[1] Habib had gone to Syria in 2013 and allegedly had contacts with jihadist groups fighting the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.
He claims this was to find his wife and two children found in ISIL-controlled territory in Syria.
[2] In a long-running sting operation starting in 2015, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) implicated him in plans to join ISIL.
Habib was first detained in February 2016 in Gatineau, Quebec,[3] when he was charged with threatening his girlfriend in a domestic violence case.
In June 2017, he was found guilty of attempting "to leave Canada to commit a terrorist act".