ISIS supporter who attacked at Canadian Tire store denied parole

A Toronto woman who carried an out ISIS-inspired attack at a Canadian Tire store in 2017 has been denied parole and ordered to serve out the remainder of her sentence in prison.

A decision released Wednesday by the Parole Board of Canada said Rehab Dughmosh continued to “voice support for the ISIS ideology” and would likely kill or injure if released.

“You continue to align yourself with a known terrorist organization and have threatened to commit a terrorist act if you are released in Canada,” the parole board wrote.

The decision means the 36-year-old Syrian-born Canadian will not be let out of prison before her sentence ends in January 2022.

She declined to attend a scheduled parole hearing last Thursday.

After a failed attempt to join ISIS in Syria, Dughmosh attempted to carry out an attack in Toronto, but was stopped and there were no serious injuries.

“In June 2017, you attended a Canadian Tire store in the Scarborough area and assaulted strangers while armed with a knife and a golf club, indicating that you committed these offences in the name of ISIS,” the board wrote.

She was convicted of terrorism in 2019 and sentenced to seven years. The judge said a lower sentence was warranted because mental illness had “rendered her vulnerable to extremist beliefs.”

This was her second parole application.

The first was denied in July 2020 after she wrote a note saying if she was released she would “do another terrorist attack, so tell your government to send me back to my country (Syria).”

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In its latest decision, the parole board said that while medication had helped lessen the risk she posed, Dughmosh was not taking it voluntarily and told her parole officer she didn’t need it.

“File information indicates that your risk is directly linked to your extremist ideologies and radical beliefs and you have repeatedly stated that you will not comply with treatment on a voluntary basis and will refuse all medication upon release, significantly increasing your risk to reoffend,” the board wrote.

A psychological risk assessment found her violent behaviour was “motivated by your desire to belong to a group, specifically ISIS, and your desire for retribution for actions against your country and your faith.”

She also held “negative attitudes that endorse the use of violence in a religious context” and did not see herself as part of Canadian society, according to the decision.

“At length, the Board is unable to reach any other conclusion but that if released you are likely to commit an offence causing death or serious harm to another person before the expiration of your sentence according to law.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca