Judge to decide if incel attack was act of terror as ex-CSIS analyst says law should be scrapped

With a guilty plea in the case of a killer who carried out a deadly incel-inspired attack at a Toronto massage parlour two years ago, it will now be for a judge to decide if the murder was in fact an act of terror.

On Wednesday, the man behind the February 2020 attack at the Crown Spa pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. A minor at the time, his identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Court heard that the killer looked to the man responsible for Toronto's deadly van attack as an "inspiration," that he considered himself an incel or involuntary celibate, and that he stabbed 24-year-old Ashley Noell Arzaga some 40 times with a sword inscribed with the term "thot-slayer" — "thot" being a derogatory term used against women.

On Friday, the Crown called an expert witness who cannot be identified because of a publication ban.

Speaking at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the expert witness said incels generally hold "a lot of anger and contempt for people in the sex work industry" believing them to be "preying on desperate men and exploiting them for money."

First-degree murder in Canada carries an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. But with the charges upgraded to include terrorism in the weeks after the attack, it will be up to Justice Suhail Akhtar to determine if that designation should factor into sentencing.

The case marks the first time police in Canada have treated an alleged incel-inspired attack as an act of terrorism — the RCMP defining involuntary celibacy an "ideologically motivated violent extremist movement."

The Criminal Code defines terrorism as an act carried out "for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause" meant to intimidate the public by causing or attempting to cause death or serious bodily harm through violence, endangering health and safety, or disrupting an essential service. 

Ideology isn't defined in the code, meaning the Crown will now have to demonstrate that being an incel meets the bar. 

But for one former senior strategic terrorism analyst with Canada's intelligence agency, terrorism shouldn't be considered a factor in the case.

Phil Gurski, who spent 15 years with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), told CBC News he disagrees with labelling incel-motivated crimes as terrorism, saying Canada's Criminal Code has provisions for violence fuelled by hate and that prosecutors in the case could have very well pushed to demonstrate the act was a hate crime.

"I don't know what we gain by calling it terrorism," Gurski told CBC News.

"It's not helpful. It doesn't result in anything different in terms of the Criminal Code and sentencing provisions," he said, noting that if the Crown succeeds in pushing for an adult sentence, the attacker will face a minimum of 25 years before being eligible for parole. That isn't likely change even if the judge decides the act was one of terrorism, he says.

His impression of why terror charges were applied in this case: "It's purely political."