STRATHROY, Ont. — A young man who was allegedly plotting a terrorist attack on a Canadian city was largely an unknown loner in the small southwestern Ontario town where he died in a police takedown.
But Aaron Driver had in the past provided glimpses into his journey from the “happy” Christian-born son of an Air Force corporal to an Islamic State sympathizer.
Driver, 24, was a high school dropout who lived with his sister, Eileen Driver Dumont, in Strathroy, west of London, Ont., under court-imposed conditions. She is married with four children.
His father, Wayne Driver, lives in Cold Lake, Alta. His mother died when he was seven.
In an interview with the Toronto Star in February 2015, Driver said he took advantage of the fact that his immediate family — siblings, father and step-mother — was far-flung when he was younger.
“I partied a lot,” he told the Star in an interview under his Muslim name, Harun Abdurahman. “I got into a little bit of trouble. But I think I decided eventually that I didn’t want to live my life like that. I was looking for something different.”
He began studying the Qur’an, he told the Star, and was drawn to Islam’s “all-encompassing way of life.” His family, meantime, thought it was a passing phase.
“Being members of the military, they’re involved in fighting Muslims, whether directly or indirectly,” he told the Star.
Driver’s family members could not be reached for comment by The Canadian Press. But his father told CTV he hadn’t seen his son for two years. He’d recently tried to connect with his son, Wayne Driver said, only to have him hang up on him.
“It was kind of unbelievable, how could he go so far and then reality sets in, and it’s, ’Oh my God, my son is dead — what was he thinking?” Wayne Driver said.
He added his son was a happy child who “changed” when his mother died.
“He kind of blamed me for her death and he was very withdrawn after that.”
In Strathroy, most neighbours say they never saw or knew Driver — although Leo’s Taxi Service did.
“We’ve driven him before back and forth to work. Nice kid, polite, thank you, have a nice day and all of that stuff. Nobody ever thought this was going to happen,” said Brenda Carreiro, who works at the company with her husband, Eddy.
Added Eddy: “I really liked the kid .... He was a very lovely kid, very polite to me.”
A driver for Leo’s suffered an arm injury when he was dispatched to the nondescript Strathroy home to pick up Driver late Wednesday afternoon and take him to a shopping mall in nearby London, Ont.
“He pulled in, the kid got in the car, and ... he was starting to back up and heard ’pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,”’ said Brenda Carreiro. The back windows of the cab were blown out during the confrontation, and the driver suffered shock in the hours following the ordeal.
The couple, meantime, expressed anger that the RCMP placed the cab driver at risk.
“They stopped one of our other cab drivers, dropping off a neighbour; why didn’t they stop this cab driver?” Brenda Carreiro said. “We’re baffled. Why would you put the driver at risk like that? Don’t jeopardize somebody’s life.”
Neighbours in Strathroy also said they should have been warned that a man believed to be a terrorist was in their midst.
“I think they should have (told us), just so that we’re well aware of this, so that we can keep an eye out ourselves too,” said Harry Denharton, who lives nearby and heard two loud bangs Wednesday afternoon but only later learned what had happened.
“We should have the right to know.”
Another neighbour of Driver’s said he couldn’t recall ever seeing the man around town.
But he said Wednesday’s incident — and the discovery that a terror suspect lived only a stone’s throw away — hit “a little too close to home.”
“For me, having two kids and my wife and a possible terrorist ... sympathizer down the street, it’s kind of ... it’s a little crazy.”
Last year, federal authorities were so suspicious Driver might have ties to a terrorist group that he bounced in and out of jails and courtrooms for months, all without any actual charges ever being laid — and he had no criminal record at the time.
In June 2015, Driver was first picked up in Winnipeg. Published reports at the time suggested Driver posted messages on social media that praised terrorist activities, including the attack on Parliament Hill in October 2014 by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.
Mounties applied for a peace bond to impose limits on Driver’s activities, alleging in provincial court documents that investigators believed he might help with terrorist group activities.
When Driver was released later that month, he was ordered to comply with 18 different conditions, including wearing a GPS tracking device.
Among the conditions was that he live in a rental suite in a Winnipeg home owned by Genevieve Van Oers. After Driver gave media interviews that month, Van Oers filed a document on June 26, 2015, requesting to be relieved of her obligation to house him.
“I can no longer approve or have him stay in my home ... and have requested him to move into a Muslim home to be better educated within that religion,” she said in the filing.
“His comments against the police are worrisome and therefore have a discrepancy with my beliefs. Have also requested him to speak to a clergyman but he is not yet in agreement to this.”
In an interview with the CBC in June 2015, Driver was asked what it would take for him to reconsider his pro-terrorism beliefs.
“What it would take would be for the West to just stop killing Muslims, you know, stop bombing. Stop arresting Muslims,” he said.
“Take responsibility for the crimes they’ve committed in the past and just stay at home and work on their own problems instead of trying to solve other people’s problems by dropping bombs on them or trying to force democracy on them.”
