[1] On October 20, 2014, Martin Couture-Rouleau deliberately rammed a car into a pair of Canadian Armed Forces soldiers in a shopping centre parking lot in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, at 11:30 a.m.
Warrant officer Patrice Vincent (53), one of the two ramming victims, died in hospital the next day while the other soldier (whose name was not released) sustained non-life-threatening injures.
[3] A statement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated that government and police officials linked the attack to terrorism.
Global reported Facebook posts in both English and French about Allah and graphic posters with references to Islam's superiority over Christianity.
[12] A Facebook friend who corresponded with Couture-Rouleau said, "So he was really mad that Canada actually supported the American bombing of [ISIS] in Syria and Iraq so I think that was the main motive in killing that Canadian soldier.
"[12] After the 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a nationally televised address in which he said "Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent... was killed earlier this week by an ISIL-inspired terrorist" and "this week's events are a grim reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen elsewhere around the world.
"[1] Conservative MP Erin O'Toole said on Power Play that he stands behind the terrorist act label, both in the case of Zehaf-Bibeau and Martin Couture-Rouleau.
"[19] "To convert to a new religion and to adopt such violent, radical ideology suggests that he was influenced by others, in person or online," said Wagdy Loza, head of the Canadian Psychological Association's extremism and terrorism section.
[20] In an article on The Daily Beast website, Jacob Siegel equated both Couture-Rouleau and Zehaf-Bibeau, "the killers who brought terror to Canada this week", with the 2014 New York City hatchet attacker, saying "like the killers who brought terror to Canada this week, the New York attacker is being called a "lone wolf", meaning he acted essentially on his own, [Couture-Rouleau and Zehab-Bibeau] seem custom made for the stray dog profile, and the kind of terrorist the West could be seeing a lot more of in the future".
Jenkins described them as "stray dogs," rather than lone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "who are moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure to Islamist propaganda.
James Baxter, editor-in-chief of ipolitics.ca, an Ottawa political zine, said "the government is exploiting two isolated murders to push through sweeping new surveillance powers" and pointed out "the would-be 'terrorists' involved were armed only with a car and a vintage hunting rifle".
[22] Andre Picard, in an opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, acknowledged the Couture-Rouleau and Zehaf-Bibeau were both attracted to radical elements in Islam, and dismissed arguments that mental illness caused their actions.