The process of radicalization is gradual and persuasive, she said. And deadly. Her son, who joined ISIS’s ranks in Syria, was killed in fighting there more than a year ago.
“It’s so easy for them to get to our children, to access our children,” she said.
Boudreau’s son, Damian Clairmont, converted to Islam after a troubling period in high school in Calgary, Canada.
The mother remembers her son’s religion bringing him peace. She didn’t suspect anything when Clairmont told her he was leaving for Egypt to study Arabic.
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Boudreau wishes the Canadian government had the power then to do what it is doing now: Confiscate passports of Canadians suspected of communicating with terrorists.
She wants the government to go even further, to detain and provide counseling and help to those being indoctrinated in extremism.
There are families, she says, that are desperate as they see their children being drawn by jihadist propaganda.
“The biggest problem we have is that parents — a lot of the time — want to be able to place the blame somewhere else,” she said. “We want think that our children are safe and it could never happen to us. It’s always going to happen to somebody else. That’s a big mistake we all make as parents.”
