ANNOUNCER: This program is rated 14+, and contains
scenes of violence and mature subject matter.
Viewer discretion is advised.
[reporter] A gruesome incident
inside a Toronto massage parlour.
A woman stabbed to death over the lunch hour,
two others seriously injured.
[Henri Marsman] She was the mother of a young child.
She was just a very caring, warm person.
So the one girl who was killed and the other one who was hurt,
had you ever met them before that day?
- No. - So you had nothing
- against them personally. - No.
[Henri] He said that he went to the spa to kill these women.
The, uh, incel group.
Is that a group you've been associated with for a while?
You don't choose to become an incel.
You just are born one.
[Henri] He made some utterances that he came to kill,
and that he wished he would've gotten more.
- [Caryn] More women. - [Henri] More women.
[Monte MacGregor] It was an unanswerable,
undefendable case.
Welcome to Crime Beat. I'm Antony Robart.
In early 2020, a group of women
working at an erotic massage parlour in Toronto
were confronted with a horrifying attack.
An attack that didn't just devastate lives,
it forever changed how Canadian courts view
an online hate group known for its extreme misogyny.
Here now is Caryn Lieberman and "The Incel Murder."
[tense music]
[Henri] Well, the call came in at just after
a quarter past 1:00 in the afternoon,
advising me of a homicide at the Crown Spa.
[sirens wailing]
It's in the area of Wilson and Dufferin,
which is a mixed residential commercial area.
This is Yorkdale Mall. It's just south of there.
And it's near the Downsview Air Force Base.
I knew it was a massage parlour.
There was a machete involved,
and there was some sharp force injuries
inflicted on the victim.
I was advised that there was one person that was deceased,
another person was injured.
And then I'm making my way over to the scene.
The scene itself, what did it look like?
It was a bloody scene.
[camera shutter clicks]
The deceased was still there.
She was butchered, basically.
It was confined to the front of the premises.
What did we know about this victim?
She was working at the spa. She was the receptionist.
There was an attack, an immediate attack.
I can't say that it was an altercation,
because she had no chance to defend herself.
I was provided with video.
The owner of the spa had video installed,
internal video, and it captured everything.
[Monte] So he takes the time to knock on the door.
She goes thinking it's gonna be a potential customer,
and almost immediately explodes into this horrific attack.
[Henri] It showed me the offender
walking through the front door, approaching the victim,
and then immediately brandishing the sword,
engaging in a vicious, sustained attack
with the sword.
There was a person who heard the screams from downstairs.
She went to investigate that
and found this man armed with a sword.
She obviously heard everything that was going on
and trying to understand what it was.
She was very heroic.
She realized that her friend, her coworker was dead,
and she feared for her life.
She was confronted by the offender,
who then chased her towards the front door.
He caught her in that vestibule and attacked her.
He made a number of utterances like he was gonna kill her,
and he called her a [bleep] and a whore and "die, die."
[Monte] She was able to defend herself courageously.
She was able to get the weapon from him and injure him,
not fatally, but sufficiently,
and continued to escape out the front door,
saving her life and, frankly, saving the lives of others.
The video didn't capture that attack.
There was frosted glass, but you could see
limbs striking the glass and smears of blood.
She was hurt.
And then it spilled out onto the street.
[camera shutter clicks]
[Henri] It spilled out onto the street,
where the offender landed on the ground,
and the surviving victim then sought assistance
from the public, and basically looked for help.
There was a number of other witnesses
that were in the area as well.
They called 911.
There was a City of Toronto worker
that was doing a patrol of the area,
and he drove past the spa and saw our surviving victim,
bloodied, asking for help.
So he called 911 and got her to stand beside his truck.
The mailman pulled into the plaza and saw the offender
lying on the ground, looking at him.
So he backed out and he called 911.
And the third person,
I believe he was also working for the city,
but he wasn't on duty at the time.
[Elizabeth Di Gregorio] I saw a young woman.
She was sitting on the side.
They were bandaging her hands in some white gauze.
She had her shirt was ripped and hanging
and covered in blood, and she was covered in blood.
[reporter] A witness describes a disturbing scene
in Downsview over the noon hour,
a triple stabbing at an adult massage parlour.
Toronto police were called to the Crown Spa,
but before they went inside,
they found two people badly hurt lying on the ground.
Elizabeth Di Gregorio saw it all unfold
from across the street at work.
I saw her just sitting beside the minimart,
and they were bandaging her hands.
She had no shoes on, just in leggings.
And she had blood on her,
and you could see blood coming off of her sleeve.
Maybe it was ripped or something.
You'd heard that it was a machete that was used.
What was this weapon?
It was a sword. I believe it's called a gladius sword.
It almost looks like one of those swords
from the movie 300.
You don't usually see people using a sword
as a murder weapon in the city.
But the amount of damage that you can do with that
- must be extreme. - Yeah.
The victim was severely injured by the sword.
There was another man laying on the ground
in front of the store.
Then tactical police came with all their guns
and tried booting in the door, and then they got in the door.
[reporter] Police say the attack happened
inside the business, and when officers
finally made their way in,
they found another woman in her twenties
with obvious injuries.
Paramedics arrived on scene to assess that female,
and unfortunately, that female, her injuries were so serious
that she was actually pronounced here at the scene,
so this is now a homicide investigation.
[Henri] I detailed to the primary investigator
to do the notification of the deceased's family.
And the person responsible was also injured.
The surviving...
I'm reluctant to call her a victim. She's a survivor.
Uh, she disarmed him, and she stabbed him in the back.
- That's brave. - Yes.
[Caryn] Yeah.
[Henri] There were some plainclothes officers
in the area that were on other duties.
They were able to respond almost immediately
and take the person into custody and clear the spa,
allowing for emergency personnel
to conduct assessments and provide first aid.
What was the extent of his injuries?
He had a cut to his hand, which required stitches,
and a stab wound to his back,
which required some staples to close.
And was the sword found beside him?
Yes. It was an unusual case because typically you don't
have offenders of that age commit such a violent attack.
There didn't seem to be a motive.
- [Caryn] A teenager? - [Henri] Yeah.
And it wasn't until I was in
the forensic identification vehicle
and they were searching his clothes
that the note came to light,
and it struck me that this is something different.
♪
Welcome back.
It was February 2020 when a teenager wielding a sword
showed up at a massage parlour in Toronto,
killing the receptionist
and attacking another female employee.
What investigators would learn about his motives
would make the attack all the more terrifying.
We now return to Caryn Lieberman
with "The Incel Murder."
[ominous music]
[Henri] The scene was secured by police,
and our forensic identification officers
were busy processing the scene.
A gruesome incident inside a Toronto massage parlour.
A woman stabbed to death over the lunch hour,
two others seriously injured.
Global's Caryn Lieberman has the latest from the scene
in the Dufferin and Wilson area. Caryn?
Alan, a woman in her twenties is dead,
another woman suffered lacerations to her hands,
and a teenage male was rushed to hospital
in life-threatening condition.
He is in surgery, and police say
they are not looking for any suspects at this time.
Now, the triple stabbing is said to have happened
inside the Crown Spa, but two of the injured,
the teen and older woman, were found outside.
This coffee shop owner just a block away says
the employees of Crown Spa often stop by,
and he was saddened to hear of the attack.
They're very, very pleasant girls,
and actually, they're super nice.
[Caryn] So when you heard that this happened,
what were your thoughts?
[Fadi] It's shocking for us to see our neighbours,
friends get stabbed like that.
[Henri] She was a mother of a young child.
She supported herself by working at the spa.
She was just a very caring, warm person.
[Caryn] Who just happened to pick up a shift that day.
[Henri] Yeah. She was covering for someone,
or she came in early for someone.
[Caryn] The murder victim would be identified as
24-year-old Ashley Noel Arzaga,
described by family as...
Ashley wasn't scheduled to be there that morning.
She got called in to cover the front desk
because an employee had a dentist appointment,
and the new receptionist failed to show up.
Ashley answered the call
and arrived at the Crown Spa around noon.
Just after 12:30 p.m.,
she'd open the door and greet a man dressed in black.
[Henri] It was a larger scene that required
a substantial amount of forensic examination.
There was some blood evidence behind the spa.
There was blood evidence going across the street
towards a convenience store on Anthony.
There was the scene where he was located,
on the ground in front of the spa.
[Caryn] A key piece of evidence:
the murder weapon,
used to inflict an incredible amount of violence
and horrific injuries.
[Henri] I mean, the pathology report says
42 incised or stab wounds,
and then there's blunt force injuries.
At least 42 sharp force injuries were present.
Chest wall, lungs, abdomen, liver, brachial arteries, vein.
There was multiple defensive injuries on the arms and legs,
and there was blunt force injury observed
on the back of the head and neck
from hitting the furniture while collapsing backwards.
"Defensive injuries" meaning she fought back.
Yeah, or she held her arms up as she was being attacked.
I mean, that's a natural human reaction, right?
[Caryn] There was something else about the murder weapon
that jumped out to investigators.
[Henri] The sword had an inscription on it.
"Thot slayer."
[Caryn] "Thot slayer."
Its meaning unclear,
until police would learn more about the suspect
and his motivation.
[Henri] He was dressed in dark clothing.
He had a long three-quarter length jacket, sunglasses.
He certainly didn't look 17 years old.
He looked older than that.
He was a stocky person.
When he was arrested, he was treated by paramedics,
and they cut off his jacket.
His jacket was left at the scene,
and he was transported.
As they processed the scene,
they searched the jacket,
and that's when the note came to light.
[Caryn] And what did the note say?
[Henri] "Long live the Incel Rebellion."
[Caryn] It was a handwritten note?
[Henri] It was a handwritten note on a scrap piece of paper.
It was in a plastic Ziploc bag
along with his driver's license and a whetstone.
It's a stone that you'd use to sharpen a blade.
[Caryn] Presumably for the sword.
[Henri] Yes.
[Caryn] Before arriving at the crime scene,
Detective Henri Marsman had made a stop.
[Henri] I went to the accused person's residence
to inform their parents that their son was in hospital,
and I also seized the residence for a search warrant.
The residence was, I would say,
maybe a kilometre and a bit from the spa.
It was within walking distance.
It is a difficult conversation to have with someone, saying,
you know, "Your son's been stabbed
and he's under arrest for murder."
It shocked his father.
And then to be told, you know, you have to leave your house,
gather your belongings,
because now we're gonna execute a search warrant on it.
[Caryn] Investigators began to learn more
about this young man.
[Henri] I knew that he wasn't attending school.
He wasn't working.
He was living with his father and his stepmother
and step-siblings,
and that he played video games.
When we executed the search warrant, we seized his laptop.
From speaking with the parents,
I knew that he didn't have a cell phone.
He only used that one laptop in the house.
I was looking for evidence of pre-planning or motive.
We had this note in hand.
Obviously, we had to wait until he was treated in hospital
and released to a detention facility,
which took a few weeks.
I also wanted to get more information from the computer
so we'd have some questions to ask him.
The date today is Wednesday, April 1st, in the year 2020.
The time now is 11:33 a.m.
I'm currently in an interview room
at the Roy McMurtry Youth Detention Centre.
Also in the room with me at this time are my partner,
Detective Henri Marsman,
and we are speaking to a youth
who's an inmate at this facility.
Sir, could you state and spell your name, please?
My name is Oguzhan Sert.
It's spelled...
[Caryn] The suspect was underage
at the time of his arrest,
just months shy of his 18th birthday,
and his identity under a publication ban.
But for reasons that will soon become apparent,
we are now able to identify him.
Oguzhan, you understand we're police officers?
- Yes. - Okay.
Would it be okay if I called you Oguzhan
during the course of this interview?
- [Oguzhan] Yes. - Okay.
You look a lot older than 17.
That's the first thing that strikes me.
[Caryn] Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act,
a young person is under no obligation
to make a statement.
Do you want to give a statement?
No.
[Henri] And then he's asked about his injuries.
I don't think I will be able to hold stuff properly
or make a fist with my left hand ever again.
And from what I understand,
your other injuries are kind of around...
[Henri] And then he goes on
and tells us about the whole incident.
The one girl who was killed and the other one who was hurt,
had you ever met them before that day?
- No. - So you had nothing
- against them personally? - No.
[Henri] He didn't really say why that specific location.
It's within walking distance to his house.
His father was a painter, and he would go and work
with his father and pick up supplies.
There's a Benjamin Moore paint store
right in the same plaza as the Crown Spa.
If he would have gone to pick up supplies,
he would've seen the geographic location
of where the spa is.
Did you know what you were gonna do
when you left the house?
I was planning-- [sighs]
- I don't know. - Okay.
[Monte] The first sort of instance of video surveillance
that has him walking like an average pedestrian on Dufferin,
heading towards the Yorkdale
to find the parlour where this occurred.
There's no audio to accompany the video,
and if you watch all of the surveillance,
it's quite chilling.
It's got obviously a horrific climax.
But as you see the start of the day,
you see somebody dressed in a trench coat,
looking like they're trying to be out of The Matrix,
walking passively.
But when you know what happens when you're watching it,
it's disturbing.
It's disturbing to see what he's doing
and where he's going, and what kind of mindset
would he have at the time as he's walking
with the goal of taking as many lives as he can come across.
It's one of the starkest and most difficult
pieces of evidence I've ever had to witness,
and I've seen a lot.
It's not like CSI and it's not like TV,
and it's a chilling demonstration
of just how far afield his mental state was
compared to the average person.
♪
Welcome back to Crime Beat.
A teenager has been arrested
for the murder of 24-year-old Ashley Noell Arzaga
and the attempted murder of a second woman.
His motive was deeply rooted in the incel movement,
known for its extreme misogynistic ideology.
But in the eyes of the law,
can this be labelled as terrorism?
Here now is Caryn Lieberman with "The Incel Murder."
[tense music]
[officer] Any significance to the weapon you used?
'Cause that's a pretty unusual weapon, a sword.
[Oguzhan] Yes, the sword.
The sword...
I just...
I don't know. That's--
that was just the weapon available, because
- I ordered it on Amazon. - Okay.
[Henri] He had purchased a sword.
He'd had it engraved,
which spoke to the degree of planning.
[Caryn] The sword was 17 inches long.
[officer] Did you order it for this purpose?
I originally bought it because I thought it looked cool.
- And then I used it for this. - Okay.
Do you remember what you inscribed on the blade?
- Yes. - What did you inscribe?
It was inscribed "thot slayer."
"Thot slayer." Okay, and what does that mean?
A thot is like--
it's like another word for a girl.
It isn't-- it isn't super bad,
but it's not super nice as well.
It's kind of like another way of saying...
the word "slut" or something like that.
"Thot slayer," which in incel terminology
could mean "that hoe over there."
I've been-- I've been spending a lot of time on the Internet.
- [officer] Mm-hmm. - I did look into the alt-right.
Have you heard of that?
I have, and I have an idea of what that means.
To me, that's kind of a political group.
- Yes. - What does it mean to you?
- It's a political group. - [officer] Okay.
It's a right-wing.
[Henri] There was also searches on his computer for that spa,
and he searched a site called "Men Go Their Own Way,"
which is an incel site.
Would he chat back and forth with these members of incel?
It was hard to track his chats.
A lot of what was found on the computer had said
he used incognito mode, and he had, like, ciphers on there
that would regularly delete his search history
or his chat history.
He also played a lot of online games.
He used Discord, and any chats that would've been
captured on there, we couldn't obtain.
- But you got a lot. - We got a lot.
[Caryn] Including his account on Steam,
an online gaming platform.
His profile picture:
a medieval warrior of Middle Eastern descent
riding a black horse and carrying a sword.
And the caption beneath it...
"Proud incel. Truth seeker.
Jihadi and currently on FBI watch list.
Seeker of martyrdom.
Hates feminists, atheists, satanists,
and all kinds of other degenerates.
Death to the synagogue of Satan who truly rules this world."
And do you follow a particular faith?
Well, in my head, I'm Muslim.
Mm-hmm.
But do I pray every day,
do I do those kind of things, no.
[Henri] He also searched the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigade,
the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas organization.
There were some other searches that
conceivably could be viewed as antisemitic
or glorification of the Nazi movement.
The incel group.
Is that a group you've been associated with for a while?
The incel, the thing is, anyone can--
You don't choose to become incel.
You just are born one.
He was committed to this movement.
Absolutely. With the incel movement,
there was extensive involvement in websites that described it,
chat groups that had his participation,
claims that he was going to engage in
this type of activity.
[Caryn] To police, he told a slightly different story
in terms of his involvement.
I haven't really been talking too much with this community.
I-- I do not--
I don't have many friends.
Even on the Internet, I do not have friends.
So I do not talk to them very much.
Why don't you think you have any friends?
I excommunicated them.
[Caryn] Oguzhan Sert told investigators
if you don't have friends, quote,
"it's impossible for people to betray you,"
but that it is lonely,
and that he's the type of person who could
sit at the computer all day.
The incel group is not religion.
What would you define them as?
It's more-- it's more of a social outcast.
Is that how you see yourself?
Yes.
[Caryn] What was he like in the interview?
[Henri] He seemed pretty straightforward.
I mean, he answered the questions.
He understood exactly what we were asking.
He shied away from things he didn't wanna tell us,
but otherwise, he, uh, seemed pretty open.
- And calm. - And calm.
[Caryn] Even when he acknowledged
he did not expect to survive the attack.
[Oguzhan] When I was lying down on the floor,
a police officer was pointing a pistol at me,
and I told him, "Officer,
just shoot me."
[Henri] He was arrested and charged initially by us
for first-degree murder and attempted murder.
He said he thought he was gonna be killed by police.
It kind of circles back to the fact that he had his note
and his ID and the whetstone in a Ziploc bag.
He wanted someone to find it.
He was there to make a statement.
[officer] If you are found guilty,
you could receive an adult sentence.
The most severe adult sentence is life in prison.
Do you understand that?
- Yes. - Okay.
[Caryn] It would be soon after this police interview
that longtime criminal defence lawyer Monte MacGregor
was hired to represent Oguzhan Sert.
[Monte] Initially, what happens is you look at
the information from the police
to try and assess the strength of the case.
Very early on, it was clear that it was
a relatively overwhelming first-degree murder case.
Also potentially as a terrorism case.
[Bill Rennie] In Canada, Section 83.01
of the Criminal Code defines terrorism as
"an act committed in whole or in part for a political,
religious, and ideological purpose, objective, or cause
with the intention of intimidating the public."
For the first time in Canada, terrorism charges
have been laid against someone who allegedly carried out
an attack motivated by a misogynist ideology.
Terrorism charges in Canada have traditionally been
reserved for Islamist extremists,
inspired by groups such as Al-Qaeda
and the so-called Islamic State.
The Canadian government is taking right-wing extremism,
but particularly misogynistic violence,
very, very seriously and elevating it
to the level of terrorism.
This charge is really huge news
for Canada and internationally.
Why did this case fit the criteria?
At the time, we believed that incel was an ideology,
that this act of violence was committed
for an ideological purpose intended to intimidate
a segment of society, that being women,
and that it was used violence to obtain that means.
I'm an operations officer at INSET, which is
the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team.
It's an RCMP-led joint force operation,
and our job is to investigate terrorism
and any threats to Canada's national security.
Toronto Police is part of our joint force operation at INSET.
When they had evidence that there was potential connection
to the incel movement
and that there was potential terrorism offences,
we became involved.
Why those girls?
I just thought they-- they weren't very clean people.
[Henri] He picked that spa because
he believed they were unclean.
He said that he went to the spa to kill these women.
He made some utterances to one of the uniformed officers
that was guarding him that he came to kill,
and that he wished he would've gotten more.
- [Caryn] More women. - [Henri] More women.
♪
a couple of o
when there was a van attack in Toronto?
Yes. He was an inspiration.
So I thought if he could do that,
especially so close, in Canada, in Toronto, a city,
I thought it was possible for me
to do something like that as well.
[sirens blaring]
[reporter] Chaos and destruction
on the streets of North Toronto.
A van plows into a crowd of pedestrians on sidewalks
near Yonge and Finch.
1:30 p.m., a white Ryder rental van mounts a sidewalk,
gaining speed, striking pedestrians
as it barrels southbound.
Everyone is shocked! I stood for a second right here,
just wondering what the [bleep] is going on.
And he just went down to the next block
and then smashed into one lady.
She went flying in the air.
Oh, my God.
It was a warm, sunny spring afternoon
when Alek Minassian arrived on Yonge Street,
an area he says he knew would be packed with people,
and it was.
Alek Minassian drove a rental van through a crowd
on one of Toronto's busiest streets in April 2018,
killing ten pedestrians, the majority of them women,
and injuring 16.
[siren wailing]
It was the deadliest act of mass murder
in the city's history.
And Minassian said he was inspired by
the misogynistic incel movement,
short for "involuntary celibates."
[officer] In terms of your feelings
towards women in general,
how would you describe that?
I would say that sometimes I am a bit upset
that they choose to, uh,
date obnoxious men
instead of, uh, gentlemen.
What did you know about incel?
Having been in the office during the time
of the Alek Minassian van attack,
I was aware of the incel movement.
We had been provided some training
and some background on incels,
and I knew that this note indicated
that there was my motive.
[officer] Did you want the police to find that?
I wanted everyone to find it.
I wanted them to know that that's what I--
That's-- that's...
You say "I wanted them to know. Who's "them"?
The world.
Both Minassian and Sert referenced the incel rebellion.
That's the time at which finally these men
will take control again and take their rightful place
as part of the alpha male collective.
Clearly they're manly men because they had the courage
and the bravery to strike out and strike back
against the system, but also a warning to women
that, "You need to take me seriously,
and don't just shun me, because these are the consequences."
[Caryn] Criminologist Barbara Perry is the founding director
of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism
at Ontario Tech University.
She's been tracking the incel movement,
which started in Canada.
It began in the '90s, actually,
and it was started by a young woman who was
having difficulty getting into relationships.
What we may think of as a lonely hearts club.
There was nothing nefarious about it.
It was just sharing experiences, talking about,
"Well, you know, how do we get a guy?"
Or a girl, because it was men and women.
She eventually, you know, started to have some success
with dating and so moved away from the movement,
but many of the followers that remained were young men,
and it just really devolved into
a much more angry, misogynistic movement.
[reporter] Elliot Rodger.
In 2014, the 22-year-old went on a killing spree
in California, killing six people.
He ran down a number of pedestrians
before killing himself.
He, I think, is generally recognized as the first incel
to really act en masse in very violent ways, obviously.
He was responsible for the murder of six individuals
and injuries for a dozen more
when he perpetrated his attack in Isla Vista, California.
[reporter] In a YouTube video posted before the rampage,
Elliot explained his motivation.
He wanted to punish women for rejecting him,
and that he envied sexually active men
and wanted to punish them for being sexually active.
[officer] Have you ever heard of, uh, Elliot Rodger?
Yes.
He was a nice person. He was nice to girls.
He was being a gentleman towards them.
But they rejected him either way.
And so that is why he got mad and...
he-- he went to-- he did what he did.
Do you feel any kinship towards him?
A little bit, yes.
[Barbara] And so he really became a martyr,
and he'd left a manifesto that claimed that the reason
that he did what he was going to do
was that he hated women--
literally hated, detested women--
was resentful, again, because he couldn't
convince them to have sex with him.
Have you ever had any relationship with a female?
Not necessarily as a girlfriend-boyfriend,
but just as a friend, somebody you could hang out with?
No.
[Barbara] Typically, you know, lonely, disenfranchised,
feeling they've been left behind.
Often isolate themselves in their homes
or in their parents' homes,
uh, spending a lot of time online.
[Caryn] Unlike most peers his age,
Oguzhan Sert wasn't in school.
He never attended high school.
I was scared that the work would be too hard,
and I was gonna get bullied by the other kids.
Had you been bullied before?
I wasn't really bullied,
but on some occasions, I was disrespected.
Could you just generally say was it based on appearance,
or religion, or intellect--
I guess it was appearance, yeah.
[Monte] This was somewhat of the perfect storm
of an individual.
He was living a life in the basement of his father's house,
relying on the Internet and all of the darkness and evils
that can come from the corners of it that are scary,
and it allowed him to develop opinions
and beliefs that led to this.
And he had ended the relationship with his mother.
At what point does it move from
being in your basement on your computer
and interacting with these people anonymously
to wanting to act on that behaviour?
There are people in there who are provocateurs,
intentionally attempting to deepen the sentiment
and exacerbate the anxiety and the fear
and the hatred and the hostility.
And I think the angrier you get,
the more extreme narratives you're looking for as well.
So this will make its way through the courts.
[Monte] It was an unanswerable, undefendable case.
We'll try to do what's best...
[Monte] He did have some mental health deficiencies.
He was on the autism spectrum.
He had, I believe, anxiety disorder
and other issues that impacted his ability
to rationalize and reason.
So from there, the only real available defence
in cases of that nature is whether or not
somebody's not criminally responsible.
But it didn't rise to the level.
It's not easy. I don't know.
[Caryn] Oguzhan Sert pleaded guilty to first-degree murder
and attempted murder in the fall of 2022.
The Crown would then argue its case for terrorism.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutor Lisa Mathews told the court
his incel ideology was meant to send a message
to the public that women are not safe.
[reading]
[Monte] I think the terrorism charge is significant,
because at this time in Canadian jurisprudence,
there is not a big body of cases to rely on
to define and determine how terrorism applies.
So, effectively, it's a route of liability.
Now, how did that affect his defence?
We did try to counter the terrorism notion.
[Caryn] Defence lawyer Maurice Mattis argued
the attack did not constitute terrorism,
pointing out that Alek Minassian,
the van attack killer who also professed
a connection to the incels,
was never charged with terrorism.
[reading]
The defence told the judge calling this attack terrorism
will open a floodgate,
the definition too large.
We tried to defend that to try and minimize
any sentencing impact in the long run.
Welcome back.
17-year-old Oguzhan Sert was charged with
first-degree murder and attempted murder.
In a precedent-setting move,
those charges were upgraded to include terrorism
after investigators learned more about his links
to the misogynistic incel movement.
But will that be enough to stop others
from committing similar acts of violence?
Here now is Caryn Lieberman
with the conclusion of "The Incel Murder."
[tense music]
[Caryn] The judge ruled Oguzhan Sert was guilty
on the upgraded charges,
finding the attack on Crown Spa
was terrorist activity intended to intimidate women,
setting a precedent in Canadian law.
It was the first time anything other than
Islamist-inspired extremism really had been recognized
as terrorism in the Canadian context.
[Monte] When the emergency medical services arrived,
they indicated that he proudly said, you know,
"Well, at least I got one."
So even at that time frame,
it was a cold, harsh indignation
towards his targets and a purposeful attack
that is clearly a terrorist act.
[Lana Hall] I think I went there on a similar day
as the day this crime would have occurred.
So it was like the middle of the week,
the middle of the day.
It just feels very quiet and secluded
and not at all like a place where you would expect
this magnitude of violence to happen.
But, I mean, this is also the reality of
where these massage parlours tend to be located.
[Caryn] Lana Hall is a journalist who wrote about
the Crown Spa attack for Maclean's magazine.
[Lana] I have been a journalist for about a decade now,
but prior to that, I also spent some time
working in Toronto's massage parlour industry.
And, in fact, I worked for a period of time
at a massage parlour that's kind of just
across the highway from Crown Spa.
As soon as the news broke about the prosecution approach
that the Crown and the RCMP and the police wanted to take,
that they wanted to try and prosecute this
as an act of terror in addition to
being a murder and an attempted murder,
and I really wanted people to understand
the implications of that, like, the implications of
what that might mean for how we think of gender-based violence.
Because we do still have this attitude, you know,
sometimes where when we see violence take place
in these workplaces that sort of operate on the margins,
like massage parlours and strip clubs,
that there is still this idea that
that level of violence is expected in these places.
[Caryn] On its website, the Crown Spa is described as
a licensed massage parlour for erotic massage
and exotic massage,
female-operated and under new management.
We spoke with one woman who lives in the neighbourhood
right behind the Crown Spa.
She said there's always a lot of action in the area,
and she wasn't surprised to hear police
were responding to an incident there.
[woman] Well, it used to be called the Minx Spa,
but we know what it is.
[Lana] I know from experience that because these are
kind of loosely regulated workplaces, you know,
they're a bit of a pressure cooker environment
that sometimes they can feel a little bit like the Wild West.
And so there kind of are some
safety implications about that, right?
I reached out to the surviving witness,
who did not agree to talk to me on camera--
or in person, rather-- but we had some talks on the phone.
[Caryn] At the time, Global News had also
been in touch with JC,
whose identity is under a publication ban.
[JC] It set a huge precedent for these van attackers
or whoever these terrorists [bleep]
to be reprimanded and then charged with terrorism.
[Caryn] The 31-year-old victim who survived says
she's pleased to learn those allegedly radicalised online
by the incel movement can now be charged with terrorism.
[JC] I'm so confident in the team that is working
on my investigation, on the investigation,
and I know that they want justice for Ashley and myself.
She was an amazing-- an amazing mother.
She was the brightest character ever.
[Lana] What I learned through talking to JC is that
she was incredibly dedicated.
Like, you know, it was not at all unusual for her
to work six or seven days a week, to work long hours.
She took that job really seriously,
and she cared a lot about the people.
I think she has a really strong integrity in that sense.
Also, just to reiterate, like, JC is the reason
this crime potentially wasn't far, far worse.
She had, you know, the capacity to think quickly
in the middle of being attacked
to disarm this guy.
You know, who knows what might have happened
if that hadn't been the case?
[Henri] The surviving victim, she stopped the attack.
Who knows what he would have done
if he was able to continue?
So, I mean, she's the hero in this.
[Caryn] We contacted JC while working on this program.
She did not wish to participate, but referred us
to a portion of her victim impact statement.
"I am not a victim. I am a survivor.
I am not a witness. I was attacked.
This should be my heart pouring out into scribbles.
And this, in turn, I've come to realize,
is supposed to aid those who need a voice of faith to light
the path that darkness has fought so hard to take over."
[emotional music]
There is a stigma around the type of women
who would want to partake in that kind of work.
But really, it's these spaces attract all kinds of people.
All kinds of women, all races, and socioeconomic
and educational backgrounds as well.
So I thought that that was maybe a hopeful sign
that we're taking this kind of violence seriously,
and how we look at gender-based violence,
especially when it comes from this place
of male entitlement and incel ideology,
these crimes are not just people, like,
screaming on the Internet,
that they have real-world implications.
[Monte] He wrote an apology.
Was it authentic? I hope so.
Ultimately, the goal was to try and get him a youth sentence
to avail him the opportunity
to have a significant amount of rehabilitation.
I'm just scared of what's going to happen to me.
[Monte] He revoked his consent, effectively saying to me,
which I then had to say to the judge,
"I don't want you to order this.
I just want a youth sentence,"
meaning, "Just put me in jail
under a youth sentence term without the treatment."
And the reason, my understanding,
that he communicated to me was he was afraid of being
in an institution where he would have to have cellmates
because of his own personal fear based on what he'd done.
Can these men be rehabilitated?
Yeah, absolutely. The problem is that
people have to want to change.
It's like, you know, quitting drinking
or smoking or any addiction.
And for some, if that's their identity,
it can become that difficult to break.
[Catherine McDonald] This is the first conviction
for first-degree murder that was motivated
by the incel ideology.
And in this case today,
the young man was sentenced as an adult,
even though he was only 17 years old at the time.
Justice Sukhail Akhtar sentenced the man
to life in prison with no chance of parole for ten years
for the first-degree murder of Ashley Arzaga,
to be served concurrently with a three-year sentence
for the attempted murder of another woman
who fought back and survived.
People deserve to be safe in their place of work.
You know, it doesn't matter what you do for work.
It does not matter if you're a Walmart clerk
or a nurse in a hospital
or somebody working in a massage parlour.
They should not feel that someone is going to walk
through the door with a sword and attack them.
What does monitoring incel look like from your perspective?
From our perspective, it is actively monitoring
online forums where incels are known to gather.
It's public messaging, making sure that the public is aware
of incel indicators and how to report it,
and treating incel as a national security matter
with high priority.
You know, relying on the Internet for your education,
being at home in the basement with nobody loving you
and supporting you, not having friends,
having mental health issues that are--
they influence you enough that they can drive you
in a direction where you seize an ideology
that's built on hatred and built on misogyny.
I think any parent should be concerned that their children,
whether you are 13, 14, or 15, you could be in a chatroom,
you'll end up being influenced by some ideology,
you go out there, you commit a crime,
you are now ruled a terrorist by the court.
Would you say there were red flags?
Absolutely, but the hard part about those red flags is,
who's seeing them?
He's not at school. He's not going out very often.
He's not in a workplace.
He's not in a scenario where he can actually interact
with a woman and demonstrate any concern.
And that's the problem here, is that to say that
anybody missed it, I think,
would be a really improper application of responsibility.
You may say his parents, but there's nothing to say
that he's gonna explode with violence.
Because he had no prior criminal record
or interactions, nothing that would
make you think he's gonna be violent.
[Henri] His mother, he became increasingly distant from her
and didn't want to spend any time with her.
He'd also ordered other knives,
which his stepmother took away from him.
I think they tried to get him assistance initially
for mental health issues, and that's why I'm sure
that when they were alerted to what had occurred,
it was a shock to them.
I think it's incumbent on family, I think it's incumbent
on our educational system and our schools,
and, you know, people who run across these people
that we need to nip this in the bud
before it gets to the stage that people get hurt.
[sighs] There's a little girl without her mother.
There's parents without their daughter.
It's very impactful.
[Caryn] Ashley Noell Arzaga's sister shared with us
the eulogy she gave at the funeral and this message:
[reading]
[Antony] Since the Crown Spa attack,
Canada has taken a hardened approach to incels.
A day after the terror charge was laid, a report was released
by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
specifically naming incels as an example of violent misogyny.
Thank you for joining us tonight on Crime Beat.
I'm Antony Robert.
Want more episodes of Crime Beat?
Listen to the Crime Beat podcast now for free
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you find your favourite podcast.
And for past episodes of Crime Beat,
go to the Global TV app,
visit GlobalTV.com,
or check out our Crime Beat YouTube page.