Police were both skilled and lucky when they narrowly stopped Aaron Driver from inflicting major damage last week in the name of a radical jihadist ideology. We can applaud their quick work in derailing Driver’s violent plan, but we should not be relying on luck to stop such threats.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was right this week when he acknowledged that the peace bond imposed on Driver was not enough to deter him. Despite a court order requiring him to stay away from jihadist propaganda on the Internet, not touch any weapons, and check in regularly with police, the young man came close to setting off an explosion in a crowded public space before he was killed by police.

Goodale now says the government may toughen peace bond conditions to require radical sympathizers like Driver to take part in compulsory counseling aimed at “deradicalization.” That would be part of its coming overhaul of Bill C-51, the Harper government’s badly flawed anti-terrorism law.

And Goodale says Canada must “up our game” in combating violent extremism by spending $35 million to set up a centre designed specifically to counter that threat. That was a Liberal campaign promise last year, but it has taken the near-miss by Driver to get the government to move from words to action.

Clearly, the government is right to build up Canada’s capacity to understand and counter the threat from violent extremists. If anything, it’s extraordinary that 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, Ottawa is only now getting around to establishing a coherent, coordinated strategy on this front.

Such a strategy must combine firm law enforcement with a well-considered plan to deal with the broader context in which violent extremists, in particular those inspired by radical Islamist ideology, have emerged to launch attacks such as the one on Parliament Hill in October, 2014.

It’s easy to dismiss such initiatives, as if a cozy chat over tea with a sympathetic counsellor could deter a convinced extremist.

The fact is that not doing it would be worse. The evidence shows that tough enforcement must be complemented by other approaches. Simply cracking down on terrorist movements – whether they be jihadis or earlier groups inspired by other ideologies – hardly ever works. “We’ve seen in many countries that when you arrest one, you create three other extremists,” says Daniel Koehler, a German expert on deradicalization. “It helps to spread the idea and proves to the movement that they are right.”

There is plenty of experience around the world on such “deradicalization” programs, and the government should draw on the best examples to design a plan best suited for Canada.

Montreal already has a well-regarded program, which includes a 24-hour hotline for family members or friends to call if they fear someone has fallen under the sway of radical extremism. And Canadian imams are setting up clinics in the Toronto area that will enlist the support of religious leaders and families to identify individuals at risk of extremism.

All such programs put those inspired by terrorist thinking in touch with counsellors and other mental health experts. If they do nothing else, that alone is a big step forward.

The young men who carried out the most notorious jihadist attacks in Canada – the Parliament Hill shooting and the killing of a soldier in Quebec the same day – were essentially lost souls who latched onto violent Islamist ideology through the Internet. Far from reflecting a radicalization of Islam in Canada, they could be more accurately described as part of what the French call “the Islamicization of radicalism.”

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In other words, they are troubled people who find meaning in a violent religious cause but in previous decades might have turned to extreme politics of the left or right. Connecting them with counsellors skilled both in politics and mental health issues can only be helpful.

The experts caution that each case is different and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But the government is right to be finally crafting a balanced approach to extremism that includes outreach as well as smart policing.