task: to keep our country safe from a plethora of threats. These range from garden-variety criminality (assaults, thefts, fraud, and acts of violence, all of which are tied to public safety rather than national security proper) to acts which truly compromise our nation’s well-being and integrity: espionage, foreign interference, influence and repression of communities, and terrorism.

These threats normally manifest themselves within our borders. Countries like Russia and China send agents to steal our secrets and undermine our democracy. Regimes like Iran’s try to harass opponents, sometimes to include warnings that the latter will be killed if they continue their activities. As for terrorists, they seek to plan and execute attacks here to intimidate and terrorize populations, all in the name of a “cause,” which is tied to some underlying ideology.

At the same time, Canada is part of alliances, of which NATO and the Five Eyes are the most prominent, and we share intelligence and information with our partners to help them keep their citizens safe. It is also important that our protectors ensure that no Canadians leave our shores to do harm to our friends: Several Canadians have, for instance, carried out Islamist terrorist attacks abroad (in Algeria, Iraq, Bangladesh, and Somalia). When this occurs it does not help bilateral relations, to say the least.

News that the jihadi who killed 15 people and wounded dozens in New Orleans on New Year’s Day made a brief visit to Ontario in July 2023 has people talking. There is little to no information on why he did so or whom he met, but we can imagine that the RCMP and CSIS are busy going through their records to see what, if anything, he did while a guest in our country. They are also undoubtedly cooperating with the FBI, but as it seems that the terrorist was not on the bureau’s radar, it is hard to think what we would have in our own databases (aside from a Canada Border Services Agency note on his arrival and departure). Perhaps he may have come up as an ancillary figure in a separate investigation then in progress by either CSIS or the RCMP. Both agencies are tight-lipped for the moment.

In the absence of any data, it is thus very difficult to tell if his short sojourn, a year and a half before he drove down Bourbon Street mowing down revellers, is at all linked to his plans. Nevertheless, the mere possibility that his stay had anything to do with the Jan. 1 attack has serious implications. We have seen this before.

In December 1999, Ahmed Ressam tried to cross the Canada–U.S. border to bomb Los Angeles Airport, a plan that earned him the nickname the Millennium Bomber. He was thankfully stopped by an alert American border officer. Had he been successful in his plot, the effect on our important relationship with the United States could have been catastrophic.

We already have been told by officials close to President-elect Trump that Canada is “exporting” hundreds of terrorists southward, and while there is little credible information to support this claim, the RCMP did arrest (based on information provided by the FBI) a Pakistani on a student visa who tried to cross the border to commit an act of terrorism in New York against Jewish targets on the anniversary of the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. That he got as far as Roxham, Quebec, on the Vermont border, is cutting things very close.

Even if we are not responsible for terrorism in the United States—the New Orleans jihadi was an American—it will only take one case of an individual with ties to Canada to successfully execute an attack on our neighbour’s territory for all hell to break loose, especially with Trump becoming president.

This puts a lot of pressure on Canadian national security organizations. They have to ensure nothing happens here and that they do everything in their power to prevent anything happening in the United States on our watch. It doesn’t help that rumours of Canadian “involvement” are hard to erase as they assume a life on their own in the online world (as late as 2016, Hillary Clinton repeated the myth that some of the 9/11 hijackers came from Canada).

It’s a tall order indeed. I wish them luck.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.