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“He had a desire to go to the Middle East. He had a desire to fight with the caliphate. And pursuant to good judgment and the law, every effort was made by law enforcement and security services in this country to disrupt his ability to travel,” Ellis said. “It frustrated him. It angered him. He had a history of drug use, of some mental illness. This exasperation probably led to his violent outburst.”

The former CSIS official said that while the link between mental health and violence had once been dismissed, experts were now rethinking that as “an increasing number” of those drawn to ISIL have been found to have a serious mental illness.

More often, these tend to be the lone actors but this is an area that requires more study and frankly improved community resilience. This is not something that the police, that the intelligence services, can manage alone

“More often, these tend to be the lone actors but this is an area that requires more study and frankly improved community resilience. This is not something that the police, that the intelligence services, can manage alone,” Ellis said.

Propaganda is playing a significant role in ISIL recruitment. CSIS interviews with foreign fighters who had been captured and returned to their home countries suggested they had been “mesmerized by the abhorrent violence that they saw on the screen and there was something in that violence that drew them to participate in it,” he said.

“The unsaid promise of sex, either legitimately through the promise of marriage to like-minded people in the caliphate, or through the participation in pillage and rape, has also been cited, albeit privately, as a key recruitment driver by some returnees who have returned to their homes.”

Last week, the National Post revealed that Kadir Abdul and Samuel Augustin Aviles had been arrested after returning to Toronto from Turkey, where they had allegedly been detained for trying to enter the conflict zone. Neither has been charged but the RCMP is alleging they may engage in terrorism and want their activities restricted through peace bonds. Aviles lives on the same Whitby, Ont. street as Kevin Omar Mohamed, who was arrested March 25 and charged with terrorism for allegedly traveling to Turkey to join the al-Qaida faction in Syria.