Aaron Driver, a convert to Islam and the terror suspect killed in a police confrontation in Strathroy, Ontario on Wednesday night, had previously said that Muslims don’t “belong in the West.”
Driver made the comments in a conversation with CBC News after being arrested in Winnipeg.
Driver was arrested on June 4, 2015, under suspicion he could have carried out a terrorist act, or helped a terror group. Reports at the time said Driver published social media posts supporting terrorist activities, including the October 2014 attack on Parliament Hill. He was placed under strict conditions and agreed to a peace bond earlier this year.
WATCH: Winnipeg terrorism suspect agrees to a peace bond (February 2, 2016)
In June 2015, shortly after his arrest he spoke to CBC in a 90 minute interview about his religion, political views, and about his arrest.
“I am a Muslim, and I believe everything that comes along with that,” he said. “I don’t think that Muslims really belong in the West. Our ways of life aren’t compatible.”
“The truth is, we can’t practice our religion to the fullest extent here, living under Canadian laws, or just Western laws in general.”
READ MORE: Email says Aaron Driver’s potential terrorist attack would have caused ‘mass casualties’
He also said that Canadian soldiers attacked by terrorists on home soil “had it coming to them.”
“Parliament Hill, they were attacking uniformed soldiers,” he said. “These are people who are part of the system. It’s entirely different. It’s not attacking innocents, people who are just going about their daily lives.
“If a country goes to war with another country, or another people, or another community, I think that they have to be prepared for things like that to happen, and when it does happen, you know, they shouldn’t act surprised. They had it coming to them. They deserved it.”
READ MORE: Aaron Driver: What we know about the Canadian terror suspect killed in Ontario
When asked why he was politically active, Driver said seeing some of the events that happened in Syria drove him to speak out.
“It infuriates you and it breaks your heart at the same time, and I think that if you know what’s going on, you have to do something. Even if you’re just speaking about it, something has to be done,” he said.
CBC also asked what it would take for Driver to stop supporting and promoting terror in Canada, and he said the West would need to keep to themselves.
“What it would take would be for the west to just stop killing Muslims, you know, stop bombing, arresting Muslims,” Driver said. “You know, stay at home and work on their own problems instead of trying to solve other peoples’ problems by dropping bombs on them or trying to force democracy on them.”
RCMP were investigating Driver again recently because they received “credible information” of a potential terror threat in Canada.
Little information was given Wednesday night by RCMP on the “national security threat,” but an official told the Canadian Press Driver allegedly planned to use a bomb to carry out a suicide bombing mission in a public area.
More information is expected to be released about the attempted attack Thursday afternoon.
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