BRAMPTON –The day after he was arrested by RCMP anti-terrorism police, a 23-year-old appeared in court Saturday to face weapons charges and allegations he was preparing to leave Canada to engage in terrorism.Kevin Omar Mohamed was arrested by members of the Toronto-based Integrated National Security Enforcement Team as part of an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation called Project Swap, the RCMP said.

“He was arrested in Waterloo,” said RCMP Superintendent Lise Crouch, the Assistant Criminal Operations Officer in Ontario. “It’s a file that we’ve been working on for some time.”

Mohamed has been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed weapon — apparently a knife. Testifying in Brampton, Sergeant Adam MacIntosh told a provincial court judge the investigation was also probing five anti-terrorism offences.

While the former University of Waterloo engineering student has not yet been charged with terrorism, Sergeant MacIntosh said police have reasonable grounds to believe Mohamed would leave Canada to participate in terrorism, advocate or promote terrorism, and facilitate terrorist activity.

The RCMP is seeking a peace bond that would impose conditions on Mohamed’s conduct. Under Canada’s anti-terrorism law, police can ask the courts for peace bonds against those they suspect may be about to commit terrorism offences.

Conditions can include staying off the Internet and surrendering passports. Peace bond cases must be approved by the Attorney General, who provided signed consent in this case.

Mohammed was scheduled to return to court on Tuesday.

“This arrest speaks to our ability to tackle a threat that is multifaceted and constantly evolving,” Superintendent Crouch said in a statement issued by the RCMP on Saturday afternoon.

“While there was no indication of any plans for a domestic attack, we must remain committed to preventing individuals from travelling abroad to gain training and expertise that could be used in the planning and implementation of future attacks on Canadian soil.”

The RCMP statement said Durham Police Services and Ontario Provincial Police played “a significant role in this case,” which it said was “in no way linked to the terrorist attacks that occurred in Brussels”.

Defence lawyer Anser Farooq questioned why Mohamed was arrested on suspicion of terrorism, but charged only with relatively minor weapons offences.
“He’s okay, a little confused,” he said of his client.

Professor Amarnath Amarasingam, who has been studying Canadian foreign fighters, said Mohamed was “Guyanese by background” and that friends had described him as socially awkward. On social media, where he was known as Abu Jayyid, he wavered between supporting ISIL and opposing it, he said.
The arrest came amid heightened security concerns following last Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Belgium, which killed 31 and highlighted the problem of Western foreign fighters returning from Syria to wage violence against their home countries.

Responding to the Brussels bombings last week, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called Canada “fundamentally a safe and peaceful nation,” adding that, “At this moment we have no reason to change Canada’s threat level.”

But violent extremism is a growing problem in Canada. About 180 people “with a nexus to Canada” are active in overseas terrorism — including 100 in Syria and Iraq alone, according to the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Another 60 have returned to Canada after engaging in terrorist activity, while 90 to 100 have not left Canada but want to, Michel Coulombe testified during a March 7 appearance before the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence. (National Post)