The Montréal shooting spotlights the growing public safety threat of online radicalization

A person looks out of a window as police respond to a shooting in the Côte-des-Neiges district of Montréal on June 22, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov The Montréal shooting spotlights the growing public safety threat of online radicalization Published: June 23, 2026 3.32pm EDT Share article Print article The horrific details surrounding the shootout in Montréal, which left three dead, are coming to light as officials are sharing more information. A camouflage-clad gunman armed with a rifle ambushed Montréal police officers in the city’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood. Mohamed Lamine Benredouane, a member of the city’s police force since 2021, was killed while engaging with the suspect. Benredouane leaves behind his pregnant wife and a young child, and his loss is felt in the policing community and beyond. Michael Mizrahi, a beloved member of his community, was identified as the civilian killed in the shootout. An act of terrorism? Ian Lafrenière talks to the media on May 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot Ian Lafrenière, Québec’s domestic safety minister, said just hours after the shooting that it wasn’t linked to terrorism. This statement is troubling not just because it was made prematurely, in the early stages of the investigation, but also because it contradicted media reporting that outlines the shooter’s grievances in a manifesto linked to the “involuntary celibacy” or “incel” movement. There is growing evidence of an ideological dimension to the shooting. Read more: If misogyny was a factor, is Toronto rampage a terrorist act against women? Media accounts of the manifesto detail how the shooter’s grievances used incel rhetoric, arguing for the erosion of women’s rights and freedoms, and takes specific aim at liberalism as a source of male suffering. The disturbing details of the manifesto advocate for a return to traditional values and call for a new social order. The shooter, from Lethbridge, Alta., engaged in this senseless act of violence in the same city where the École Polytechnique massacre took place almost three decades earlier. Young radicalized men The radicalization of young men with digital sexist content is a growing public safety concern that has real-world implications. Lost in the media reporting is that the shooter was wearing attire eerily reminiscent of Rhodesian brushstroke, a camouflage pattern linked to contemporary white supremacism’s romanticized view of Rhodesia. It’s unclear whether…